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Public Sociology on Twitter: a Space for Public Pedagogy? Am Soc (2017) 48:233–245 DOI 10.1007/s12108-016-9304-2 Public Sociology on Twitter: a Space for Public Pedagogy? Christopher J. Schneider1 & Deana Simonetto2 Published online: 27 February 2016 # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016 Abstract Research has examined various elements of Twitter; however, no scholarship has explored how sociologists currently use the platform. This empirically driven paper explores how individuals that self-identify as sociologists on Twitter use the popular micro-blogging social media site. A total of 152,977 tweets from Twitter profiles of 130 sociologists were collected and examined using qualitative media analysis. The poten- tial use of Twitter allows the sociologist to become both the generator and interlocutor of dialogue with publics. We frame our data analysis and discussion around the core theme of expertise - namely, the role that expertise plays in the use of Twitter by sociologists. Our findings indicate that when sociologists used Twitter as sociologists (i.e., drawing upon their stated research expertise) little direct engagement with publics occurred. Thus, while sociologists appear to be using Twitter as a space for public sociology, the use of this interactive platform is mostly limited to the generation of content, a finding consistent with Burawoy’s traditional form of public sociology. Suggestions for future research are noted. Keywords Public sociology. Twitter . Social media Introduction The practice of pedagogy is often viewed in a rather narrow way that is limited to the role that intellectuals play within academia (Giroux 2004). Facilitating dialogue that * Christopher J. Schneider [email protected] Deana Simonetto [email protected] 1 Department of Sociology, Brandon University, Brandon, MB, Canada 2 Department of Sociology, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada 234 Am Soc (2017) 48:233–245 transcends formal institutions of teaching and learning is a basic feature of public pedagogy (Giroux 2000). The proliferation of social media platforms like Facebook in just the last decade has contributed to exciting possibilities for online digital media sites to operate as spaces for public pedagogy (Freishtat 2010). According to Reid (2010, 195): the emergence of social media alters the cultural conceptions of public and private spaces in a manner that destabilizes the conventions that have allowed us to consider a Bpublic pedagogy^ separated from formal schooling and other sites of learning. Public pedagogy is usually understood to constitute teaching and learning that occurs in spaces outside of institutionalized educational settings (Giroux 2000). This practice, we suggest, is complementary with public sociology. Public sociology cannot exist without a professional expertise as professional sociologists (Burawoy 2004). Teaching is a core obligation of our university-related commitments as professional sociologists (Schneider 2014; Schneider et al. 2014). Public sociology, as Burawoy (2005) and others have suggested, consists of types of engagement with multiple publics, including our students, and therefore can be said to constitute a disciplinary specific form of public pedagogy. Research has mostly ignored public sociology and teaching practices (DeCesare 2007) and no scholarship has examined how Twitter may bring sociology into conver- sation with Bnew publics^ and Bprofessional audiences^ (Persell 2007, 207). Less scholarship has explored public sociology and teaching (see Brady 2004;Pfohl2004; Vaughan 2004;Bonacich2005;DeCesare2007; Persell 2007) and no scholarship has examined the interactive practices of the Bsociologist-as-citizen^ (Chase-Dunn 2007) on social media platform Twitter (Schneider 2015a). A plethora of scholarly work has examined, debated, and theorized public pedagogy 1and public sociology.2 Ourtaskinthispaperisnottoprovidearobustreviewofthese materials. Rather, to reiterate, we wish to highlight that the large body of literature on these subjects fails to consider the use of social media platform Twitter for the express purpose of engaging in public pedagogy. Furthermore, the body of literature on public pedagogy and public sociology does not employ a qualitative analysis of Twitter data. While some research has explored the use of social media as a pedagogical practice (see Lupton 2015; Schneider 2014), less work has developed the use of social media materials as primary data sources for qualitative analysis. Likely this is because the proliferation of these data materials is a developing trend in qualitative research (see Boellstorff 2013; Savage and Burrows 2007; Burrows and Savage 2014; McKie and Ryan 2012;Tinatietal.2014). Further, Gans (2015, 8) suggests that we should Blearn more about the role presenters play in the creation of public sociology^ to better understand Bthe process by which sociological works are transformed into public sociology^ (1). While presenters Bare generally not sociologists^ social media platforms provide unique spaces 1 As one exceptional example see Sandlin et al. (2010) Handbook of Public Pedagogy: Education and Learning Beyond Schooling. 