Social media
***Please excuse the podcast production values, this unit is in the process of being re-written for post-Musk conditions!*** For many scholars, social media represents the “front lines” of communicating with the public. This unit discusses social media in a holistic manner, recognizing its unique risks and responsibilities for public scholars, and encouraging you to make your own decision about whether cultivating a presence on your preferred social media platform will be a rewarding, effective, and sustainable part of your public scholarship career. We will share best-practices and online resources for managing the risks of social media usage, and practice writing a “thread” on a topic related to your expertise. Whether or not you post that thread, we think the exercise of working within dramatic restraints can be a helpful jumping-off point for other forms of public scholarship, such as op-eds and explainers. You will hear from Sacred Writes Associate Director Brook Wilensky-Lanford and alum/trainer Dheepa Sundaram, a scholar of social media at the University of Denver, on the risks, rewards, and responsibilities of using social media.
OBJECTIVES
Understand the risks, rewards and responsibilities (R3) of using social media for public scholarship
Learn platform-specific conventions and best practices
Draft a “thread” (set of bullet points)
Examples By our Alums & friends
Twitter threads
Dheepa Sundaram on yoga/white supremacy
Suzanna Krivulskaya on NXIVM
Abel Gomez on COVID
“Conceptual Approaches to Global Feminism” (account for class taught by Dheepa Sundaram; University of Denver)
@tweetistorian account, which has different historians tweeting every week
Instagram reels
Arwa Hussein “rida” explainer
Equality Labs “Caste in the U.S.A.”
YouTube channels
Eat, Pray, Anime by Kaitlyn Ugoretz
Religion for Breakfast by Andrew Mark Henry
TikTok accounts
@maklelan, full-time public Bible scholar
@queenoftheheathens, UChicago grad student
@gacruz_phd, CRT and media studies
@abhbible, Bible scholar
@Kevincarnahan2, Professor of Philosophy and Religion
@candidarmoss, scholar of ancient Christianity
@lizbucar, Sacred Writes’ director
WAYS TO LEARN
We’ve designed this training curriculum so you can get the (newly revised) content of the lesson just by listening to that lesson’s podcast episode on the audio player below.
If you prefer a multimedia approach to learning, you can watch a slideshow version of this content. (slideshow is older content)
You’re also welcome to simply through the old and/or new transcripts for this episode.
However you choose to learn, we encourage you to pause and reflect when prompted to do so, and to take notes to share with your fellow trainees, if and as that’s possible for you.
And don’t forget to check the top of this page for essential resources, and the bottom of the page for additional resources.
LISTEN & LEARN
Social Media Platform List
When we say “Social Media”, what do we mean?
GUEST VOICES
Dheepa Sundaram
Assistant Professor of Hindu Studies & Digital Religion
University of Denver
WATCH & LEARN
READ & LEARN
Read the transcript of this episode’s podcast.
APPLIED LEARNING Exercise: Compose a Thread (e.g., bullet points)
For this activity, create a thread of at least five short, connected posts that help readers understand a topic from your research, teaching, or other expertise. Think about this as a series of “bullet points.” You will find that you need to focus this topic to a dramatic degree! For examples of successful threads by public scholars, see the top of this page.
Your thread should include:
at least one external link to something you’ve created (formal article, podcast interview, op-ed, et cetera), but not in the first item
definitions for any key terms you’re using,
at least one item of visual interest–a GIF or image.
at least one multimedia resource, like a video, a podcast, or song.
at least one external link to a public-facing print resource not written by you, a news item, or other public scholarship.
handles for at least three other folks your readers can follow to learn more about your topic.
an “action item” in your final post—check out this resource, share this, sign this petition, etc.
DISCUSSION PROMPTS
We encourage you to discuss with your colleagues:
Do you use social media to share your work? Which platforms? How do you feel about it?
What values do you want to guide your social media engagement?
How do you factor the particular risks and responsibilities of online engagement?
How might you adapt the thread you’ve written into a more substantive essay, op-ed, or explainer?
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Keyword glossary
Demby, “If And When To Share Videos Of Violence,” NPR (12 May 2020)
How to avoid “digital blackface”
How to block and report abusive tweets
Dr. Safiya Noble, Algorithms of Oppression
Becoming a Twitterstorian: Social Media, Scholarly Communication and Professional Practice
Building Community Online Through Promoting Others’ Scholarly Work: A Twitter Strategy
A Guide to Twitter Safety for Academics (And Everyone Else)
Campus Reform Group Is Funneling Koch Money To Right-Wing Reporters (Truthout.org)