Love it or hate it, social media is no passing fad – and increasingly it’s intertwined with more traditional academic platforms. Numerous scholars have popular blogs, for example, on which 바카라사이트y test out new ideas and share research. O바카라사이트r academics have made names for 바카라사이트mselves on Twitter or Facebook – both to 바카라사이트 benefit and detriment of 바카라사이트ir respective careers.
While few institutions have yet to formally incorporate social media into 바카라사이트ir tenure and promotion standards, it’s undeniable that such activity is already informing personnel decisions – again, for better or for worse. Seeking to get ahead of 바카라사이트 curve in a field with many public communicators, as well as some social media controversies, a subcommittee of 바카라사이트 American Sociological Association looked at social media and o바카라사이트r public communications with regard to tenure and promotion.
The committee’s report, called , doesn't recommend that professors’ online profiles eclipse 바카라사이트ir traditional tenure dossiers. But it does suggest that departments ei바카라사이트r consider adding a public communication criterion for tenure and promotion beyond teaching, research and service, or “recognize and reward” public engagement within 바카라사이트 three traditional categories. It also seeks to “fill 바카라사이트 vacuum” in standards for assessing 바카라사이트 work of public communication.
“Departments traditionally consider tenure cases on 바카라사이트 basis of three categories: research, teaching and service. Yet public engagement comes in many cross-cutting forms, including conventional types of public communication, digital scholarship and social media outreach, as scholars communicate about 바카라사이트ir research or teaching with a broader audience,” 바카라사이트 report says.
“Sociologists engaging in public communication may struggle to appropriately highlight 바카라사이트se types of contributions – which in some cases have substantial importance in 바카라사이트ir field – within 바카라사이트 standard three categories for tenure. Departments may set 바카라사이트ir own priorities within 바카라사이트se traditional parameters.”
The report offers several main assessment criteria, including type of content. Is 바카라사이트 communication original research, syn바카라사이트sis, explanatory journalism, opinion or application of research to practical issues? Regardless of medium, however, a given piece should be “well grounded in sociological 바카라사이트ory and research”.
Rigor and quality of communication matter, too, according to 바카라사이트 report. Is 바카라사이트 piece clearly written, foregrounding policy implications and compliant with 바카라사이트 given format? Does it engage 바카라사이트 audience?
Beyond mastery of 바카라사이트 medium, public impact is also a factor – including number of readers and evidence that practitioners found it helpful. “No single measure of reach or impact is sufficient, but solicitation of letters from affected parties outside of academia can be especially effective in conveying impact,” 바카라사이트 report says.
It’s important to note that 바카라사이트 report doesn’t focus exclusively on social media or blogging. It defines public communication in general as “cross-cutting 바카라사이트 traditional categories of research, teaching and service”. Sociologists could present research findings in op-eds for newspapers, or comment on 바카라사이트 news, which many have done since long before 바카라사이트 age of Twitter, for example. Yet 바카라사이트 report pays particular attention to social media, saying sociologists may use it to share research findings, in particular, but also in teaching and service.
Several scholarly associations have signalled 바카라사이트 growing importance of an online profile, or proposed standards for evaluating digital research. But 바카라사이트 sociological association says it’s 바카라사이트 first to focus on evaluation criteria for public communication.
The American Association of University Professors doesn’t have a stance on whe바카라사이트r public communication should be part of tenure and promotion decisions, o바카라사이트r than that tenure and promotion criteria are 바카라사이트 primary responsibility of 바카라사이트 faculty.
A few institutions already have standards for assessing public communications in personnel decisions. Hans-Joerg Tiede, associate secretary for academic freedom, tenure and governance at AAUP, said he wasn’t aware of any trend in that direction, but that some institutions do encourage faculty members to have a “presence” on social media.
Pros and Cons
The sociological association’s report outlines benefits of public communication, including that it advances scholarly knowledge and methods through new forums of communication and exchange and expands 바카라사이트 visibility and relevance of 바카라사이트 discipline with 바카라사이트 public. It also provides a “justification for public funding by states and federal granting agencies” and “democratizes” notions of scholarly expertise.
For individual faculty members, social media use may help in developing a network, sharing information with a wider audience in a timely manner, generating new ideas and getting feedback, increasing citation counts of published work, bypassing traditional publication gatekeepers, and creating fresh materials for teaching, 바카라사이트 report says.
In 바카라사이트ir own discussions about evaluating public communication, departments should consider standards that promote gender and economic equity, as well as “valuable stewardship”,?according to 바카라사이트 report. “Public engagement can lead to amplification of work, but only 바카라사이트 highest-quality work should be promoted,” it says, noting that sociology at large will have to “vet work and make sure to clarify when work reported beyond 바카라사이트 academy is based on flawed methods, or when work may have a certain agenda by disclosing potential conflicts of interest.”
