Disseminating Sex Research Through Popular Media Outlets
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This document discusses various methods for disseminating sex research to broad audiences, including blogging, contributing to popular media outlets, presenting to local communities, and using Twitter. It provides advice and considerations for using each method based on the experiences of sex researchers. Blogging is highlighted as an effective way to engage audiences, increase visibility, and promote one's work, but it requires substantial time. Presenting to local communities can educate the public but requires tailoring content for different audiences and considering financial and time commitments. Twitter is recommended as a way to quickly share information with a wide network, but may also increase unwanted attention. Overall, researchers should choose dissemination methods aligned with their interests and career.
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Disseminating Sex Research Through Popular Media Outlets
- 1. KEEPING THE SCIENCE IN SEX: DISSEMINATING SEX RESEARCH TO BROAD AUDIENCES Justin Lehmiller, PhD Kristen Mark, PhD, MPH Megan Maas, MPH, CHES Zhana Vranglovia, PhD
- 2. DISSEMINATING SEX RESEARCH THROUGH BLOGGING Justin J. Lehmiller, Ph.D. Purdue University www.lehmiller.com @JustinLehmiller
- 3. SEXANDPSYCHOLOGY.COM Launched in 2011 Communicates the science of sex, love, and relationships in a responsible & engaging way—not a blog about my personal opinions or experiences On average, 3 substantive posts per week
- 4. HIGHLIGHTS AND STATISTICS 20,000+ fans/followers across social media sites Over 1 million page views in the first year and growing Some individual posts have been read more than 100,000 times Popular stories: What do men and women focus on when they watch porn? Women reach for red and pink clothes during ovulation Oddities in the history of sex research: Homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck
- 5. BENEFITS OF BLOGGING Keeps my scientific knowledge base current Increased professional visibility; established as a media consultant and expert I have been contacted through the blog by: The New York Times, CNN.com, Discovery News, Newsweek, ABC News, & more My blog is quoted in national & international media (e.g., Time, The Daily Mail); some posts have been republished elsewhere (Cosmo, Huffington Post, etc.) Led to other writing opportunities (e.g., Playboy, Boston.com) Advertising revenue, ability to promote other projects & recruit research participants Plus, it’s fun and personally rewarding!
- 6. DRAWBACKS OF BLOGGING It requires a LOT of work—takes time away from everything else (e.g., publishing in journals) Takes substantial effort to build a following and generate revenue Increased professional visibility—not everyone is as enthusiastic about sex, minimal credit given for “service” All of your statements become public record and you are held accountable for what you say—expect criticism Also, sloppy work can affect your credibility
- 7. ADVICE: STARTING A BLOG You don’t need to be a programming wizard—it’s easy to create a professional website I use Squarespace, but numerous platform options exist (e.g., Wordpress, Blogger) Consider the expenses: monthly hosting fees, custom domain names, images/art, your time I spent about $500/year, not counting my time Beware of potential liabilities Brush up on copyright law!
- 8. ADVICE: EFFECTIVE WRITING Keep your audience in mind—use clear language and avoid jargon Use (appropriate) humor and don’t be afraid to let your personality come through in your writing (“edu-tainment”) When starting out, have others (academic & non-academic) read & critique your work before you publish it Title and first paragraph are key—but avoid temptation to sensationalize Practice!
- 9. FINAL THOUGHTS Should you be a sex blogger? Scientists have an obligation to disseminate their findings, but journals shouldn’t be the final stop Blogging isn’t right for everyone, though! Find the right form of research dissemination for your interests and career Several options available…
- 10. THANK YOU! justin.lehmiller@gmail.com @JustinLehmiller www.lehmiller.com
- 11. DISSEMINATION OF SEX RESEARCH THROUGH POPULAR MEDIA OUTLETS Kristen Mark, Ph.D., M.P.H. Assistant Profess of Health Promotion Director, Sexual Health Promotion Lab University of Kentucky www.kristenmark.com @Kristen_Mark
- 12. WHY POPULAR MEDIA OUTLETS? sex sells
- 13. WHY IT MATTERS TO US Although distributing research findings to academic outlets is incredibly important, I recognize the impact of distributing information to the masses so they have the opportunity to digest what we learn as scientists. If we keep our findings and knowledge confined to academic journals, our research results in much less impact. I am committed to disseminating the most up-to-date information about sex to as wide an audience as possible.
