by Natasha Neill, Executive Officer at the Society of Biology
Last night I attended an interesting Soho Skeptics event, debating the Leveson inquiry and subsequent report and recommendations. As is often the case, some of the most interesting things the panel said were off topic. One comment in particular caught my attention: the idea that blogging is a form of mentoring and is a valuable tool to share knowledge with others.
At the Society, staff often share news related to their areas of work; stories from their research days or recent news from their favourite area of science in a blog or via twitter, but maybe this mentality should be viewed as a responsibility and shared across the sector.
When asked who considered themselves a journalist, over half the audience raised their hands. However, as the panel highlighted to those who didn’t, almost all of us would have tweeted, blogged or written for a website. Having a good idea or story might not mean you’re set to be a published author, but perhaps when people see or hear something that interests them, they should consider if someone else might gain the same benefit.
Communication in science is evolving; I’ll often find a piece of news, or notification of a released report on Twitter before anywhere else, but through this wealth of information, things can easily become hidden. Highlighting something important or interesting to you might help a student gain interest in biology or provide a researcher with a helpful insight into a related area of work.
Representing a sector as diverse as biology, many of our members have expertise that is unique to them, sharing this knowledge with their peers and the public would be a valuable resource.
We are always really interested to hear from anyone willing to write a blog post on biology. The posts can be quite informal in style, around 300 – 400 words and normally written in the first person. If you’d like to submit a post, please contact our Press Officer, Rebecca Nesbit at rebeccanesbit@societyofbiology.org
Hi Matthew,
This is a brief guide to blogging with Civic Society http://www.civilsociety.co.uk/fundraising/blogs/content/14127/a_guide_to_blogging_with_civilsocietycouk , but gives a great place to start as much of the advice is relevant, whatever topic is being blogged about. A good place to start with Twitter is by following Learned Societies; most, like the Society of Biology will share relevant news stories and updates for their area of expertise.
Dear Rebecca,
Thanks for your post, i found it very encouraging. I’ve recently been debating with the idea of starting a blog because i believe that research is about telling a story, but often the story is lost in the scientific language. Therefore if you can tell the story in more colloquial language then more people are likely to understand it and more people become interested in it.
Also, I used to be anti twitter, but I never thought that research academics would use it to let people know about recent publications/articles; I shall have to delve further! thanks again for your thoughts. Matthew