{"id":129459,"date":"2017-10-03T08:15:14","date_gmt":"2017-10-03T12:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=129459"},"modified":"2023-06-27T12:18:40","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T16:18:40","slug":"using-social-media-take-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2017\/10\/using-social-media-take-climate-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Using Social Media to Take on Climate Change"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On a typical Friday night, most graduate students would be thinking about their weekend plans to see friends and blow off steam. Instead two UConn Ph.D. candidates are devoting their downtime to tackling climate change one video at a time.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n  <p>As scientists, if we want to reach people we need to speak their language. <cite> &#8212 Amir Erfanian<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Lori Fomenko and Amir Erfanian, both from UConn\u2019s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, started the <a href=\"http:\/\/climamedia.com\/\">ClimaMedia<\/a> project a little less than a year ago. Since then, they have produced half a dozen videos simplifying highly technical climate change research so that the general public can understand and, hopefully, act.<\/p>\n<p>As scientists and millennials, Fomenko and Erfanian saw a huge gap between how the scientific community shares news about their discoveries and the way people consume content in the digital age. While the majority of Americans report being interested in new scientific discoveries, only about 2 percent of annual news coverage between 2007 and 2012 focused on science and technology, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nsf.gov\/statistics\/seind14\/index.cfm\/chapter-7\/c7h.htm\">a report by the National Science Foundation (NSF)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery year, billions of taxpayer dollars fund research, but the outcome of all that hard work and money is a 10-page paper written for the author\u2019s peers,\u201d says Erfanian. \u201cThis information is important for the public, but it\u2019s not written for them. As scientists, if we want to reach people we need to speak their language.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"grey-sidebar full-sidebar\">\n  <\/p>\n<p>Other UConn students and alums are turning to podcasts to communicate about science and research:<strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><strong>Podcast of UConn Research<\/strong><br \/>\nTwo physiology and neurobiology students recently launched a podcast to make the ins and outs of conducting research at UConn more accessible.<br \/>\n\u201cResearchers are often really isolated in their labs,\u201d says one of the show\u2019s hosts, Ph.D. candidate Alisa White.\u00a0\u201cWe wanted to open the lab doors and get accurate, current information about who\u2019s doing what and how students can get involved with the UConn research community.\u201d<br \/>\nWhite and her co-host, physiology and neurobiology major\u00a0Kyle Drake &#8217;18 (CLAS), plan to interview faculty from all disciplines to highlight the varied types of research and scholarship going on at UConn. They also hope to one day pass the baton to other students, so the program can continue after they graduate.<br \/>\nTo date, the Podcast of UConn Research has featured Provost Jeremy Teitelbaum and Vice President Radenka Maric. <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/pcr-podcast-of-uconn-research\/id1269652642?mt=2\">Click here to subscribe.<\/a><br \/>\n<strong>Podstories\/Inside UConn TIP Podcast<br \/>\n<\/strong>Recent UConn graduate Ali Oshinskie &#8217;17 (CLAS) is an unlikely entrepreneur. As an English major with a background in theater, Oshinskie knew how to tell a compelling story. But right after graduation, she turned that skill into a business when she launched her startup, Podstories.<br \/>\nOshinskie is a self-taught podcaster, and several of her projects have focused on her alma mater, UConn. She produced her first series, Professors are People Too, to learn more about the faculty shaping the learning experience for thousands of UConn students.<br \/>\nHer latest project takes listeners inside UConn\u2019s Technology Incubation Program (TIP). She speaks with three tech startups who are commercializing breakthroughs in science and medicine, from the microbiome, to a therapy to correct hearing loss, to retinal implants for blindness. Subscribe today to learn more about what\u2019s going on <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/inside-uconn-tip-making-the-tech-of-tomorrow-today\/id1275749437?mt=2\">Inside UConn TIP<\/a>.<br \/>\n<\/aside>\n<p>The inspiration for the ClimaMedia project came after Fomenko traveled to Australia and was shocked by the change she saw in the Great Barrier Reef. At the same time, Erfanian read a recent research paper about climate change and coral bleaching. The problem was that the research paper was too technical for most people to understand. The two had an idea to help make that information accessible to the general public.