- 14. TWO PRIMARY AVENUES 1) The Resident Blogger 2) The Contributing Expert
- 17. HOW TO GET INVOLVED Becoming a Resident Blogger provides a platform to make a name for yourself. Publish in academic journals and send your published research to blogging researchers, tweet your findings, or write about it yourself.
- 18. LESSONS LEARNED Never take a cold call to do an interview without proper notice. Interviews can take up a lot of time. Make sure you protect yourself if you are working with the media as a contributing expert. Be prepared and clear with your answers. Avoid getting “chatty” with the journalist unless you have previously built trust and rapport.
- 19. THE IMPACT ON TENURE-TRACK Count it toward service activities as sex education outreach. All of your statements become public record. You become very able…make sure you’re producing work you’re proud of. Assess Departmental, College, and University support.
- 20. THANK YOU! kristen.mark@uky.edu @Kristen_Mark www.KristenMark.com
- 21. DISSEMINATION OF SEX RESEARCH TO LOCAL COMMUNITIES Megan Maas, M.S., C.H.E.S. Doctoral Candidate at Penn State www.MeganMaas.com
- 22. GRASSROOTS APPROACH TO SEX ED Sexuality education in the U.S. is rarely comprehensive Taking a “grassroots” approach to sex-ed can fill some gaps It is difficult to obtain community buy-in for engagement in sexuality education Capitalizing on “emergencies and fear” as “teachable moments” can get positive perspectives heard and EBPIs introduced (Rotheram-Borus Mary Jane, et al. 2012).
- 23. KNOW YOUR TOPIC What is it that you research that excites you? What is a ‘hot topic’ for our culture? Your local community? How do you make taboo topics engaging for parents, teachers, etc.? What I do: Technology Use & Sexual Development
- 24. LECTURE OR WORKSHOP? Lectures You do the majority of the talking Mostly information sharing Can have learning objectives Workshops You only do some of the talking There are activities, quizzes, games, etc. Usually involves skill-building How do you know? Old or new topic Embarrassing or REALLY embarrassing? Who is your audience? Professionals? Parents? Kids? What I do: Lecture and workshop version of a few different topics.
- 25. TAILOR FOR MULTIPLE AUDIENCES Primary and Secondary Teachers Primary and Secondary Students College Students (Young, Mid-life, Older) Adult Singles (Young, Mid-life, Older) Adult Couples Parents Counselors Therapists Medical Providers What I do: My audiences are college students, parents, teachers, counselors, therapists, and medical providers.
- 26. $MONEY, MONEY, MONEY$ Difficult to determine and ethical issue Start off free Build audience Drive demand Guest lectures at community events, on campuses, YMCA, etc. Professionals Audience Teaching associations Continuing education credits Therapists will attend workshops that are tax-deductible What I do: Three years of no money. Different rate for different audiences.
- 27. TAXES Independent Contractor Report income Deduct expenses Mileage Federal rate is .56/mile 1099 Form for income What I do: Registered as an independent contractor in 2011. Doing presentations monthly.
- 28. CONSIDERATIONS Do you have the time? What would your department think? Are you a grad student, post-doc, or new faculty? Do you have a life? Want to keep it? What I do: Stress out!
