The Roles, Reasons and Restrictions of Science Blogs
Forum The roles, reasons and restrictions of science blogs John S. Wilkins* Department of Philosophy, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia Over the past few years, blogging (‘web logging’) has timely account of news in science, and relies not merely on become a major social movement, and as such includes press releases, which can be terribly misleading, but on the blogs by scientists about science. Blogs are highly idio- personal knowledge and expertise of the blogger. Papers syncratic, personal and ephemeral means of public that would otherwise be missed can be described and even expression, and yet they contribute to the current prac- critiqued within days. Some journals even send notifica- tice and reputation of science as much as, if not more tions to bloggers to ensure that their papers are seen and than, any popular scientific work or visual presentation. commented on. It is important, therefore, to understand this phenom- Blogging is also a way to demythologize science. Unlike enon. laws and sausages, the public should see science during its manufacture, but the lay public is generally ill-equipped to Introduction interpret what they see, and science bloggers play a crucial A blog is fundamentally a continuously updated web page, role here. Bloggers with a deeper knowledge of the topic, or with entries (‘posts’) that have date, time and, if many of science in general, can place studies in a context of prior authors contribute to the blog, author-name stamps work, thereby correcting or avoiding the myths and pigeon- (Figure 1). Each post may be commented upon by the holes of science journalism.
[Show full text]