What happens to our science communication graduates? The Sequel Part 2

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In our last blog post we updated you on our 2023 Infographic data gathered from 55% (n=165) of graduates who completed the MSc Science Communication programme between 2003 and 2022. We also contacted a number of graduates requesting their participation in a case study. In this second blog post we capture some further points from these case studies.

One potential career area that’s often popular with students starting our programmes is the media, and we’ve met more than one budding ‘Sir David Attenborough’ over the years, but working in the media can take a variety of forms and 13% of our graduates now work in this field. One student who’s found their niche in the media is Dylan Casella, who is currently Head of Acquisitions and Co-Productions at Off the Fence, a factual production and distribution company in the TV and film industry. Dylan graduated from the MSc just over five years ago.

Dylan described his job role to us:

What that really means in simple terms is I find documentary series, specials and one offs for my company to take to the international market and help producers reach wider audiences with their stories. Whilst this can cover any factual genre or topic, our calling card is Natural History, Science and environmentally focused docs. As part of my role I also provide executive producer support for many of our producers to help add the finishing touches to their documentaries.

Sounds like a dream job doesn’t it? For Dylan, one of the MSc modules had been particularly important to his future career:

The Science on Air and On Screen module was a really fun and interesting exploration of storytelling through radio and film production. Moving into science and factual TV and radio production was my goal after the course, and that module provided the skills and the springboard for me to make the move into the industry.

But Dylan also emphasised that the programme offers a lot of versatility for future careers, both in and beyond the media:

The skills on this course are highly relevant and extremely valuable. They’re specialist skills, but they’re also highly transferable, learning how to effectively (and creatively) communicate complex information in accessible forms for wide audiences is an invaluable skill to have in many walks of life. Having the depth of understanding this course provides gives you the perfect foundation to start a career in science communication.

A further graduate, who is now spending a bit more time in front of the camera, is Sophie Pavelle who graduated in 2018. Sophie is employed part-time by the conservation NGO, Beaver Trust, as a Communications Coordinator, which she also balances with freelance science communication commissions, especially writing for newspapers, magazines and book publishers about British nature, conservation, and climate change. In 2022 her first book Forget Me Not was published. For Sophie, the MSc programme had played an important part in exploring her career options and was the key benefit she described when we asked her what she’d appreciated about studying at UWE Bristol:

Being encouraged to find my own path in science communication, and discover skillsets and passions I previously wasn’t aware of, at an institution close to home that had brilliant facilities, and accessible transport links, has been invaluable in developing my career.

Sophie also enjoyed ‘meeting an amazing, diverse and talented group of people, the intimacy and creativity of the teaching environment, helped by small classes and valuable contact time with the lecturers and staff’.

Dylan and Sophie both studied with us full-time but part-time study is also a very popular way to undertake our programme and for a quarter of our graduates this was how they had studied with us, often already working in associated fields or alongside caring responsibilities. Michael Ormond is one graduate who was already working in the medical technology sector, and is now based at a company called Stryker. He works within the Joint Replacement Division, which focuses on implants for orthopaedic surgery such as hip replacements and knee replacements in his role as a Science Communication Manager.

Michael already had a lot of experience before starting the course, describing his role as sitting between the research team (which is his background) and the marketing team. For Michael the programme offered something extra:

The MSc in Science Communication widened my understanding of the process of science communication. Since completing it I have developed a few maxims which I apply daily; Start with your audience is an example! It was great to hear from other sectors about the challenges they face; this has helped me think more holistically about how I do my job. It has also helped me recognise the science communication is all around us and not just on the tv or on YouTube! Once you develop an eye for it you see it everywhere.

As a part-time student UWE had held a particular appeal for Michael: ‘For me, the main benefit of the UWE MSc was the format. I have worked full time whilst studying and was able to take only a few days of each month to come and do the course’. The location and team at UWE also appealed: ‘the staff were all very knowledgeable and being in a creative place with access to established science communication businesses such as Films at 59 added something unique.’


Photo credit: The Rosalind Franklin Institute

With the MSc at UWE Bristol now running for two decades we’ve also been able to witness our graduates career progression, and 41% (n=68) of graduates now work in senior, strategic or managerial roles. Laura Holland who graduated from the programme around 10 years ago is now Director of Strategic Marketing and interim Chief Operating Officer at the Rosalind Franklin Institute, a government funded research institute in Oxfordshire. For Laura the combination of practice and theory had been key in the programme and something she has continued to apply in her working life:

There is a rich and deep academic grounding in science communication which can’t (shouldn’t) be separated from practice. Knowing why the field works helps you perform science communication more effectively. I still seek out science communication literature now when I’m stuck with practical problems – it offers a different perspective and paths to explore.

