This Sociological Life

A blog by sociologist Deborah Lupton

Main menu

Skip to content
  • Home
  • About
  • Complete list of my books
  • My publications (2012 onwards)

Search

Monthly Archives: September 2013

September 16, 2013

Academics online: what are the risks?

I have written several times on this blog about the benefits and possibilities of engaging as an academic in using social media and other digital media. I have recounted my experiences of using social media for professional purposes, outlined the reasons for why I blog, discussed why I think academics should write for Wikipedia and advocated for open access publication.

I have also discussed some negative implications for academics using social media, including the possibility that academics will become increasingly subjected to metric assessments based on their success in using social media (via altmetrics) and the reluctance of some to take up new activities in an already very demanding working life. Academics may also find confronting the lack of control they are able to exert over their digital writing once it has been released onto the internet.

In this post I want to elaborate some more on what might be called the risks of online academia, something I have been thinking about in working on my forthcoming book Digital Sociology.

Academics who engage in such activities of public engagement, as part of receiving wider public attention may be subjected to public criticism, unfounded or legitimate, of their ideas. Early career researchers are more vulnerable to trenchant criticism of their views at a time when they are still establishing their careers and seeking employment. More than established academics, who have less to lose, such junior academics are caught in a double-bind. Using social media such as blogs can be an important way to establish a foothold in a field, get one’s name and research known, establish valuable networks with colleagues and demonstrate to potential employers that one is engaging with the public in approved ways. On the other hand, however, some early career academics, particularly if they also come from marginalised social groups or are working in less prestigious universities, may find their opinions open to attack in ways that more senior and socially privileged academics may not.

The phenomenon of ‘trolling’, or the posting of deliberately malicious comments about individuals online, has been experienced by some academics. Those who express their opinions on controversial issues or who challenge powerful institutions or commercial interests are often the target of comments questioning their professional integrity (as well abuse related to more personal attributes). This has happened frequently to a colleague of mine, Simon Chapman, a public health advocate who has received a high level of public attention for his work in confronting such corporations as Big Tobacco and the gun lobby (see Chapman’s account of his experiences here).

There may said to be a ‘politics of digital engagement’, in which academics, particularly those who are members of marginalised social groups (women, minority ethnic or racial groups, gays or lesbians, with disabilities) or who are junior academics seeking tenure or those in short-term employment contracts, may need to be very cautious about the types of opinions they express in open digital forums (see Fullick on these points). Academics from marginalised minority groups can use social media networks as systems of support, but at the same time these very tools, in their public nature, can be sites of attack.

Sexual harassment has been experienced by some female academics who have engaged in debates in public forums or who have used social media to communicate their research findings. Some women have detailed their experiences of their appearance and their sexual attractiveness being remarked upon by anonymous commentators in often hurtful or threatening ways (see Beard and Mitchell on this). I have observed that female academics who engage in fat activism using online forums or traditional media outlets are frequently targeted by vituperative comments about their appearance, lack of self-discipline and the like. (Ironically, these comments often serve only to demonstrate further the contentions of these academics concerning fat stigma and discrimination.)

Abusive and overly racist, misogynistic or homophobic comments, which are often on public display and can be accessed via search engines, may be very confronting and disturbing for their targets, particularly if sexual violence or other violent acts against the targets are suggested. This is a wider problem of the affordances of online technologies: anyone who engages online is open to abusive comments that cannot easily be removed from internet archives.

It is vitally important that universities develop systems for protecting and supporting academics, particularly in the context in which they are increasingly expected and encouraged to engage in public engagement as part of their work. As Cottom Mcmillan notes, ‘While universities are quick to promote public scholarship they are loath to extend their responsibility to refereeing the behavior of academics in the public sphere’. There is a need for guidelines to be drawn up for engaging online in public spaces as an academic, including not only the type of content one disseminates or creates, but also how one interacts with other academics in response to their content. Academics should be supported by their institutions to build online networks and communities but also need to be protected against the risks of engaging as a digital public scholar.

Share this:

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Print
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Reddit

Like this:

Like Loading...
  • Posted in academic writing, digital cultures, digital sociology, gender, social media, social media and academia, sociology
  • Tagged academia, Deborah Lupton, digital academia, digital media, digital sociology, Public engagement, public sociology, risk, social media
  • 8 Comments

Post navigation

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Twitter Updates

  • RT @laurelleoz: 7 vacancies on ATAGI. Hope good agile people apply - by 22 Feb no less. @drajm @YouAreLobbyLud @DavidJoffe64 https://t.co/o… 7 hours ago
  • RT @TomRed43: The next installment of the Oceans 11 franchise looks terrible. #oceans11 #StMarysCatheral #georgepell #auspol #alanjones #s… 9 hours ago
  • RT @KateEmerson88: 'One of our country's greatest sons': Tony Abbott on George Pell'. Boy, if this is true, this country is so over. 9 hours ago
  • No mention here of the risks of long COVID or other post-infection/reinfection harms, such as micro-clotting and ep… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 13 hours ago
  • Peterson is also a rabid COVID contrarian twitter.com/GuardianAus/st… 14 hours ago
Follow @DALupton

Categories

  • academic writing
  • children
  • COVID-19
  • critical weight studies
  • design sociology
  • digital cultures
  • digital data
  • digital health
  • digital sociology
  • fatherhood
  • gender
  • highlights of the month
  • motherhood
  • New books
  • parenting culture
  • pregnancy
  • quantified self
  • sensory studies
  • social media
  • social media and academia
  • sociology
  • sociology of childhood
  • sociology of emotion
  • sociology of health and illness
  • sociology of risk
  • sociology of science and technology
  • the body and society
  • tips for research
  • Uncategorized
  • Vitalities Lab
  • Vitalities Lab newsletters

Archives

  • January 2023
  • November 2022
  • April 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • November 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • September 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • October 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • March 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012

Blogroll

  • Centre for Medical Humanities Blog
  • Centre for Parenting Culture Studies
  • Culture Digitally
  • Cyborgology
  • Digital Sociology
  • Home Cooked Theory
  • Sociological Images
  • Somatosphere
  • The Health Culture
  • The Society Pages
  • The Sociological Cinema
  • The Sociological Imagination

Top Posts & Pages

  • Design sociology part 2: terms and approaches
  • Design sociology part 1: a research agenda
  • Frankenstein, Black Mirror, and personal data
  • Animals as children, children as animals
  • Same sex couples and division of labour
  • Edgework: taking risks for the fun of it
  • A review of Punk Sociology
  • 30 tips for successful academic research and writing
  • About
  • Google Glass: a sociological perspective

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

    Blog Stats

    • 531,578 hits

    Pages

    • About
    • Complete list of my books
    • My publications (2012 onwards)

    Recent Posts

    • My publications for 2022
    • How to write an academic book proposal: tips for securing a contract
    • New book now out – COVID Societies: Theorising the Coronavirus Crisis
    • Arguing on Facebook about COVID: a case study of key beliefs, rationales and strategies
    • Face masks in the wild: a photographic collection
Blog at WordPress.com.
  • Follow Following
    • This Sociological Life
    • Join 1,749 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • This Sociological Life
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
%d bloggers like this: