science and new media
TRANSCRIPT
Communicating Sciencewith New Media
By Chris Condayan
Manager, Communications
American Society for Microbiology
The Future of Media in 2008
Source: Universal McCann Power to the People Social Media Tracker Wave.3, 5/08
Growth in New Media9/2006 to 3/2008
Source: Universal McCann Power to the People Social Media Tracker Wave.3, 5/08
Top Social Media Sites2005 - 2008
Source: iStrategyLabs, 1/2008
Top Newspaper Sites2005 - 2008
Source: iStrategyLabs, 1/2008
Microbiology on Social Networks
• 28,500 results for “microbiology”• 11 Groups• 1,800 list microbiology as a
personal interest
• 500+ self-identify as microbiologists
• 210 Microbiology groups• #1 group “Microbiology is Sexy”
with 1,506 members
• 1,148 Microbiology-related Groups• Largest focused group has 1,366
members
New Media Statistics(Podcasting)
An estimated 23 million, or 9% of Americans have listened to a podcast in the past month. (Arbitron-Edison Media Research, 4/2008)
Wizzard Media recorded an unprecedented one billion podcast download requests in 2007,a 300% increase over the daily average in 2006. (Wizzard, 1/2008)
Podcast audiences will increase by 251% to 65 million in 2012. And of those listeners, 25 million will be “active” users who tune in at least once a week. (eMarketer, 2/2008)
Professional and “user-generated video” views are expected to grow by 43.4% in 2008, following a 57.6% increase in 2007. (Accustream, 3/2008)
U.S. Internet users viewed 11.5 billion online videos in March 2008, a 13-percent gain versus February and a 64-percent gain versus March 2007. (ComScore, 5/2008)
The increase in online video watching is universal across all countries. From 9/06 to 3/08, views jumped from 31% to 82% (Universal McCann/ 5/08)
New Media Trends | Video
What are they Viewing Online?
Pew Internet & American Life Project Tracking Survey, February 15 – March 7, 2007
• 19 percent spend six hours or more per day on personal Internet usage, versus 9 percent who spend the same amount of time watching TV.
• 66 percent reported viewing between one to four hours of TV per day, versus 60 percent who reported the same levels of personal Internet usage.
Television Viewing vs. Internet Use
Source: IBM, “The End of Advertising as We Know It,” 9/2007
Science on the Internet
• One third (33%) of home broadband users say they get most of their science news and information from TV, while 34% say the internet. (Pew, 11/06)
• 44% of those between the ages of 18 and 29 say they get most of their science news from the internet and 32% in this group say that television is their main source for science news. (Pew, 11/06)
• 87% of Americans online use the Internet for science-related research. That translates to 128 million adults. (Pew, 11/06)
• 65% of Internet users say they have come across science news and information when they went online with another purpose in mind. (Pew, 11/06)
Putting it into Perspective• At the time of the Pew Science survey in 2006, 36% of
Americans had access to broadband internet at home. Today, 54% of Americans have broadband at home.(Pew, 4/08)
• Circulation of newspapers are dropping, which means ad revenues are dropping. In turn, some news rooms have cut staff as much as 25%. (Pew, 4/08)
• In the 1980’s 95 newspapers had weekly science news sections, today that no. is 35 - most of which are devoted to health & fitness, not hard science. (Pew, 4/08)
• Television’s 2008 May sweeps report networks are off by 10% from last years total viewers, and 17% for 18-49 year-olds. (TV Week, 5/08)
Some Conclusions
• The use of mainstream media outlets to evangelize science is becoming less effective.
• New media and online social networking provide an enormous opportunity for promoting and discussing science.
Science 2.0 Online
• Started Jan. 2006
• Launched with 30 bloggers
• Covers a spectrum of disciplines
• Today there are more than 70 bloggers
• From 4/06 to 4/08 Scienceblogs.com grew 420%!!
• 1.3 million unique visitors per month
An Example of Science in New Media - Blogging
Source: Sarah Glasser, Seed Media Group, 5/08
Examples of Microbiology in New Media
MicrobeWorld Radio Downloads/Subscribers StatisticsAugust 2005 to May 2008
MicrobeWorld Radio's podcasts have been listened to 3.65 million times as of May 2008.
MicrobeWorld Radio's podcast averages 1237 subscribers for the last three months (Feb. 08 to May. 08)
ASM’s Video FeedIncludes Intimate Strangers/MicrobeWorld Video
January 2006 to May 2008
Views
1.8 Million views/hits in total per Feedburner.com
MicrobeWorld VideoInternet Distribution Example
Over 620,000 Views and Growing
Small Things Considered- The Microbe Blog -
• Started November 30, 2006.
• Entries/Posts Twice a Week.
• 181 Posts to date.
• 366 Reader comments.
• More than 90,000 site views.
• Average 166 visitors per day.
• Links to the blog can be found in 58 other blogs and class work pages.
• One post in the blog (“The Age of Imaging”) is the topic of a recent opinion piece by Martin Kemp in Nature.
Other Microbiology New MediaExamples
• MicrobeWiki - Wiki• MicrobiologyBytes – Audio and Video Podcasts• Twisted Bacteria - Blog • Viroblogy - Blog• Curiosidades de la Microbiología - Blog• Esos Pequeños Bichitos - Blog• Le blog des bactéries et de l'évolution – Blog• Microbiology Lectures – Podcast• Science Social Media Breakfasts
In Closing• More and more people are using the Internet for science
news & research.
• Media distribution on the internet is a level playing field.
• People online are willing to connect and reach out to scientists directly.
• The scientific community must make itself available to the public, not only to consume science but to participate in discussions about science.
• To not participate and share information in this internet age is to risk becoming irrelevant.
