On Surviving Graduate School PodCast - Episode 1: The Ethics of Social Media in Graduate School (with some awesome Professors for the Future Fellows!)

Episode 1: The Ethics of Social Media in Graduate School

A little while ago I did my first PodCast for my "On Surviving Graduate School" blog site. It was fun and I learned a lot about "The Ethics of Social Media in Research." 

First, I was inspired to do this particular cast because of conversations I've been having with friends and colleagues about the best way to navigate this world where someone could be Tweeting about you at any time. Our interactions are status updates just waiting to happen and sometimes when I am in a class, or a meeting, or conference session I am surprised to learn if someone has tweeted something I've said. (Although I also retweet them because, YAY, somebody tweeted something I said.) 

I also had the opportunity to meet and interact with three scholars from the Professors for the Future Fellowship Program at UC Davis. After listening to @hollybik (find her on Twitter!) talk about how to get started using social media I wondered "what are some of most pressing ethical considerations that we as graduate students should consider as we navigate social media?" OR simply put "is somebody gonna tell me what I should not post on Twitter and stop me from making a complete fool of myself???" (It is quite possible to make a complete fool of yourself in 240 characters or less). 

And from there we came together to talk about "The Ethics of Social Media" in graduate school. A cross-disciplinary conversation about how graduate students can use, navigate, and learn to love social media. 

Guests on this podcast include: 

---

Holly Bik
Postdoctoral Researcher 
UC Davis Genome Center. 
http://www.hollybik.com/
Follow me on Twitter @hollybik to join the conversation about genomics/biodiversity research. I tweet from conferences and post updates about new research, career opportunities, and science journalism.

---

"Think about your goals. ...Figure out what platform is going to be best for your message. Maybe you want to post science photography, in which case a visual blog might be a good way but if you want to talk about research in short form you don't have that much time maybe Twitter is more appropriate. ...Don't feel like you have to do everything. You don't have to use every single tool." -Holly Bik

Valerie Feldman
PhD Candidate
Sociology (UC Davis)
https://ucdavis.academia.edu/ValerieFeldman
I am currently working on my PhD in sociology. I am experienced in interviewing, field research methods, qualitative coding and analysis, research team management and supervision. My interests include organizations, politics, governance, culture, gender, and sexuality. Currently, my dissertation uses organizational analysis to examine the governance and regulation of sexual commerce in the U.S.

---

"What sort of public presentation of self do you want to put out there because it really is searchable, people can find you, things are documented and if you do need to have that division of private and public life that is totally fine and you can figure out ways to do that but make sure you are very clear about your privacy settings... when you do post in social media it is a public place." -Valerie Feldman

Dan Villarreal
PhD Candidate
Linguistics (UC Davis)
https://ucdavis.academia.edu/DanVillarreal

Hi! I'm a Ph.D. candidate in Linguistics here at UC Davis. I'm primarily interested in sociolinguistics, with particular emphasis on folk linguistics (especially perceptual dialectology) and the social/cognitive meanings of variation.

---

"Think about your audience and who you want your audience to be. ...Even if you are just starting out and you may not have much of an audience at first eventually if you cultivate a certain presence that is intended for a certain audience that audience should come to you. ...And take a head shot." -Dan Villarreal

And me! (Cutcha Risling Baldy)
PhD Candidate 
Native American Studies (UC Davis)
http://cutchabaldy.weebly.com 
Cutcha Risling Baldy (Hupa, Karuk, Yurok) is a scholar, instructor, and PhD Candidate in Native American Studies at UC Davis. She also  has her M.F.A. in Fiction and Literature from San Diego State University and her B.A. in Psychology with a special focus in Health and Development from Stanford University. Ms. Risling Baldy is an enrolled member of the Hoopa Valley Tribe with ties to the Yurok and  Karuk peoples. 

---

"It took me a little bit to figure out that there is a difference between the popular academics that you see on The Daily Show and the academics that are in a research 1 institution doing research ...It's a matter of deciding the kind of presence that you want to have." -Cutcha Risling Baldy

Listen, share, enjoy, tweet, repeat. #OnSurvivingGraduateSchool