Social networks as a tool for science communication and public engagement: focus on Twitter

Ignacio López-Goñi; Manuel Sánchez-Angulo

doi:10.1093/femsle/fnx246

Social networks as a tool for science communication and public engagement: focus on Twitter

FEMS Microbiol Lett. 2018 Feb 1;365(2). doi: 10.1093/femsle/fnx246.

Authors

Ignacio López-Goñi¹, Manuel Sánchez-Angulo²

Affiliations

¹ Departamento de Microbiología y Parasitología, Universidad de Navarra, 31008-Pamplona, Spain.
² Departamento de Producción Vegetal y Microbiología, Universidad Miguel Hernández, 03202-Elche, Spain.

PMID: 29165564
DOI: 10.1093/femsle/fnx246

Abstract

Social networks have been used to teach and engage people about the importance of science. The integration of social networks in the daily routines of faculties and scientists is strongly recommended to increase their personal brand, improve their skills, enhance their visibility, share and communicate science to society, promote scientific culture, and even as a tool for teaching and learning. Here we review the use of Twitter in science and comment on our previous experience of using this social network as a platform for a Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) in Spain and Latin America. We propose to extend this strategy to a pan-European Microbiology MOOC in the near future.

Keywords: Twitter; open access; science communication; social networks.

MeSH terms

Communication*
Humans
Internet
Latin America
Learning
Microbiology / education*
Social Media*
Social Networking*
Spain