Whilst Jo Silva, who also graduated some time ago is now Head of Communications for a medical department of the University of Oxford. For Jo, the connection of the programme to her career had been integral from the outset of her career as she explained with one example of a benefit she’d felt from studying with us:

A straightforward [benefit] was that I got my first job through my supervisor, before I’d even finished my MSc. That was neat! Many years later and looking back, what I realise is that the course prepared me incredibly well for the real world of work in science communication. It was very practical and relevant and I still use things I’ve learned then day-to-day.

We were delighted to catch up with our graduates in developing these case studies and the infographic. We are extremely proud of the contributions they are now making to science communication internationally, as well as the opportunities they have pursued in other career areas, the friendships they’ve formed and the stories they still have to tell. As we celebrate our 20th Anniversary in 2024, we’d like to say thank you to those who shared their experiences with us, as well as to all graduates of our science communication programmes at UWE Bristol. We can see you have learnt a lot, and we have also learnt from you.

Professor Clare Wilkinson, Science Communication Unit Co-Director & Dr Amanda Webber, MSc Science Communication Programme Leader.

What happens to our science communication graduates? The Sequel Part 1

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In 2016 we published an infographic that explored the career paths of our students after they completed their MSc. In 2024 we will be celebrating 20 years of our MSc science communication at UWE Bristol and we thought it would be timely to catch up with our graduates’ careers now and we’re even more impressed. You can view our updated infographic below.

To gather the data for the infographic we took a couple of routes.

Just over 300 students have graduated from our UWE science communication postgraduate programmes since 2003 and whilst we aren’t in contact with all of them, a significant number have kept in touch with us via a dedicated LinkedIn group that we use to share news and job opportunities. Following ethics approval from UWE Bristol (HAS.23.03.088) we drew together information on our graduates if they were a member of that group and included their postgraduate programme amongst their public LinkedIn profile. We also offered an opt out period for graduates who would prefer not to be included in the infographic. This resulted in data from 55% (n=165) of graduates who completed the programme between 2003 and 2022.

We also contacted a number of graduates requesting their participation in a case study. Here, and in a second blog post which we will be sharing soon, we capture some of the key points from the infographic and case studies.

77% (n=128) of our graduates now work in science communication directly and one clear example of this is Dr Amy Seakins, who after also completing a PhD, is now Deputy Head of Public Engagement at Imperial College London. Amy supports staff and students to engage the public with their research and work – her team runs training sessions, seed funding, awards, and networks all about engaging with public audiences. Amy is also,

‘passionate about evaluation, a lot of my work involves looking at the impact of public engagement and understanding the benefits for everyone involved’.

For Amy, some of the key aspects of her current role were underpinned by the teaching she experienced at UWE. When we asked her about a ‘take away’ from the programme she said:

‘I was amazed at the breadth of different roles in the science communication sector – the course really opened my eyes to the variety in the field. On a more academic note, understanding why two-way dialogue is so important over a ‘deficit model’ way of thinking has underpinned everything I have done since.’

Amy also highlighted that she’d most enjoyed one aspect of the programme:

‘The people. (That’s probably not a surprise from someone who works in engagement!) The staff are brilliant and so generous with their expertise. The fellow students and their varied backgrounds and interests – you really get to know your cohort and develop a great mini network for beyond the course. Plus the guest speakers and others you meet along the way.’ 

19% of our graduates now work in fields related to science communication, like science teaching, for the NHS, as civil servants or in the (non-science charity sector) but sometimes the boundaries between science communication and other types of roles can be quite blurred. One interesting example here is Andy Robinson-Noades. Andy graduated from our programme nearly 10 years ago, and now works as a Senior Concept Manager at LEGO Education in Denmark. Within this role, Andy is working on the development of FIRST LEGO League, an international STEM learning program for 4–16-year-olds that is delivered in over 110 countries. Andy said his tip for future students looking to develop a career in science communication would be to try things out:

‘The best tip would be to try out every opportunity you can, even if you don’t think it will be for you. These experiences will introduce you to new people, perceptions and techniques that you may not have been aware of but will, in my experience, pave the direction to your career.’

