what i'm seeing happen is that "scholar social" has been closed to new members for months, so academics are now all joining mastodon social & finding each other thru boosts & hashtags. i think i saw the journo thru a hashtag i'm following (he appears to be on a geo instance)
supposedly some small instances block mast soc but i personally want to be on a very wide one & certainly not just siloed w academics esp ones in my closest fields (i like them, but can discover their work w/o serendipity, & feel like not joining the scholar one is good for me)