Do Scientists Use Social Media to Influence the Judgments of Other Scientists?

In response to our paper examining how scientists view the public, the media, and the political process, Roger Pielke Jr. of the University of Colorado offers several considerations worth noting.

Responding specifically to our discussion of the likely effect of blogs, Facebook, Twitter and other social media on how scientists view the nature of science-related political debates, Pielke writes:

…certainly worthy of further study is the way in which scientists and members of the public establish informal collaborations via social media such as blogs to intimidate or make uncomfortable those who would express challenging views. As is the case with respect to the public, the media and the political process most attention has been paid on how these groups affect the work of scientists (e.g., the entire issue of “scientific integrity” is about outside interference in the work of government scientists), which is certainly a very important topic. By contrast, very little scholarly attention (that I am aware of) has been focused on how scientists engage with the public, the media and the political process in an effort to enforce within the scientific community a particular political agenda (or a view of science perceived to be consistent with that agenda).