One of the most fascinating dynamics of this pandemic is the Twitter/media/pundit feedback cycle. (This was documented before for other topics, too.) Now, with many top scientists not as active, if at all, on Twitter—pandemic keeps them busy—it’s gotten even more interesting.
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Don’t get me wrong, I’m active here so not saying it’s wrong to be. But the sampling here is clearly very lopsided. But it’s easy to look only here and gain impressions that look solid but aren’t necessarily so if you do the legwork—which is getting harder, given state of media.
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But it’s a feedback cycle! Media people quote the most accessible people who are sometimes, in fact, a group, which then gets represented as what we know and then the busy scientists not on here may decide that’s not a hill to die on—or not even notice. They’re not even asked.
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Replying to @zeynep @mattyglesias
This is huge problem in academia. Who does the work the make their research available to the public? To public officials? To the larger public? What are the rewards within the academy for doing that? (Ha ha ha ha ha ha)
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Yeah. The incentives aren’t in that direction. To be clear, many do regardless. But it’s very hard to wade through without a lot of work. And the media incentive right now isn’t to wade through—hence the feedback cycle.
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