Thread by @usnehal

We live in an attention #economy & what #Tweetiatricians have known for decades (#Twitter started in 2006): importance of drawing attention to factual science-based information as compared to #misinformation & #disinformation, especially on #vaccines

econreview.berkeley.edu/paying-attenti…

You have to be fast & prolific to play catch up to this. I have 77K tweets, a moderate sized band of 6K followers interested enough to tolerate my volume but use of hashtags allows reach across Twittersphere. Trending hashtags = better for riding a way for that attention economy

If is unclear if we are now so siloed that tweets are ineffective with anti-vaxx. But not all anti-vaxx are QAnon

Both sides of the political spectrum have problems with anti-#vaccine #conspiracy theorists who spread #misinformation & #disinformation

Some couch it in “I am just questioning #vaccineSideEffects” but their ideas lack biological plausibility

sciencemag.org/news/2011/01/w…

Being clear, direct, & unapologetic about the non-scientific, non-factual basis of some of these things gets called “attacks”

attack right now is: #COVID19 on lives of most vulnerable & marginalized
Politeness now can kill

Seeking “attention” first vs ethics approval & science?

At a time of >500,000 deaths, rigor & science must come before “social media attention” of @Illinois_Alma press release own words. Data are data = a cross-cutting “language” of #research. #survey #data are notoriously unreliable & poor #quality. This is anti-vaxx lite on Twitter

Before a collective gasp at use of anti-vaxx
consider

What is the fake #science that Wakefield spread via poor #quality #research with tortured #data?
“#vaccineSideEffects”

What is #COVID19 vaccine fear of #senior care workers (many are women of childbearing age):#fertility

When I was a public official I was not able to be on #socialmedia. #Academics often miss very important information found at the margins or via fieldwork

#SciComm is not top-down push

Also is informal stakeholder or peer review - can highlight error or high potential for harm

Anti-terrorism has always had of the phrase: “if you see something, say something”

Same is true for #socialmedia. If see something, say something to institutions on what they are putting out into the world. This matters for #equity

The press release on DrSusanMoore was telling

= The “power of the narrative”

institutions frequently hire #marketing or #psychology professionals in order to connect the dots in a flattering way or mitigate fallout

in fact in a “publish or perish” world or where reputation is monetized “#SciComm” #facts/#data manipulated

Whereas, previously many debates stayed within confines of the ivory tower or conferences..

Now they happen openly on #socialmedia - this is good & bad.

It can be challenging to get “the tone” right while still being direct enough to get the facts across. I prioritize facts

Given my experience working in the #emergencymedicine where every spoken/written could have life/death implications & legal liability
+
leading public stakeholder engagement for $1.8b in #Medicaid reform, my communication rapidly passes through several gates.

I don’t delete.

This is a catch-22

most people have not honed these skills over 1.5 decades of career

how do we keep up with the speed & volume of #misinformation & #disinformation while maintaining accurate, reliable #SciComm?

When things are deleted, raises questions, can cause distrust

One of my “go to strategies is to identify
high-#quality (vetted, verified, validated)
infographics, articles, tweets
that I repeatedly use
rather creating in the moment

It may mean sharing information new to a new person

or it may be a new insight on old information

Bookmarking & “unrolling” + saving threads can be very useful.

My #SciComm intent rarely to engage with one person

attention economy needs visuals - so I use articles that will populate an image and title or marked up screenshots

These are habits from editing mentees’ and peers’ work to ensure the point is not missed. (I prefer not to have to go back & find missed corrections). Especially when it comes to incorrect or non-factual information it is best to put a big red X over it

Some favorite visuals:

Using the X over something
false/unverified
is essential
ensures that you don’t become part of contributing to
#misinformation #disinformation
rumor, gossip
psychological/visual effect

Do NOT hand over your critical thinking to another person, no matter how reliable they seem

Screenshots above from this article: ethicalleadership.nd.edu/news/how-to-st…

Emotions play a huge part - you can be wrongly swayed by #empathy or #sympathy, especially if they reference past trauma or abuse

#Trauma itself predisposes to conspiracies - “save” others

trauma.blog.yorku.ca/2021/01/the-ps…

Look for standards, validation, verified #facts

Be very cautious when somebody leads #SciComm with their #trauma,

while trauma itself is real
is a known way to short circuit the brain

Is a favorite tactic of anti-vaxx to speak of trauma to the traumatized
=Trauma bonding

= your past #trauma manipulates you & short circuits your #SciComm critical thinking