2 A more recent example includes Hanemaayer and Schneider (2014) The Public Sociology Debate: Ethics and Engagement. Am Soc (2017) 48:233–245 235 for sociologists to act directly as presenters to publics (Gans 2015, 2). According to Gans (2015,6)Bany sociological product that is summarized or even mentioned in social media thereby has a chance of becoming public sociology,^ including sociological products presented by sociologists themselves. To explore this process we focus on how sociologists use the social media site Twitter. A basic question then becomes: are sociologists using Twitter as a platform for public sociology? The core mandate of public sociology is to develop educational endeavors as Ba series of dialogues on the terrain of sociology that [sociologists] foster^ with publics such as students, but also with multiple publics beyond the university setting (Burawoy 2005, 9). The potential for public pedagogy on social media platforms to incite thought and information exchange has been explored (see Portman-Daley 2013); however, given the potential for public sociology on social media, with very few exceptions (e.g., Lupton 2014, 2015;Schneider2014; Hanemaayer and Schneider 2014, forthcoming), little has been said. This paper expands upon and further empirically develops previous work on e- public sociology (Schneider 2014), a practice that emerges through the use of social media whereby sociologists can simultaneously become the generator and interlocutor of dialogue with diverse publics (see also Schneider et al. 2014; Hanemaayer and Schneider forthcoming). Research has yet to explore how sociologists use Twitter, even while sociologists continue to regularly and publicly use the site (Schneider 2015a). We offer an empirical study in response to the call to understand the contemporary production of public sociology (Gans 2015), and, in doing so, we also provide a suitable qualitative method for working with big data materials as one example to address new challenges faced by researchers in this area (see Tinati et al. 2014). Big Data and Twitter The use of Bbig data^ gained wider legitimacy in 2008 (Boellstorff 2013). According to Lupton (2015,3) big data also include ‘user-generated content,’ or information that has been intentionally uploaded to social media platforms by users as a part of their participation in these sites: their tweets, status updates, blog posts and comments, photographs and videos and so on. The first tweet was published on Twitter in March of 2006. Twitter is a social media platform that allows users to share short text messages of 140 characters in length. Images and short videos can also be shared. Each message is referred to as a Btweet,^ and tweets are posted to Twitter. Often this is referred to as user- generated content. While not the most popular social media site, some evidence suggests that Twitter is a preferred site for social science faculty in higher education (Schneider 2014). Twitter has 300 million active users that post 500 million tweets each day. As one might expect, the site has been the subject of much scholarly attention. There have already been more than 100 academic publications on Twitter (Tinati et al. 2014). Most of these publications, however, fall outside of the discipline of sociology (Murthy 2012;Schneider2015a). 236 Am Soc (2017) 48:233–245 Users on Twitter can follow, or be followed, by others. Following an account allows users to both receive and share content tweeted by others. Users can also interact with one another. Interaction on Twitter involves the use of the @ sign followed by the user Twitter handle. Use of the # (i.e., hashtag) sign is one way to facilitate dialogue and interaction among users on Twitter. The # categorizes topics so that they can be easily followed by others. The organization of these materials using @ and # categorizes user- generated content (i.e., big data) in ways that allow multiple publics to participate in conversations with others on Twitter, including with sociologists. Within the literature on public sociology, Twitter is only mentioned in passing as offering the Bpotential for organic sociological germination,^ but little is said of this potential (Adorjan 2013,15). Public Sociology and Twitter Burawoy (2005, 7) has referred to our students as Bour first and captive public.^ The use of Twitter has been shown to be a useful pedagogical tool when engaging
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