- 29. THANK YOU! mkm266@psu.edu @MeganKMaas www.MeganMaas.com
- 30. DISSEMINATION OF SEX RESEARCH USING TWITTER Zhana Vrangalova, Ph.D. Adjunct Professor New York University sv52@nyu.edu Twitter: @DrZhana
- 31. WHAT IS TWITTER? Micro-blogging platform Free Public Links to blogs, web pages, images, videos etc Limited to 140 characters Twitter facts 284 million monthly active users 500 million Tweets are sent per day 80% of Twitter active users are on mobile 77% of accounts are outside the U.S
- 34. YOU CAN HAVE A LAB / INSTITUTIONAL ACCOUNT AS WELL
- 35. WHAT COULD YOU POSSIBLY DO (PROFESSIONALLY) WITH 140 CHARACTERS?! 1. Disseminate Information 2. Self-Promote 3. Absorb Information 4. Network 5. Teach
- 36. 1. DISSEMINATE INFORMATION Add Value by sharing info/ links / comments on: Research studies Popular media pieces abt research Relevant news abt laws, policies, public issues Talks at your school Books you’re reading Live-tweet conferences
- 37. 2. SELF-PROMOTE Share / Announce your own: Published studies (Academia) Slides from talks/conferences (Slideshare) Blog posts, media articles, books TV, radio, podcast appearances Talks (conference, guest, TED) Random thoughts about academia (& your life)
- 38. 3. ABSORB INFORMATION Quick & easy way to: Get general news Get industry-specific news
- 39. 4. NETWORK Connect with other academics in your field: Ask for advice/clarification/papers Collaborate on research projects Put together conference symposia Connect w/ non-academics: book agents, magazines, podcasts, radio shows, TV shows
- 40. FOLLOW THE RIGHT PEOPLE Start w/ a few key people in your area and check out their followers @Sex_Science Check out lists: SPSP Members List DrZhana’s Sex Researchers/Educators List Organize people you follow (or not follow) in LISTS by field, by geography, by interest…
- 41. 5. TEACH During class Facilitate class discussion Take notes – study guide Before/After class Share relevant links / resources/ reminders / changes Hold virtual “office hours” – Q & A
- 42. YOU BECOME TARGET / RESOURCE People will: ask questions & advice request pdfs of studies themselves argue with you about validity, value of studies attack you for all sorts of things hit on you try to sell you stuff/ spam you
- 43. LIVE-TWEETING CONFERENCES 1. Use the conference hashtag: #ssss2014 2. Use a session hashtag 3. Use a Twitter client (Hootsuite or Tweetdeck) 4. Expect to be tweeted OR Explicitly ask not to 5. Provide your Twitter handle 6. Give credit – ask for people’s handles 7. Start tweets right 8. Use text expansion 9. Take a break 10.Meet other live Tweeters face to face E.g., “.@DrZhana: Tip #8: Use text expansion for quicker live tweeting of conferences. #ssss14 #s52”
- 44. GENERAL RESOURCES How to Use Twitter: The Basics (YouTube video) Miah, Andy, 2010. Best Top 10 tips for using Twitter. Reed, Mark & Evely, Anna, 2011. Top Twitter Tips for Academics. Living With Environmental Change. ietzmann, J.H., Hermkens, K., McCarthy, I.P., & Silvestre, B.S. (2011) Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media. Business Horizons, 54, 241-251. Mollett, A., Moran, D., & Dunleavy, P. (2011). Using Twitter in university research, teaching and impact activities. LSE Public Policy Group. Linzy, K. (). Twitter for academics: An Introduction. 2nd Edition. Office of Technology Services, University of Evansville.
