Does Social Media Have a Place in Academia?
I recently started watching a new show, Harlem, on Amazon Prime. It follows four Black women in their thirties as they navigate life, work, love in their borough of Harlem. It has gotten a lot of comparisons to Sex and the City and I can see that, but the show does a good job at highlighting the disparities Black women go through that are unique to them. Like Sex and the City, the show centers around the character Camille Parks (Megan Good) who also serves as the narrator of each episode.
Camille, known professionally as Dr. Camille Parks, is an adjunct professor at Columbia University teaching anthropology. She is vying for an associate professor position with the chance of tenure and benefits. She almost has it in the palm of her hands when her boss was fired after making offensive remarks at a local women's rights protest. Her new boss is the renowned Dr. Pruitt (Whoopi Goldberg) and is less than impressed with Dr. Parks as her previous boss. She immediately makes a quip about her "reputation" and again about her social media use in another scene.
Dr. Pruitt later tells her new subordinate to get from behind the screen and in the field. Desperate to please her new boss and stay in the running for an associate professor position Camille signs up to speak at a protest she doesn't fully support (Not smart, but made for good t.v.). I then wondered how academics across disciplines view social media and its impact on the work of those in their perspective fields.
Dr. Pruitt seems to dislike that Camille tweets often and has more articles published on online culture websites than in journal articles. This could be constructive criticism on behalf of her new boss or just criticism. I understand that formal research is important and serves its purpose, but how will it reach the people? How will academics make themselves accessible to clear up any misinformation floating around about their work? Social media can serve as a great tool for that. Especially in the last year and a half where everyone is doing their "own research" in regards to how they will protect themselves against the strains of coronavirus that have plagued the globe, a social media presence could help assuage the situation.
I am aware not everyone or every field turns their nose up to tweets and likes. At a previous job, I participated in a Twitter conference and my current field of Cosmetic Science has many players across social media platforms. Does it help or hurt the image of the field? I guess in our time of posting, resharing, retweeting, time will tell.
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