Scientists have a professional responsibility to explain the benefits of their science to the public. Social media has changed the landscape of communication, making it both easier and harder for the scientific community to reach the wider society. The ease of distribution and availability of information is in many ways positive, but misinformation flourishes, too, as it is increasingly difficult to assess sources and incentives.

How can the scientific community reach the public through social media platforms? Listen as postdocs within the field of diabetes and an expert discuss the challenges and solutions within social media.

Episode info

Postdocs

• Anja Elaine Sørensen, Postdoc, Roskilde University, Denmark

• Casper Sahl Poulsen, Postdoc, University of Copenhagen, Denmark 

Expert

• Ida Donkin, Doctor of Medicine, Member of Danish Committee of Ethics, health policy commentator, author, health communicator disseminating easy-to-understand information via social media, videos, podcasts and workshops

Host

• Gretchen Repasky, Communications Director, Nordic EMBL Partnership for Molecular Medicine and University of Helsinki

The postdocs represents the challenge group of

• Béatrice Choi, PhD Student, Laval University, Canada

• Iram Faqir Muhammad, Postdoc, Lund University, Sweden

• Petr Zouhar, Postdoc, Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic

• Simone Bossi, Postdoc, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Publisher

Danish Diabetes Academy

Producer

Kontekst & Lyd

Resource list

• Interactive laboratorium: 
  http://www.supraconductivite.fr/en/index.php?p=index.php/fr/index#

• “How scientists can reach out with social media”
  https://www.scidev.net/global/communication/practical-guide/how-scientists-reach-social-media.html

• “..even if scientists advocate for science until they are blue in the face, the public has to meet scientists half way by hearing them”
  https://speacatutsw.wordpress.com/2014/07/13/how-can-scientists-better-engage-the-public/out

• Reaching out, the many faces of science outreach
  https://dev.biologists.org/content/142/3/407