As a scientist, in training, I have always struggled with making people understand the relevance of the animal research that I participate in. When I converse with the general public I feel like the final conclusion at the other end of the conservation is usually: “oh nice so you work with animals, that is so cool”. But I was actually trying to communicate more than that. I want people to know the type of work I do with those animals and why it is useful for animal conservation and possibly humans. Therefore, I have asked myself… How to can I break that barrier? and How to do it effectively?
Last semester I found one answer to this problem in the Preparing for Future Professoriate class… to communicate science effectively, I need to make my story personal and eliminate any jargon from the conversation.
More recently, I have been finding other pieces that help answer my questions… I have been in graduate school for several years and probably people, who are not trained in science, can not grasp what I am trying to say in a quick conversation. So, how about I start communicating with people in a written media that is free, readily accessible in most countries, and I can explain in a few words what I do. In other words I am talking about blogging. Blogging would allow me to share, with anybody exploring the web, in simple terms what I do. It does not have to be only words; a short video illustrating an example or something similar could be added to the post.
At the same time, for the audience that likes to be more connected, other social media such as twitter, could be even a better fit for me. Through twitter, I can answer quick questions and direct people to other links to find more information. Furthermore, I can use pictures to accentuate a point or further engage the audience.
I am planning on creating a new blog and start twitting more about my research to let the world know what I do. I hope to update you all on my journey to the current trend of blogging and twitting about science and my profession.