Thread by @svanduin

'What else can be done?' asks @hholdenthorp about science communication. Or rather, about 'science communicating scientists'. It's a nice read! Here are some ideas. (1/n)
#scicom #AcademicChatter #phd
science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

Let's first acknowledge (or agree with Thorp) that Scicom is a serious expertise on its own. But it's more complex than just that. On the one hand, I'm baffled by how much low-hanging fruit there is for scientists to become just a little better at #scicom. On the other.. (2/n)

I'm equally baffled by the expectations that live in organizations about scicom. As if it's just something scientists can all easily do on the side - level of talent not even considered. So we have a weird nuance here. (3/n)

We should def train scientists to become better communicators, because it helps them in a lot of ways (also within science), and increases science's communication capacity as a whole. Even so, we shouldn't overdraw and keep using expert communicators to do the heavy lifting.(4/n)

Another big potential for improvement is to better connect all the science of scicom with the practice of it. For example, I see science communicators at organizations that have no opportunity to learn. Scientists get to go to conferences and update their knowledge, but.. (5/n)

..practitioners somehow are expected to 'just know' everything and apply it to their work. If you want to take scicom seriously, then do so and view it as an expertise in itself. This will also help solving the unrealistic expectations projected on communicating scientists.(6/n)

And organizations, stop using Scicom as a name for what's really just marketing and public affairs. I love Scicom because it feels honest and wants to provide the world with the best information available. If we pollute that with marketing, we might be in for a trust breach.(7/n)

I'm happy that articles like these come out, because it does mean Scicom is developing. But we should keep our eyes and ears open, and make sure it develops in the right direction.
Onwards and upwards! (n=8, but I might add later).

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