Tag Archives: social media
Notes for a ‘The Open Notebook’ report
I was quoted in a new reported feature in The Open Notebook, entitled ‘Expanding the Geographical Borders of Your Source List’. Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm
Tagged Allison Whitten, Central Civil Services (Conduct) Rules 1964, foreign media, internet connectivity, Karen Emslie, OpenAI Whisper, science communication, science journalism, social media, The Open Notebook, The Wire
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Where do scientists communicate their work?
A group of Spanish researchers analysed the mentions of scientific papers authored by scientists (affiliated with Spain) on the social media, on Wikipedia, and on news outlets, blogs and policy documents to understand where the consumers of such scientific information … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm, Science
Tagged blogs, clinical medicine, Facebook, mathematics, science communication, scientific communication, social media, Twitter
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Why there’s no guarantee that Musk’s Twitter will resemble Dorsey’s
Many folks are saying they’re not going to leave Twitter in the wake of Elon Musk’s acquisition because Musk and Jack Dorsey aren’t different. Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Op-eds, Tech
Tagged Elon Musk, free speech, Jack Dorsey, Parag Agarwal, social media, Twitter
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Free-speech as an instrument of repression
One of the more eye-opening discussions on Elon Musk’s attempt to take control of Twitter, and the Twitter board’s attempts to defend the company from the bid, have been playing out on Hacker News (here and, after Twitter’s response, here) – the … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, Tech
Tagged democracy, Elon Musk, free speech, Hacker News, Parag Agarwal, poison pill, social media, Twitter
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The BJP’s fake news (fake?) meeting
Reuters published a very interesting report on February 2, entitled ‘Exclusive-In heated meeting, India seeks tougher action from U.S. tech giants on fake news’. Excerpt: Indian officials have held heated discussions with Google, Twitter and Facebook for not proactively removing what they described … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis
Tagged Bharatiya Janata Party, Big Tech, Facebook, fake news, Google, social media, takedown requests, Twitter
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‘Science people’
Two of the most annoying kinds of ‘science people’ I’ve come across on social media of late: Those who perform rationalism – These people seem to know a small subset of things well and the rest on faith, and claim … Continue reading
Posted in Science
Tagged engineers, pseudoscience, rationalism, scientism, social media, survival bias
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The overlay bias
I’m not very fond of some highly popular pieces of writing (I won’t name them because I’m nervous about backlash from authors and/or their supporters) because a part of their popularity is undeniably rooted in technological ‘solutions’ that asymmetrically promote … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Tech
Tagged arXiv, bias, echo chamber, NYT, Pocket, publishing, social media, technocracy, The Atlantic, The Baffler, third world
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In defence of ignorance
Wish I may, wish I mightHave this wish, I wish tonightI want that star, I want it nowI want it all and I don’t care how Metallica, King Nothing I’m a news editor who frequently uses Twitter to find new … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Culture
Tagged conspiracy theories, Dunning-Kruger effect, expertise, fear of missing out, FOMO, hot air, human psychology, ignorance, information overload, Jose Luis Borges, social media, The Souffle, the thing itself, Twitter
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Social media and science communication
The following article was originally intended for an Indian publication but I withdrew from the commission because I couldn’t rework the piece according to changes they required, mostly for lack of focus. I thank Karnika Kohli and Shruti Muralidhar for … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, Scicomm
Tagged echo chamber, Facebook, homophilic segregation, LGBTQIA+, news publishing, role models, science communication, scientific paper, social media, Twitter, women in STEM
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The technically correct strapline
(Re)Stumbled upon this article, by Ed Yong in The Atlantic, July 2016, this morning. As usual, it is rivetingly packaged. The strapline in particular caught my eye: Biology textbooks tell us that lichens are alliances between two organisms—a fungus and … Continue reading
Posted in Life notes
Tagged curiosity gap, Facebook, headline, inverted pyramid, journalism, lichen, social media, The Atlantic, Twitter
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