How to Be a Public Scholar in the Age of Likes?
Some reflections on public scholarship at the start of the 21st Century.
(These are notes for a talk and presentation slides, so read at your own risk!)
So, you want to get your message out there?
There’s so much you already know:
Public Venues:
Some venues may be better than others…
LA Times
NPR
You can try some open platforms (open = self-publishing)
Some are “better” than others…
Humanities Commons
Vs.
Academia.edu
Not to forget YouTube:
And then there is….
Example: Anthea Butler
35, 400 FOLLOWERS!
Commenting on the issues of the day.
But you already know about Twitter
So you get out there and seek followers.
Still, let us REMEMBER
it’s not always about how many followers you have…
What more can you do?
Let me offer a few examples from my own work. It would be useful for you to know that my primary areas of scholarly activity are (loosely):
- Electronic Literature
- New media studies
- Critical Thinking and Rhetoric
- Writing
- Technology Studies
oh, and Digital Humanities, because that’s the phrase that pay$$$$$
What could we learn from a famous public theologian?
MLK called for constructive, nonviolent tension in a letter smuggled out by his lawyer, a letter in which he turns a prison cell into an office with a desk and secretaries to address clergyman who weren’t his followers.
4 Thoughts on How to Get Your Message Out there:
- Make it Sticky
- Speak the language of the Times (= Interwebs)
- Challenge Platforms
- Play!
1. Make it Sticky
The Lesson of Stickiness:
There is a simple way to package information that, under the right circumstances, can make it irresistible. All you have to do is find it. — Malcolm Gladwell
Stickiness is that x-factor, je ne sais quoi, of the kind of information presented in such a way that you can’t wait to share it at your next dinner party.
A few tips on Stickiness
- Speak to contemporary concerns
- Extract the key concept from the treatise
- Phrase it in a way that is easy to remember
- Make it provocative
Examples from my work:
Critical Code Studies:
What if we explored the cultural significance of computer source code?
Pro tip: The right 3 words together can be magical!
(I see you “Arch City Religion”!)
Meet Mr. Double-Edged Sword…
ABSOLUTE GENIUS!!!!
or
QUIXOTIC EXCESS…
Netprov:
What if created improv online?
or……
….What if we taught a class using Selfies?
#SelfieClass
The course was a writing course about identity and diversity, but it had a provocative hashtag and tripped its way onto a lite moral panic. So it received some coverage in…
The LA TIMES
Business Insider
TEEN VOGUE!!
The Downside:
First, not all the coverage was positive. There was plenty of eye-rolling.
I also found I had some ‘xsplaining to do to my colleagues and supervisors
….and not the comfy kind where you get to patronize people…
But the Lucy kind…
So I’ve tried to make my projects a bit harder to digest…
As in… What if we taught a course in Fake News?….
except it was how to WRITE fake news?
So if you’re willing to take a bit of heat…
You can proceed to step 2.
It’s not enough to make it Sticky, you’ve got to…
2. Speak the Language of the Interwebs
Buzzademia:
Scholarly Publishing in the Internet Vernacular!
(by Kim Knight, Anne Cong-Huyen, and myself….)
Special Issue of of Hyperrhiz (Forthcoming 2019)
We were originally inspired by..
…and…
But is it
THAT
……we use contemporary media platforms?
or
HOW
…..we use contemporary media platforms?
What if we broke all the rules?
3. Challenge platforms
Medium a platform for long-form journalism
Or a Platform for Presentations?
or a Platisher that gets around the rules the govern publishing offensive content?
but…
…. let’s not get into that…
What if we used Medium for a different purpose?
Let me introduce you to:
An Unaccredited, Non-Degree Granting Institution
(Classes are free and open to anyone)
where we taught
How to Read and Write Fake News: Journullism in the Age of Trump
on Medium in this publication…
We actually had four “publications” on Medium for which students wrote articles.
along with a Google Group listserv…
Neither of these platforms is particularly designed as a course management system, but… why not?
With assignments in:
Post-Fact Checking and
Photo-Schlopping
A course in Writing Fake News is an opportunity to think critically in a tweetable form, like a sour pill in a sticky sweet shell.
Let’s take a closer look:
INFOGRAPHICS are the BEST
This year we taught another course:
Using Facebook , a listserv, and Medium…
Oh, and sometimes Youtube….
Mostly edited on our phones….
It was a critique on the patriarchy
….or a celebration of family
….or an expression of the patriarchy
….or an embarrassment to my family
BY THE WAY…
I was recently named
Probationary Provost…
I hope to promote additional public courses wherever two or more are gathered.
…so, in that spirit, we can’t forget to…
4. Play!
It’s a wonderful age for EXPERIMENTATION. These mediums have only been around for the blink of eye. What exactly are the rules?
Lately, I’ve been experimenting with a new (to me) form of messaging that combines text and images:
I call them:
Reflect-O-Grams
and I make them with Spark Post.
I now have small portfolio for when I apply for a job making posters
for Guidance Counseling offices or high school religion textbooks…
or Pier 1 Imports…
Or they can crystalize academic ideas…
& then there are…
………………….even STRANGER things
Twitter Bots:
&
NetProv: Online Improvised Writing
A form I’ve been developing with Rob Wittig and others.
A netprov takes a social criticism and tries to make it into a creative game for others to play.
For example,
What if we took an imaginary Technology Fast
………(and Tweeted about every moment)?
What if the Internet’s capitalization of our FREE labor (or PLAYBOR) inspired a union movement?
I Work for the Web
#1wknotech and #IWFW were games played on a hashtag.
What if there was a subculture of people who found value in what others rated with just one star?
One-Star Reviews lived on Reddit.
Netprov:
The voluntary healing of necessary relationships through play
Our Netprovs offer a STICKY idea in the LANGUAGE of the INTERWEBS using PLATFORMS in non-traditional ways for collaborative PLAY:
We’ve used:
- Listservs
- Blogging platforms
- Discussion boards
Got an idea?
Meanwhile… netprov studio can help you make it happen!
Seek out emerging platforms…
such as Undum by Ian Millington…
which I use to write some stories with my kids
This is a series of choose-your-path stories about a magical foster care home.
You know, like asking kids
Like a story where they choose to:
- Change their gender if they could more easily get adopted?
- Keep their same gender?
I write these with my two kids. Here’s one….
4 Thoughts on How to Get Your Message Out there:
- Make it Sticky
- Speak the language of the Interwebs
- Challenge Platforms
- Play!
Bonus takeaways: for those triggered to look up by the word “takeaways”:
- Ignore conventions
- Like it up
- Play with others
But remember:
…and…
You can find me over at
http://markcmarino.com
Or elsewhere on Social Media….