Andy also related this to aspects that he enjoyed in the MSc programme, saying

‘it was the perfect blend of theory and practical. We had the opportunity to learn the core of the subject, giving us the foundations to go and apply it into our own initiatives.’

Our graduates work in a breadth of fields from universities and research institutes, to industry, science communication associations and funders, with some graduates also developing freelance careers. 17% of graduates that are working directly in science communication are now working in charity-based settings, and one example here was Sarah Venugopal, who is now Head of Impact at Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity (GOSH Charity). Sarah leads the team that evaluates the impact of projects that GOSH Charity has funded and helps to communicate that impact to the public. We asked Sarah for a tip for future science communicators, and she highlighted that flexibility has helped her:

‘Be open to lots of opportunities for science communication, even if it feels like a non-traditional route or form. After the course, I joined a graduate scheme in market research and learned a lot about qualitative research methods. I did a more “traditional” science communication role after this, and found I did more science communication on my graduate scheme than I thought! This set me up well for my future science communication roles.’

For Sarah, exploring opportunities was something that had started during her time in Bristol:

‘Bristol is a wonderful city – big enough for there to be lots to do and yet still maintain a community feeling.  Studying in Bristol provided me with great opportunities to gain experience in Science Communication alongside the course – I was able to volunteer at @Bristol (now called We The Curious) in my free time. There are lots of science communications opportunities in and around Bristol: my first paid job in science communication after the course was an evaluation of a student film festival in Exeter.’

Bristol is a very active city for science communication, and 28% (n=47) of our graduates have stayed based in the city after their studies but we also have a large network of graduates around the globe. Dr Wilasinee Triyarat who completed her MSc and PhD at UWE is one example, as she is now the Director of Research and Academic Services Division at the National Center for Public Awareness of Science, National Science Museum, Thailand. In this role she has developed a science communication curriculum for university students to recognise the importance of science communication and the role of science communicators, and she is currently working on research to promote good health for older people through museums to support Thailand’s transition to an aging society. Wilasinee also enjoyed her time in Bristol:

‘Sharing ideas and experiences between classmates was an important part of the MSc that allowed me to explore new ideas. In addition, I made new friends from different backgrounds. We are still in contact and support each other’s science communication careers. The benefit of learning with experts from various backgrounds was my most enjoyable moment. It gave me new perspectives and ideas that have supported my career.’

International students are an important part of our programme, and we’ve been delighted to welcome many over the years, who have shared with us examples, stories and insights from their own societies and cultures. We also welcome students to our programme from an array of disciplinary backgrounds, and this means that a number of our graduates are now involved in communication roles that communicate a wide range of different types of research. Paloma Salgado Tonga, has also returned to a museum setting but is now Director of Experience Design at the Interactive Museum of Economics in Mexico. There she leads the research, content development, graphic and museographic design teams to develop permanent and temporary exhibitions for the museum, both in the national and international arena. Paloma’s top take away from the programme had been that the ‘tools you need and develop for a creative and innovative science communication can come from unexpected places and be applied in many different fields’. This also formed the basis of the advice she would provide for future students looking to develop their careers:

‘Search for new projects, in different disciplines (design museums, tv, podcasts, pop ups, art museums, etc.) and experiment using their mechanisms, tools, and ways to innovate in science communication. The way we communicate and open conversations with other people changes very quickly and is a complex human endeavour. Dare to experiment, dare to use art, design, different spaces, literature, poetry, anything that helps you build a bond between science and the public. Neutrality is overrated. Dare to be creative.’

In the next instalment of these blog posts, which will be published next week, we’ll be looking at some of the other career areas our students are now working in, the different ways you can combine study and working, and how our students progressed to more strategic areas of their careers.

Professor Clare Wilkinson, Science Communication Unit Co-Director & Dr Amanda Webber, MSc Science Communication Programme Leader.


“It gave me the confidence to consider science communication as a career…”

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Kassie at NASA Ames in front of the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA)

My name is Kassie. I’m a storyteller, science facilitator, and science advocate. I work as a federal contractor for the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute at NASA Ames in Silicon Valley. A decade ago, I would have never expected my career to head in this direction. I’ve always enjoyed science – especially robotics and space science – but early on I was drawn to the humanities. Reading literature taught me about the human condition and prepared me to think critically and communicate clearly. Effective science communication follows a similar thread: communicate clearly and connect with your audiences through good storytelling. We’re not data processors, after all.

