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Knowledge and politics
I The Facebook phenomenon Elise Andrew
A shy star Criticism of the IFLS boss took on more substance recently. She’s a newcomer in many senses – while she has a degree in the natural sciences, she has never had any training in communication or journalism – and researchers began to accuse her of being a ‘bargain basement’ for science facts and of trying to entice people to her site by giving sensational titles to her articles. And it’s true that last spring, IFLS managed over the space of several days to warn of an imminent new ice age, then to dismiss this warning as baseless, and then to blame the media for always dramatising everything. Andrew made no reply to the criticism levelled at her, and in fact since IFLS became so successful she has been relatively shy of publicity. Nor was Horizons able to reach her for comment. But writing on Facebook last March, she did make it clear that she doesn’t have a high opinion of journalism. “I’d like to see traditional media being bypassed. I’d like to see scientists engaging directly with the public”, she wrote. These are not the words of a mere beginner, but of a highly successful businesswoman.
“Not that we recommend it of course.”
“Your cat PROBABLY doesn’t want to kill you”. 56,064 like this 18,156 shares
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56,064 like this 16,538 shares
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26 years old Midland, Canada facebook.com/IFeakingLoveScience 22 million likes
t was only a matter of time before Elise Andrew from England began to feel she was swimming against the current. But she can’t complain, because thus far she’s largely been riding on the crest of a wave. In 2012, at the age of 23, she launched a Facebook page that went on to gain a million ‘likes’ in just six months. Today, Andrew reaches more people through social media than the readership of Popular Science, Scientific American and the New York Times put together. And she’s done it with the most unlikely of topics: science. I Fucking Love Science (IFLS) is a Facebook phenomenon. Only few such pages have experienced such swift growth in recent years. So it’s not surprising that this phenomenon and the woman behind it have become the target of criticism, both in the science world and outside it. The reaction of the digital sphere became really disconcerting when Andrew set up a personal Twitter channel and uploaded her profile picture. The revelation that one of the most successful science channels was curated by a young, good-looking woman caused plenty of comment.
“They’re thousands of years old, and we have absolutely no idea who made them”. 21,431 like this 5,014 shares
▸▸▸▸ twitter.com/50NerdsofGrey ▸▸▸▸ www.youtube.com/minutephysics ▸▸▸▸ twitter.com/AcademicsSay ▸▸▸▸ www.youtube.com/numberphile ▸▸▸▸ bit.ly/VintageSpace ▸▸▸▸ www.scicombinator.com
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Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107