Twitter for Science Outreach: A Beginner’s Experience of Communicating Fieldwork from a Remote Antarctic Glacier

English Abstract:

Here we discuss the benefits of using Twitter to communicate the experience of doing geoscience fieldwork. Most of us will never visit Antarctica, but free social media tools, such as the micro-blogging platform Twitter, can increase understanding of the continent and research taking place there. In December 2014, a team of four from Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) spent three weeks based in Antarctica’s remote Thomas Hills on a NSF-funded project to collect samples of rock debris from three of the region’s major ice streams. We set up a Twitter account prior to the expedition with the aim of providing a window into the world of Antarctic science and fieldwork. Daily tweets, often with photos, shared the team’s science activities, some of their initial findings, and a taste of life in Antarctica. An expedition hashtag, #AntarcticaG297, enabled Twitter users to follow along with the expedition narrative and ask questions. Photos and text were sent over a moderately reliable satellite phone data link and posted on Twitter by a communications officer at Lamont. This outreach initiative resulted in three outcomes: increasing awareness of the science goals and fieldwork with a broad audience of students, researchers, and the general public; facilitating dialogue between this audience and the scientists while they were at work in the field; and forging unexpected connections and collaborations with new colleagues in polar research.

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