I discovered science communication after a bit of soul-searching. In my early 30s, I worked as a research communicator at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford and I wanted to level up my practical experience with training courses. Well, I didn’t find research communication training, however, ‘science communication’ popped up. Huh, interesting. I was curious and signed up to the week-long Science Communication Masterclass taking place in Bristol and organised by the SCU. At the end of the week I was hooked. That was it for me. I didn’t know in what shape or form, but science communication needed to be in my future!

At NASA, I’m the go-between for our scientists (the science community) and members of the public. The best way I can explain it is finding that sweet spot connection between exploring the science and humanity in our work. I do a lot of interviewing. I ask scientists about their science journey and challenge them to explain their science like they were presenting at a science museum and to eager science enthusiasts. Explain the acronyms! 

I learned to practice upstream engagement at UWE Bristol. Now I understand how to better incorporate inclusive learning experiences and fostering two-way dialogues. Just as it sounds, it implies creating space for members of ‘publics’ early on in science conversations and working together – as opposed to disseminating and hoping for the best. It challenges perceptions in our current model of science discourse. At NASA this can be a tricky, however, things are getting better! Citizen science is where it can really take off.

Kassie in front of the new Hidden Figure Way, at NASA HQ in Washington DC.

It took a few years, but we’ve recently developed a citizen science proposal around this concept. We – a small group of astronomers and science communicators – are developing engaging science communication content via videos, inviting people along the science journey with astronomers as they look through data – augmenting a current citizen science project called ‘Planet Hunters’. We are not shying away from technical aspects and delving into the nitty-gritty astronomers experience during the process. Citizen scientists will lend their expertise, lead video content, and can influence the direction of the tutorials. Instead of pushing out content WE think people are interested in seeing, we will be working alongside citizen scientists and listening to their anxieties, concerns, and building our project together with them. Scientists, citizen scientists, and science communicators. Our little project is only just starting – wish us luck!

None of this would have been possible without my training at UWE, which I continued after the Masterclass by completing an MSc in Science Communication. The teaching staff nurtured my budding interest in robotics and electric vehicles. I decided to focus my MSc project dissertation on public perceptions of autonomous vehicles. I felt a personal sense of accomplishment with my deep dive dissertation. Shortly thereafter, I interviewed with NASA leadership and moved back to California for this job. Like any new role, it has evolved over time. I still get to write about cool science topics, but now I’m more involved in day-to-day management as a managing editor and my brand new citizen science project!

My advice: if you’re thinking about science communication, give it a go. Attend a taster, attend the Masterclass. It will be rigorous and challenging, but you’ll walk away with skills and confidence to go after anything. I know I did. Then come join me at NASA!

Kassie Perlongo

Calling all south-west science communicators!

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Us south-western folk have much to be proud of.  From Cornwall’s glistening beaches and Dartmoor’s breathtaking expanses, through to Bristol’s thriving cultural scene and the gastronomic joys that are Somerset scrumpy and Cheddar cheese (cave-aged and extra-mature, naturally).

And then, of course, we have our industrious science communication sector.

We at the Science Communication Unit (SCU) believe the time is ripe to celebrate the south-west’s diverse science communication expertise. Thus, we are bringing together science communicators from across the region (and beyond) at the first ever Sci Comm South West conference, which takes place on 21st June 2019 at UWE Bristol.

What can we, as a collective, do to foster a brighter future for the research and practice of science communication… and for society? How does our regional hub fit within the global picture of science communication, and local, on-the-ground action?

These are some of the questions addressed by the day’s innovative mix of interactive workshops and presentations delivered by an eclectic set of science communicators from organisations including the Eden Project, We the Curious and the Met Office.

And just as science communication is not limited to the south-west, nor are our guests. We are very excited to welcome Carla Almeida from Rio de Janeiro as our keynote speaker. Carla will be sharing her experiences of how the Museum of Life, an interactive science centre, has engaged with local, socially vulnerable communities – to shape the identity of the museum itself.

The event has another important goal: to catalyse a network of science communicators from the south-west. What might a SciCommSW network look like? Come take part in discussions to help shape this new network for the region and ensure it best serves the needs of its members.

We are planning a warm and welcoming day, which provides ample opportunity to learn, have fun and meet fellow science communicators. For further information, the programme (draft) and to register please go to our conference page.

We look forward to seeing you there!