- 45. TWITTER GLOSSARY @ Sign-- The most important code on Twitter and refers to individuals. In a tweet it is combined with the twitter username (@person1) and is used to refer to that person or send them a public message. Blocking -- Prevents someone from following you or subscribing to your tweets. Direct Message, DM -- A private message sent on Twitter to someone who is following you. To DM click the "message" menu and then "new message" to send a direct message. Favorite -- Allows you to mark a tweet as a favorite so you can see it later. Click the "Favorite" link (next to a star icon) beneath any tweet to favorite it. #FF or Follow Friday -- "Follow Friday," a Twitter tradition where users recommend people to follow on Fridays. Follow, Follower -- Following someone means subscribing to their tweets. A follower is someone who follows or subscribes to another person's tweets. Hashtag -- A topic, keyword or phrase preceded by the # symbol. Hashtags categorize messages on Twitter. Lists -- Collections of Twitter accounts which anyone can create. People can follow a Twitter list with one click and see a stream of all the tweets sent by everyone in that list. Mention -- A tweet that include a reference to any Twitter user by placing the @symbol in front of their handle or username. (Example: @person1.) these tweets are tracked by twitter. Reply, @Reply -- A direct tweet sent by clicking on the "reply" button that appears on another tweet and links the tweets, they always start with "@person1." Retweet -- A retweet (noun) = a tweet that had been forwarded on Twitter by someone, but was originally written & sent by someone else. To retweet (verb) = to send someone else's tweet to your followers. RT -- Abbreviation for "retweet" inserted into a message being resent to tell others that it's a retweet. Trending Topic -- Topics people are tweeting about most often at any given moment. Tweep – A follower on Twitter; also used to refer to groups of people who follow one another. Tweet -- (noun) = message posted on Twitter with 140 or fewer characters, also called a post or an update. Tweet (verb) = to send a tweet via Twitter. Twitterati -- Twitterati are the popular users on Twitter, those wi/ large groups of followers. Twitosphere -- The Twitosphere (sometimes spelled "Twittosphere") are all the people who tweet. Un-follow or Unfollow -- To un-follow means to stop subscribing or following another person's tweets. URL: w/ very limited space in a tweet most users shorten URLs using a program to enable more space to explain
- 46. THANK YOU! sv52@nyu.edu @DrZhana www.zhanavrangalova.com
Editor's Notes
- This takes more time. Takes dedication.
- All of these media outlets rely on experts like us to provide credibility to their stories. And remember, sex sells, so they have plenty of stories about sex.
- Sexuality education in the U.S. is rarely comprehensive or inclusive of lifespan sexuality, leaving many topics about sexual health, sexual psychology, and sexual behavior out of standardized curriculum. Taking a “grassroots” approach to the dissemination of sexuality research through workshops and lectures that nearly anyone within a community can attend, may begin to fill some of the aforementioned gaps. It is difficult to obtain community buy-in for engagement in sexuality education, particularly if communities are conservative, religious, or rural. Capitalizing on “emergencies and fear” is a way to increase uptake and community buy-in in order to have positive perspectives on sexuality development among youth heard.
- You won’t always need to capiltize on fear on teachable moments to gain community buy-in, within many urban communities there is a diverse culture with a diverse set of sexual needs to address and validate. Technology: Social Media, Apps, Dating Sites, Sexting, etc. Sex after 50 Sexual Assault Prevention Pornography Positive Perspectives on Adolescent Sexuality Casual Sex LGBTQ sexual health Stigmitization of Sex Work Polyamory and non-monogamy IUDs and HPV vaccines for female adolescents Sex positive approaches from physicians Slut-shaming, self-sexualization, and dress codes Female Sexual Desire Disorder and female sexuality
- Should prevention efforts be for-profit? Even if you charge, once you consider an hourly rate, very difficult to be making a whole lot of profit. It’s reasonable to charge $50-100 for a workshop that lasts 1-2 hours. Depending on your degree and the level of training you are doing (e.g. counselors, therapists, medical providers, etc.) it’s reasonable to charge up to $500 for a group of 10-15 professionals.
- Can charge for all expenses (mileage, per diem, flights, accommodations) AND deduct those expenses. Very unlikely that you will or should get rich from serving as sex educator! However, you can supplement your income as an adjunct professor, post-doc, or otherwise, which can make the pursuit of sex research a little more doable financially.
- Already working 40-60 hour weeks? Has to become your hobby or down time. Work in a prevention center? Will they see this as a distraction? Use words like “evidence-informed” and “research-based” if your content is such. Need to prove yourself as a dedicated and productive scientists. I developed my programing prior to pursuing an academic career.
- 700 million Dark Pool – registered but abandoned it
- Personal or Lab (or Both!) Pick the shortest possible version of your name Spend some time crafting your bio – 160 characters include keywords for your specialty subjects, whilst injecting a little of your personality Upload a clear picture
- Tweet useful stuff & varied content
- During class Facilitate class discussion Sum up most valuable lesson of the day Create a back channel Take notes – study guide Before/After class Share relevant links / resources/ reminders / changes Help students start a professional network Hold virtual “office hours” – Q & A Get feedback on course Extend class discussion Make funny comments
- http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/ten-tips-for-tweeting-at-conferences/54281