A short thought on archaeology & social media. Digital forms of public participation in archaeology, in the UK at least, started from a place of naivety - that open discussion of archaeological topics would democratise the discipline & encourage greater public participation
The use of social media platforms amongst most large archaeological organisation here is UK began often on Facebook or Twitter, or used blogs. Social media have always been undervalued as forms of public communication & not taken that seriously
Fast forward to 2020. These platforms are deeply embedded in a world of political misuse, fake news, trolling, doxxing, harassment & abuse. Archaeology is a hot topic alongside nationalism, white supremacy & racism. From Brexit to An**o S*x*n identity, our public work is misused
It's not enough to write social media policies. Every archaeological organisation should be asking itself how they will deal with malignant actors in their digital social spaces. Emergency action plans & staffing must be in place
Is your idea of free speech someone else's opportunity for abuse? Then you are allowing your audiences to be abused by proxy. Do some work on the value of social media in your organisation. Take it's entanglement with politics seriously. These platforms are not benign
I do not want to see archaeology served with a side order of white supremacy ever again on my social media. Ask yourselves TODAY how you can make sure that archaeology does not further contribute to people's oppression. This is not hard work
Who runs your social media? Who has admin rights? Who uses your brand? Who can delete posts? How fast can your team act? Tighten up your organisation SM, model incidents, expect the worst, plan for these scenarios, train your staff, take this seriously. Digital life is real life.
Watching what is happening on archaeology Facebook at the moment is an absolute masterclass. If any archaeological organisation would like to discuss these issues, with seriousness, with an expert in social media in public archaeology, there are a handful of us about