You can also follow developments at @SciCommsUWE #scicommsw19

Be visible or vanish

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After Cristina Rigutto’s informative seminar on post-publication digital engagement, we asked for her advice about blogging and how to increase our visibility online. Cristina reminded us that a key element of an academic’s profile is their digital footprint (including blogposts, Twitter feed, Instagram and webpages) – but to be effective in communicating your research online, you need people to find and follow you. We’ve all spent time trying to track people down online, sifting through a myriad of content – so how can you raise your profile to let people know you’re out there beavering away?

  • You need to be found on Google, the best way to do this is to create a Google Scholar profile. The profile can include all your output, not just peer reviewed content.
  • Put your presentations on Slideshare (one of the 10 most viewed sites in the world) it connects to Microsoft and LinkedIn.
  • Set up a YouTube channel in your name.
  • Wikipedia. – whilst Wikipedia is notoriously difficult to add content to you can easily insert a reference to your paper/ presentation into an existing page about your topic.
  • WordPress – put all the information about yourself in one place that then links out to your Twitter profile, Instagram account, blog etc.

It may not be practical to utilise all of these but any one will bump you up the list and help people connect with you.

Tips for academic blogging

BlogAn increasing number of academics are using blogs to reach a wider audience and share their research in a more comprehensible way. However, a staggering 81% of people will only read your first paragraph (71% the second, 63% the third and 32% the fourth, you get the idea if you’ve read this far…).

So the opening paragraph needs to contain your key message and words (detail can follow in subsequent paragraphs):

  • Keep to 300-750 words.
  • Repeat key words and their synonyms.
  • Use links inside the post including internal links to other posts.
  • Use lists as often as possible (see what we did there!) – a search engine reads html tags and will place your post higher on the results page.
  • Tweet a lot about the post – most people only catch a snapshot of the content on their twitter feeds, give your post a chance by shouting about it frequently!
  • Send as a Direct Message to anyone who may be interested – you don’t need to ask them to share it, you can just ask their opinion and often they will share your content anyway.

So there you have it, once you’ve set up your digital presence it is relatively easy and not too time consuming to maintain, build it into the everyday activities you carry out as an academic!

Jane Wooster and Kate Turton

 

Science communication: people, projects, events 2017

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Our Science Communication Masterclass has been running very successfully for quite a few years now and like my colleagues, I’ve had happy times running workshops, and met some really interesting participants. But we were never able to squeeze everyone in who wanted to come, while others were unable to travel to the UK.

We decided to meet this challenge by creating an online professional development Unit 1 SCPPEcourse – Science communication: people, projects, events – targeted at people who wanted to develop their skills and knowledge of science communication. Participants have joined us from far and near: across the UK, from Uganda, Switzerland, Portugal, Australia, Brazil, Canada and more.

They’ve been a real mix: recent science graduates, museum professionals, communications people, people working in institutions, large corporations, small businesses and start-ups. Some have experience of public engagement but for some, the course opens a new horizon:

… in my heart I believe I found a new passion – science communication!

We ran the first course in 2015. Naturally, as good public engagement practitioners, we ask the participants to reflect on and evaluate the course each time it is presented and we have used their feedback to refine and develop the course.

In the first year, participants felt that the time demands were a little onerous for people working full-time, so in 2016 and 2017, we built in two study breaks to allow participants to draw breath and catch up on content they might have missed. Unfamiliar tools caused some puzzlement, so we created micro-videos to show participants how to use forums, wikis and other learning tools. We also created a special LinkedIn group for course ‘graduates’ because participants really wanted to maintain the relationships that develop:

It would be great to be able to keep in touch with fellow participants and tutors.

The course now runs in eight units over ten weeks, with one or two members of the SCU tutoring each unit. In 2016 and 2017, I led the course from my current base in Perth, Western Australia. One of the virtues of working online: on the Internet, no one knows you’re on the beach!

Ann SCPPEWe present the course materials using a mixture of guided self-directed learning activities, reading, narrated presentations, forums, wikis, vlogs and online seminars. Other than the seminars, participants are able to fit their engagement around their work and other commitments. Participants like the variety of methods:

forums: an ‘excellent way to discuss ideas despite not meeting other coursemates in person

webinars: an ‘opportunity to put voices to names’ and ‘a great experience

wikis: ‘pushed [me] to develop an idea for a project’ and get ‘lots of feedback and input from other participants and the tutors

The online environment offers us so many opportunities to reach out to scientists, science communicators and public engagement people around the world and welcome them to the SCU family. In 2016, we created a companion online course focussing on Online and Media Writing, which is currently in its second presentation.