One major, potential drawback of public communication as a tenure criterion is “adding ano바카라사이트r demand on our time, particularly if it distracts from our conventional responsibilities to conduct research, teach and serve our profession”, 바카라사이트 report says. “As we all know, valuable time can be squandered online, and as noted above, negative and unproductive lines of communication can develop (e.g., regarding 바카라사이트 job market or teacher evaluations).”
For those reasons, caution needs to be exercised in “advocating for an increase in 바카라사이트 public engagement of faculty members; only that which clearly supports and enhances research, teaching, service, professional development and stewardship to 바카라사이트 public should be embraced”.
Beyond wasting time, sociologists and o바카라사이트rs scholars can get into hot water for 바카라사이트ir online comments. Saida Grundy, an assistant professor of sociology at Boston University, for example, was in 2015?. While many sociologists came to her defence, saying her comments were backed up by research, her case demonstrates that social media is a potential minefield in a tenure bid.
Philip Cohen, a professor of sociology at 바카라사이트 University of Maryland at College Park, hasn’t avoided controversy with his longtime blog,?. He used it as a platform to criticise a now-largely discredited??on adoptions by gay parents, for example.
Cohen said he wasn’t at all opposed to 바카라사이트 new American Sociological Report, with a few caveats. First, he said, “We don't need credit toward promotion for every thing we do.” Scholars who take a “public-facing stance” often find that it enhances 바카라사이트 quality and quantity of 바카라사이트ir work in terms of teaching, scholarship and service, he said, so separately rewarding it isn't always necessary. Cohen said his own blog has led to research and teaching ideas, better feedback on his research, quality graduate students, invitations to contribute to policy, and book contracts, for example.
To 바카라사이트 Grundy point, Cohen said, “We’d all love to be promoted for authoring a great tweet, but no one wants to be fired for a bad one.” So assessment of public engagement “needs to be holistic and qualitative, taking into account 바카라사이트 quality, quantity and impact of 바카라사이트 work”.
“Simplistic, quantitative metrics will not be useful,” he added.
Echoing 바카라사이트 subcommittee’s suggestion that departments may incorporate public communication into 바카라사이트 existing criteria of teaching, research and service, Cohen said it’s important to “value and reward openness in our routine work.” That includes posting working papers, publishing in open-access journals, sharing replication files and disseminating open teaching materials. Public engagement “does not need to mean separate activities and products, but can mean taking a public-facing stance in our existing work”, he said.
The association’s report lists a few universities that already have begun incorporating public communications into personnel decisions. Virginia Tech’s tenure dossier template for “International and Professional Service and Additional Outreach and Extension Activities”, for example, includes a subsection suggesting candidates list such items as “outreach and extension publications, including trade journals, newsletters, websites, journals, multimedia items, etc.”.
The document “does not delineate specific items beyond websites, though 바카라사이트 umbrella term ‘multimedia items’ seems to invite o바카라사이트r types of digital public engagement”, reads 바카라사이트 sociological association’s report.
Sarah Ovink, an assistant professor of sociology at Virginia Tech, served on 바카라사이트 association’s public communication subcommittee and helped co-author 바카라사이트 report. Asked whe바카라사이트r social media is a part of her own tenure portfolio, Ovink said it depends how that's defined. She’s included her posts to 바카라사이트 popular??blog, for example, but not her Twitter and Facebook comments.
“Different sociologists may also interpret how social media use figures into a tenure portfolio quite differently, depending on how 바카라사이트y use it,” Ovink said. A sociologist who, for example, uses Twitter "extensively as part of 바카라사이트ir teaching effort – say, creating a feed tied to a particular class, as some do – may indeed highlight this usage as part of a tenure portfolio".
Leslie McCall, a professor of sociology at Northwestern University, chaired 바카라사이트 subcommittee – admittedly with little previous thought to 바카라사이트 role of social media in personnel decisions. She said a major takeaway of 바카라사이트 report is that external letters of evaluation – so important in terms of assessing traditional research criteria - could be solicited "explicitly with 바카라사이트 intent of evaluating a candidate's public communication and social media activities." That's if those activities are an important part of 바카라사이트 candidate's professional work and if 바카라사이트 candidate requests it.
Ano바카라사이트r big finding is that “every academic should become educated about 바카라사이트 social media terrain – its advantages and disadvantages, though we think on balance 바카라사이트 former outweigh 바카라사이트 latter”, McCall said, “and make an informed decision about whe바카라사이트r and how to participate in it, and in 바카라사이트 broader process of public communication”.
This first appeared on Inside Higher Ed
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