I don’t know a single human without trauma - just depends on the extent

=All of us vulnerable to the emotional lead in

hence QAnon pedophilia fears
anti-vaxx & child harm fears
This response

In fact a hallmark of a hit piece is describing some (old) shocking event

engage your emotions and trigger a combination of fear, anger disgust

then switch

Look at this article on “feminists” “manipulating children” (from 1983)

To negate current concept of
“believe survivors”

This is why communicating #facts

in the way typical for #STEM

does not remove grip of a #conspiracy theory that activated their past #trauma and took them to a dark anxious place, not a space of slow #criticalthinking

it is more than countering #misinformation with #data

Is why #Accountability, mislabeled as #CancelCulture, invokes ferocious, illogical responses

=people responding from their own place of #trauma to defend somebody they see as an ally/protector -> non-factual tribalism or advocacy, often spreading exact harm they are against

If groups, “tribes”, emotions are most important drivers of #conspiracy theories

maybe platforms like Facebook, that leverage social connections & families

more effective than fast, #facts vs fake facts Twitter

for #empathy-based #SciComm?
#MedTwitter

socialmediaweek.org/blog/2020/04/h…

Often those we work with, study with, go to church/temple/masjid with are the drivers of illogical, emotion or #empathy-based beliefs.

Anti-terrorism has surveilled every aspect of American Muslims per that rationale, even college rafting trips.

This is extreme, low value.

However what you CAN learn

if you join certain groups
on #socialmedia
to learn the terminology, rationale, sources of affirmation

= tactical #empathy used by #hostage negotiators

conspiracies DO hold people hostage

#negotiation
#SciComm
#MedTwitter

blog.blackswanltd.com/the-edge/how-t…

Too many in #STEM, especially #womeninSTEM over prepare out of internalized #impostersyndrome that is taught to us with the barriers we face. In fact we are being wrongly incentivized by a system of barriers to lose our innate #empathy & confidence key to #SciComm to lay public

#NLP & #AI: no panacea to #fakenews #conspiracy #misinformation #disinformation. Some articles on this. Right now am faculty for this at @MIT. I use #Twitter & #Tweetiatrician lens to find case examples of good & bad for human context for coders & #SciComm #DataScience #algorithm

#Technology #AI #NLP are notoriously lacking #diversity.

While learning #WomenWhoCode #womenintech skills stay tuned into #empathy & #EQ AND your #community chatter.

This is not just #DEI but enriches #algorithm to have better defined #data for #BigData #BigDataAnalytics

On a personal note, wasn’t sure how I’d do as faculty looking at #COVID19 #pandemic #mortality & #SciComm #data the same month my mom passed away. Offering raw anecdotal context to developing fuller #dataanalysis as part of a multidisciplinary team:healing

An emerging aspect of #socialmedia #scicomm #analysis is #networkscience or #datascience of connections. Am still generating hypotheses so doing old fashioned poking around “#influencer” & ppl I know to see who they are connected to in which groups #AI #optimization

#MedTwitter

Plan: publish analysis of various media & platforms, positive & negative examples of #socialmedia & #SciComm. Women can have an innate #communication #ability. There are few female protagonists in #business #case #study for #businessschool #education.

hbr.org/2016/03/only-1…

Some #socialmedia #misinformation #disinformation #conspiracy specifically target women, especially grieving moms. I can relate to the rawness as a grieving daughter of #COVID19 mortality

This gender roles saddens me as wrong “#womeninleadetship” example

nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1…

In this thread I highlighted a low #dataintegrity study on menses/fertility creating #GIGO #data from #online #survey & leading questions. Note the similarity of rationale to the prior tweet billboard

Yes, women excluded *is* a problem

Creating bad data not a solution

The above exchange is exactly what I mean about engaging personally prior to trying to develop #data fields or an #algorithm. Blocking or excluding can reinforce silos & own #mindset - will contribute to #BigDataAnalytics. You need to be like an investigative journalist first.

At first on #MedTwitter &SciComm was reticent to screenshot & share - felt like “shame & blame”

But until we see the real life examples play out, hard to explain

Plus ppl are choosing own words on this public forum 🤷🏻‍♀️

A picture is worth 1000 words. Anti-vaxx cite bad #data:

The reputation I have deliberately created: asking tough uncomfortable questions from experience in #compliance, expert witness for Attorney General’s Office, constructing quality metrics for #Medicaid & vulnerable & @PCORI #disparities #research work. Blowback happens 🤷🏻‍♀️

Last bit of advice in this 🧵
decide your purpose is in #socialmedia #Scicomm
Less risk =
less reward or likelihood to be a driver of change
All public exposure can risk reputation
Yet #influence is happening via #SoMe
If not in the space, passive #pandemic passenger
#MedTwitter