Feedback from this year’s participants is still being reviewed but I’m sure it will give us food for thought and ways to improve. We hope we’ll be welcoming lots more participants in 2018!

Please visit our website for further details of our online courses.

Ann Grand

 

FET Award: STEM outreach at Luckwell Primary

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This year, I have been lucky enough to receive a FET Award to promote STEM at a local primary school in south Bristol. Our key aims have been to use the expertise of UWE staff and students to deliver events which not only encourage children to pursue STEM careers, but also support teachers with some of the harder to achieve National Curriculum objectives.

Our first activity involved all students in Key Stage 2 – 120 in total. Inspired by the LED cards on Sparkfun, and ably assisted by fellow FARSCOPE students Hatem and Katie, we ran a lesson in which students used copper tape, LEDs and coin cell batteries to create a light-up Christmas tree or fire-side scene. Our aim was not only to show the students that electronics is fun and accessible, but to re-reinforce the KS2 National Curriculum objectives relating to electricity and conductivity.

Although a little hectic, the students really enjoyed the task and the teachers felt that the challenge of interacting with such basic components (as opposed to more “kid friendly” kits), really helped to drive home our lesson objectives.

To re-reinforce the Christmas card activity, we also ran a LED Creativity contest over the Christmas break. Students were given a pack containing some batteries, LEDs and copper tape and tasked with creating something cool.

Entries ranged from cameras with working flash  to scale replicas of the school. The full range of entries and winners can be found here. Overall, we were blown away by the number and quality of the entries.

Our second focus was introducing students to programming. To this end, we have been running a regular code club every Monday, this time supported by volunteers from UWE alongside FARSCOPE student Jasper. In code club, we use a mix of materials to introduce students to the programming language scratch. We currently have 16 students attending each week and recently were lucky enough to receive a number of BBC Micro bits.

Alongside Code club, we also ran a workshop with the Year 5 class, to directly support the national curriculum objectives related to programming. Students were given Tortoise robots (Built by FARSCOPE PhD students, in honour of some of the very first autonomous robots, built in Bristol by Grey Walter). Children had to program and debug an algorithm capable of navigating a maze.

As the outreach award comes to an end, we are planning a final grand event. Each year the students at Luckwell School get to spend a week learning about real-life money matters in “Luckwell Town”. During this week, students do not attend lessons – instead, they can choose to work at a number of jobs to earn Luckwell Pounds. This year, we will be supporting Luckwell Town by helping to run a Games Development studio. Students will use Scratch to design and program simple games for other students to play in the Luckwell Arcade.

IMG_3714

As with our prior events, the success will depend on volunteers from UWE donating their time and expertise to support us.

Luckwell Town will take place every morning of the week commencing June 12th. We are looking for volunteers to support us, so please respond to the Doodle poll if you are interested.

Martin Garrad, PhD student in robotics

Researching images on social media – nuts and bolts

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Images and videos are pervasive online, these days, web articles include at least one image or video. On Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat these visual contents are even more common, and social media platforms such as YouTube, Vimeo, Vine, Instagram, and Pinterest are entirely dedicated to their sharing.

screw-mother-metal-iron-60060

Images can emphasise textual messages, or even convey a message without text at all (Hankey et al., 2013), and they can increase the visibility of a tweet and how often it is shared (Yoon and Chung, 2013). There are so many images on social media that these platforms have become picture databases, and these have become subject to research. For example, Vis et al. (2013) explored images production and sharing practices on Twitter during the UK riots in 2011; Tiggemann and Zaccardo (2016) analysed Instagram images related to the #fitspiration movement, addressing their potential inspiration for viewers and negative effects on viewers’ body image; and Guidry et al. (2015) investigated the content and the engagement of pro- and anti-vaccine images shared on Pinterest.

My Ph.D. research uses one of these databases – it focuses on vaccine images used for advocacy that are shared on Twitter. Sourcing the images that are my data may sound simple, after all, I only need to download my data from Twitter, right? However, it is rather more complex than that. To start with, there are many different communities on Twitter, and they share images on a range of different topic. They may also share images on the same topic from different angles; for example, if we search #health on Twitter, we will see pictures related to healthy food, obesity, fitness, losing weight, public health policy, etc. So, the biggest challenges are how to find the communities of interest and then to develop a data analysis strategy that uncovers how they use their pictures.