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI saw how my friends and family, many of them non-scientists, reacted to the news of the Great Barrier Reef destruction. They were devastated. This real world example of how climate change impacts the things we take for granted turned theory into reality. They finally got it, &#8221; says Fomenko. &#8220;We decided to produce videos that help more people \u2018get it\u2019 by translating technical science into everyday language, images, and topics that show the impact climate change is already having on our daily lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Each week, Fomenko and Erfanian pick two or three recent research papers that discuss topics relating to climate change with an immediate, tangible impact on people. With help from the scientists who authored the selected papers, they set to work creating a simple story line. Then they pick appropriate open source video clips to accompany simple text to explain the complex research findings. Each video is about one-minute long and can be played without sound.<\/p>\n<p>To share their work, the team relies on popular social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, in the hope that important climate research will go viral.<\/p>\n<p>So far, Fomenko and Erfanian have covered several topics that they feel could strike a cord with viewers, like warming temperatures in Alaska, hurricane forecasting, and poverty due to climate change. <em>The Guardian, <\/em>a\u00a0British daily newspaper with\u00a0a U.S. edition,\u00a0recently featured a ClimaMedia video on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/climate-consensus-97-per-cent\/2017\/aug\/03\/study-finds-human-influence-in-the-amazons-third-1-in-100-year-drought-since-2005\">extreme droughts in South America<\/a> based on research that Erfanian,\u00a0 Fomenko, and their advisor, Professor Guiling Wang conducted through a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).<\/p>\n<p>Wang explains how the use of video breaks language barriers, not only to translate technical to non-technical terminology, but also in a literal sense.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter the publication of <em>The Guardian <\/em>article, I received interview requests from Germany, Brazil, and Australia. Although some of the resulting news pieces were written in languages foreign to me, they still included the ClimaMedia video. It shows that people don\u2019t need to speak the language in order to understand the concept. The graphics convey the message to a wider audience and broaden the reach of study findings.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The ClimaMedia team feels they have proven their concept, since analytics indicate that videos are most popular among the groups who are directly affected by the topic at hand. For instance, their video about the effects of sea level rise on urban populations was most viewed by 13 to 17 year olds in Indonesia. According to many studies, Indonesia is particularly vulnerable to damage from sea level rise due to climate change. Experts predict that some 2,000 Indonesian islands could be washed away as early as 2030.<\/p>\n<p>Currently Fomenko and Erfanian are trying to increase resources for the project so that they can offer student internships, pay for subscriptions for access to better video content, and expand current marketing campaigns. They also hope to expand the scope of research featured in ClimaMedia videos to cover other fields, such as\u00a0health and biotechnology.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat Lori and Amir have been able to accomplish with ClimaMedia is not only impressive, it\u2019s inspirational,\u201d says Radenka Maric, UConn\u2019s vice president for research. \u201cWe can learn a lot from our student researchers. They are the future of scientific research, they make a difference each day, and we need their help to more effectively communicate and have an impact.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>ClimaMedia is just the beginning for Fomenko and Erfanian. Their real goal is much bigger.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want to change the world,\u201d Fomenko explains. \u201cAcknowledging that there is a gap between research and the public is just the first step. To get people to act, to get them to change, that\u2019s just as important as making a huge scientific breakthrough.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Watch Fomenko discuss the challenges of communicating science in a UConn TedX talk, <a href=\"http:\/\/climamedia.com\/index.php\/about\/\">The Changing Face of Media: How Science is Left Behind<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><em>Erfanian, Wang, and Fomenko\u2019s study on extreme drought featured in <\/em>The Guardian <em>was originally published in <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41598-017-05373-2\">Scientific Reports<\/a>. <em>The project was funded by the National Science Foundation (AGS-1063986) and the UConn Institute of Biological Risk.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two UConn graduate students are on a mission to change the world one video at a time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":129484,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1805,1866,2459,2076,2387,1875,2225,2234],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[117],"class_list":["post-129459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-change","category-engr","category-graduate-students","category-research","category-sustainability","category-grad-school","category-uconn-storrs","category-university-life"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-10 16:40:27","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129459"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130088,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129459\/revisions\/130088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/129484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129459"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=129459"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=129459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}