Hey there!
I'm Alie Astrocyte.
And this week we have a different kind of video for you.
I'm coming to you from Boston,
fresh out of the Science Media Awards and Summit,
and today we're going to talk about the future of science media!
The Science Media Awards and Summit, or SMASH,
is a biannual conference for scientists and filmmakers
hosted by Jackson Hole WILD and WGBH in Boston.
Every two years, hundreds of people who
create and contribute to science media
gather to talk about the current state of
science communication and what the future holds.
This year I was super lucky to be selected
for a SMASH Fellowship.
As a Fellow, I got to attend the conference and workshops
where I was able to learn about
new ideas in science film,
and provide my perspective as a scientist and YouTuber.
I was most excited to think about and discuss
the intersection between traditional science film production and YouTube
and how these two approaches are growing together.
Over the course of over a dozen sessions,
I was able to learn a few things
and left with a few questions for the future.
A common theme throughout the conversation
was the shift to online content.
I got to hear from Joe Hanson of It's Okay to Be Smart
about how communicators can use so many
different platforms to tell science stories in many different ways.
I also started to understand the concerns and frustrations
of people in traditional media who are trying to
figure out how to translate their content for a
younger, digital audience.
Social media is a new and rapidly expanding
opportunity to engage with an audience.
Any audience.
But it poses unique challenges, too.
I love social media
Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, the whole shebang
because it lets people learn how they want to learn.
They can choose the platform that works best for them,
and a growing number of science communicators are
using that to tell science stories in new ways.
Social media fosters new communities and conversations,
engaging with a much larger audience than was
once possible, and letting people connect directly with
celebrities, scientists, and other people who share their interests.
But this strength is also a weakness.
Social media lets you select your community and your audience.
And it can be easy to get into a bubble where
you're not thinking critically about your ideas, motivations, and stories.
I thought that this was highlighted in the
closing keynote panel of our event.
We had the chance to hear from some brilliant minds.
Linguist Steven Pinker and primatologist Richard Wrangham.
The topic of conversation was "What is the future of humanity?"
And while the speakers had some interesting things to say,
they ultimately never addressed the question,
choosing instead to stick around relatively simple
topics and views, without a greater critical consideration
of where we are going as a species.
Overall, Drs. Pinker and Wrangham made the point that
humanity, as a whole, has never been better off.
This is true.
By nearly every measure, the world is safer than ever before.
But just because things are better now than
they were in the past doesn’t mean that we can’t still be
thinking hard about how to continue to improve in the future,
and these two prolific academics didn’t really address that.
I wanted to know how to use the resources available to me
to break out of that echo chamber.
To recognize that we still have work to do,
and get to doing it.
For me, YouTube
and online digital media ARE the future.
We’re able to reach people in crazy new ways
and to connect with people we’d
never have had the chance to meet before.
The growth of social media and the ways
scientists and creators are using
SnapChat, Instagram, Vine, Facebook, all of these platforms
is changing who can learn about this stuff,
and how, and when.
But we’re all still learning how to actually break out
of our own bubble and connect with new and different people.
So my biggest takeaway from SMASH?
We don’t really know where science media is going,
or how we’re going to get there.
But with all of the new opportunities we have to experiment,
it’s sure to be an interesting trip!
Overall, I had a really amazing time at this conference.
And got to meet a lot of super cool and smart people.
I’m really excited for all of the connections and collaborations
that will come from this opportunity.
And I’m excited to bring some of these
new perspectives to our videos in the future!
Thanks for watching this episode of Neuro Transmissions.
If you liked it, give it a thumbs up, and if you haven’t already,
subscribe so you can see the new and exciting things
we’re going to try.
If you’re really excited about what we do,
please consider contributing to our Patreon.
Your support helps us keep making these videos for you.
Until next time, I’m Alie Astrocyte.
Over and out!