To help me narrow the potential field of image research for my PhD, I asked the following questions:

  1. What topic am I interested in? Which communities do I want to study?
  2. Which social media outlets would I find most interesting/useful for my research?
  3. Each social media platform is used by different audiences, so it is important to think about the overall question we are asking. For example, young adults use Facebook, whereas teenagers prefer Snapchat, and Chinese people may be on Weibo.
  4. Where are these communities from? Which language(s) do they use?
  5. If we focus our research on Europe, we have to take into account that Europeans speak different languages. If we focus on English language, we have to consider that our images will come from all over the world, but especially from the US, UK and Australia.

Afterward this initial sifting, I had more questions to answer:

  1. What keywords should I use to search on my chosen social platform (in my case, Twitter)?
  2. Each topic and each community has its own “slang” or “dialect” and therefore keywords. On Twitter, for example, users in favour of vaccinations tweet their content including the hashtag #vaccineswork, whereas people against vaccines use mainly the hashtag #vaxxed and/or #CDCwhistleblower.
  3. How can I find the relevant keywords?
  4. Previous research on social media can suggest some terms; in my case, keywords such as vaccine(s), vaccination(s), vaccinate(d) and immunes(z)ation (Love et al., 2013; Salathé et al., 2013). Searching for these generic words, I found both tweets with and without hashtags that talked about vaccines. However, some communities use specific keywords which may not include these terms (e.g. #vaxxed) and they may use these keywords to label their tweets as relevant to the topic. For example, a tweet claiming “They’re poisoning our children #CDCwhislteblower” and showing an image with a child whilst being vaccinated, would be relevant to vaccinations even if it did not mention “vaccine” or “vaccination”. This tweet would not appear in my research if I set my data collection using only generic words, thus I needed to search for relevant hashtags as well.
  5. How do I find relevant hashtags?
  6. A first step would be considering which hashtags previous studies used, then searching Twitter for generic hashtags and see which other hashtags people use. There are also some online tools that can be helpful, such as Hashtagify.me, Get Tags and RiteTag.com. These online software packages suggest correlated hashtags and their popularity.

Answering these questions helps us define the criteria for data collection, but they also show how complicated research on images shared on social media is. As with any data collection method, planning, defining and developing are key for research drawing on online images. We need to be able to justify the approach we took and show that the data collection process is robust. This means, as with many other types of data collection, that we need to pilot and test our data collection methods ensuring that they deliver the material we anticipate and which will validly help us to address our research question. There are so many pictures online, uploaded, downloaded, edited and shared, that the choice of image collection methods becomes key to ensuring the quality of the study overall.

 

Elena Milani

 

References

Hankey, S., Longley, T., Tuszynski, M. and Indira Ganesh, M. (2013). Visualizing Information for Advocacy. Nederlands: Tactical Technology Collective.

Love, B., Himelboim, I., Holton, A. and Stewart, K. (2013) Twitter as a source of vaccination information: content drivers and what they are saying. American Journal of Infection Control [online]. 41(6), pp. 568-570.

Guidry, J.P., Carlyle, K., Messner, M. and Jin, Y. (2015) On pins and needles: How vaccines are portrayed on Pinterest. Vaccine [online]. 33(39), pp. 5051-5056.

Salathé, M., Vu, D.Q., Khandelwal, S. and Hunter, D.R. (2013) The dynamics of health behavior sentiments on a large online social network. EPJ Data Science [online]. 2(1), pp. 1-12.

Tiggemann, M. and Zaccardo, M. (2016) ‘Strong is the new skinny’: A content analysis of #fitspiration images on Instagram. Journal of Health Psychology [online].

Vis, F., Faulkner, S., Parry, K., Manyukhina, Y. and Evans, L. (2013) Twitpic-ing the riots: analysing images shared on Twitter during the 2011 UK riots. In: Weller, K., Bruns, A., Burgess, J., Mahrt, M. and Puschmann, C. (2013) Twitter and Society. New York: Peter Lang Publishing Inc., pp. 385-398.

Yoon, J. and Chung, E. (2013) How images are conversed on twitter? Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology [online]. 50(1), pp. 1-5.

New and notable – selected publications from the Science Communication Unit

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The last 6 months have been a busy time for the Unit, we are now fully in the swing of the 2016/17 teaching programme for our MSc Science Communication and PgCert Practical Science Communication students, we’ve been working on a number of exciting research projects and if that wasn’t enough to keep us busy, we’ve also produced a number of exciting publications.

