Telling Diverse Stories in 280 Characters: Lessons from the Women Doing Science Twitter

Abstract:

Women Doing Science is an international social media movement to increase the visibility of women in STEM. The movement has two unique selling points: featuring a diverse range of women (using an all inclusive definition of women, including trans women and non-binary individuals), and presenting their science seriously, encouraging the use of well-explained technical terminology. The movement began as an Instagram account, now with over 80,000 followers. Our team of science writers, who are all scientists themselves, have a standard operating procedure and extensive experience in telling scientific stories which showcase both the science and the enthusiasm of the women who submit features. At least, they do in 280 words. 280 characters is a different story. The short length of tweets poses particular challenges to Women Doing Science’s mission: how can we highlight the diversity of featured scientists without reducing individual’s experiences to a hashtag? And how can we make women’s stories simultaneously accessible and scientifically serious, connecting them to both potential future scientists and their peers? While Instagram is primarily image-based, Twitter all too often, crops carefully crafted lab and field pictures to a chest shot. These, and the potential bubble of ‘science twitter’, are major challenges, but Twitter also brings advantages. In contrast to Instagram, there is significant potential for amplifying marginalised voices. Considering our role in promoting racial justice in response to the murder of George Floyd has led the Women Doing Science team to actively seek out and amplify such voices, beyond the diversity of featured scientists which is already central to our movement. These reflections have led us to found the Women Doing Science Opportunity Fund for New Diversity in Engineering and Research (WONDER) fund, a travel grant to support Black and Indigenous Women of Color to attend AGU meetings. This presentation will discuss some of the lessons from translating Women Doing Science to Twitter, focussing on reinvigorating the account over the past 9 months.