lessons from creating an online outreach empire

Deep Sea News

Deep SeaNews

DSN

Lessons From Creating anOnline Outreach Empire

Craig R. McClain, Chief Editor DSN, @DrCraigMc

#deepsndeepseanews.com @deepseanews

Deep Sea News

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This blog is salt of the earth, or in this case, salt of the sea. It casts back to the best traditions of popular science, sparking curiosity and bewonderment, explaining the phenomena in comprehensible language. It’s all about communication between the expert and an interested reader, a transfer of knowledge and ideas, sharing the passion. -Blog Critics Magazine

Deep Sea News

1. Be Strategic. Be Deliberate.

Mission Statement:

Demystifying and humanizing science in an open conversation that instills passion, awe, and responsibility for the oceans.

1.Direct from the bench and the trench. 2.Saying things others do not. 3.Reverently irreverent. 4.Promoting ocean literacy. 5.Perspective through a plurality of voices. 6.Awareness through scrutiny, not negativity. 7.Expanding the culture of ocean science. 8.Call to Action

2. Branding...Branding...Branding...

Ángel Guerraa, Ángel F. Gonzáleza, Santiago Pascuala, and Earl G. Daweb (2011). The giant squid Architeuthis: An emblematic invertebrate that can represent concern for the conservation of marine biodiversity Biological Conservation, 144 (7), 1989-1998 :10.1016/j.biocon.2011.04.021

3. Find Your Niche & Story

Reverently irreverent. We will be true to who we are in real life, leveraging humor to keep the science dialogue informal and accessible.

“This "oh-so-hip" presentation of a very interesting phenomenon is regrettable. I stopped reading halway [sic] through it as I couldn't take any more. Just present the science. Tarting it up for people to read is pointless. Such readers have no value. Too bad, I would have liked to learn the real scinece [sic] presented here.”

4. Get Yourself A Super Team

4. Get Yourself A Super Team

5. Embrace the World Around You

6. Network + Good Story = Viral

7. Stop Taking Refuge In Our Irrelevance 

7. Stop Taking Refuge In Our Irrelevance 

588,737Current Population of Miami: 413,892

Deep Sea News

Producing something popular on the internet is as much about passion as it is about good content. With passion and the right writing style, you can make any type of science cool.

8. The deficit model is dead

Stop shouting the same information more and more loudly

9. Create prestige for public scholarship 

The  Tradi)onal  FormulaFirst  and  foremost  publish,  both  the  number  and  the  impact  ma5er.    Write  and  ul8mately  receive  grants  to  both  maintain  our  research  (to  produce  more  papers)Keep  grant  funds  flowing  though  our  departments  and  universi8es.    Required  to  teach  and  mentor  students,  and  poten8ally  do  it  well.Service  to  the  school  in  the  form  of  commi5ees.      Mentoring  to  ul8mately  increase  our  own  research  output.  

The  new  outreach  demand  on  our  8me,  largely  from  outside  of  academia,  oFen  conflicts  with  the  formula.  

Deep Sea News

10. Stop Treating Outreach & Research as Separate Entities.

We Need a New Formula

What if we started to create differently? New graduate training, courses, lab cultures, and departments

ResearchOutreach ResearchOutreach