We wanted to share some of these recent publications to provide an insight into the work that we are involved in as the Science Communication Unit.

Science for Environment Policy

Science for Environment Policy

Science for Environment Policy is a free news and information service published by Directorate-General Environment, European Commission. It is designed to help the busy policymaker keep up-to-date with the latest environmental research findings needed to design, implement and regulate effective policies. In addition to a weekly news alert we publish a number of longer reports on specific topics of interest to the environmental policy sector.

Recent reports focus on:

Ship recycling: The ship-recycling industry — which dismantles old and decommissioned ships, enabling the re-use of valuable materials — is a major supplier of steel and an important part of the economy in many countries, such as Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Turkey. However, mounting evidence of negative impacts undermines the industry’s contribution to sustainable development. This Thematic Issue presents a selection of recent research on the environmental and human impacts of shipbreaking.

Environmental compliance assurance and combatting environmental crime: How does the law protect the environment? The responsibility for the legal protection of the environment rests largely with public authorities such as the police, local authorities or specialised regulatory agencies. However, more recently, attention has been focused on the enforcement of environmental law — how it should most effectively be implemented, how best to ensure compliance, and how best to deal with breaches of environmental law where they occur. This Thematic Issue presents recent research into the value of emerging networks of enforcement bodies, the need to exploit new technologies and strategies, the use of appropriate sanctions and the added value of a compliance assurance conceptual framework.

Synthetic biology and biodiversity: Synthetic biology is an emerging field and industry, with a growing number of applications in the pharmaceutical, chemical, agricultural and energy sectors. While it may propose solutions to some of the greatest challenges facing the environment, such as climate change and scarcity of clean water, the introduction of novel, synthetic organisms may also pose a high risk for natural ecosystems. This future brief outlines the benefits, risks and techniques of these new technologies, and examines some of the ethical and safety issues.

Socioeconomic status and noise and air pollution: Lower socioeconomic status is generally associated with poorer health, and both air and noise pollution contribute to a wide range of other factors influencing human health. But do these health inequalities arise because of increased exposure to pollution, increased sensitivity to exposure, increased vulnerabilities, or some combination? This In-depth Report presents evidence on whether people in deprived areas are more affected by air and noise pollution — and suffer greater consequences — than wealthier populations.

Educational outreach

We’ve published several research papers exploring the role and impact of science outreach. Education outreach usually aims to work with children to influence their attitudes or knowledge about STEM – but there are only so many scientists and engineers to go around. So what if instead we influenced the influencers? In this publication, Laura Fogg-Rogers describes her ‘Children as Engineers’ project, which paired student engineers with pre-service (student) teachers.

Fogg-Rogers, L. A., Edmonds, J. and Lewis, F. (2016) Paired peer learning through engineering education outreach. European Journal of Engineering Education. ISSN 0304-3797 Available from: http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/29111

Teachers have been shown in numerous research studies to be critical for shaping children’s attitudes to STEM subjects, and yet only 5% of primary school teachers have a STEM higher qualification. So improving teacher’s science teaching self-efficacy, or the perception of their ability to do this job, is therefore critical if we want to influence young minds in science.

The student engineers and teachers worked together to perform outreach projects in primary schools and the project proved very successful. The engineers improved their public engagement skills, and the teachers showed significant improvements to their science teaching self-efficacy and subject knowledge confidence. The project has now been extended with a £50,000 funding grant from HEFCE and will be run again in 2017.

And finally, Dr Emma Weitkamp considers how university outreach activities can be designed to encourage young people to think about the relationships between science and society. In this example, Emma worked with Professor Dawn Arnold to devise an outreach project on plant genetics and consider how this type of project could meet the needs of both teachers, researchers and science communicators all seeking (slightly) different aims.emma-book

A Cross Disciplinary Embodiment: Exploring the Impacts of Embedding Science Communication Principles in a Collaborative Learning Space. Emma Weitkamp and Dawn Arnold in Science and Technology Education and Communication, Seeking Synergy. Maarten C. A. van der Sanden, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands and Marc J. de Vries (Eds.) Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. 

We hope that you find our work interesting and insightful, keep an eye on this blog – next week we will highlight our publications around robots, robot ethics, ‘fun’ in science communication and theatre.

Details of all our publications to date can be found on the Science Communication Unit webpages.

 

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