Alice Fleerackers (she/her)

Amplifying the News: An Analysis of the Factors Driving Republication and Facebook Engagement with News This study examines the factors that influence republishing, sharing, and engagement with news in a digital media environment. It does so using a sample of 69 stories about climate emergency prepar...

Huge thanks to my wonderful, interdisciplinary, international team: @inesengelmann.bsky.social @riedlinm.bsky.social @kimosman.bsky.social ‪@voddenlaura.bsky.social‬ @kathaesa.bsky.social Arjun Srinivas & @snurb.info

Read the full article (OA) here: doi.org/10.1080/1751...

#scicomm #envirocomm

But they do not bode well for the future of local (climate) news outlets, who rely heavily on republishing The Conversation stories... but almost never receive any Facebook attention.

The findings are encouraging from a constructive journalism perspective, as positive stories sharing systemic solutions supporting climate emergency preparedness tended to gain lots of traction.

We looked at stories published by The Conversation, which are made available under a Creative Commons license—easily allowing other media outlets to republish them.

(PS. If you are nerdy about methods, you will enjoy this study: tracing these amplification pathways was incredibly involved...)

Overview of pathways through which media stories published by The Conversation (TC) are amplified in a digital media landscape: Pathway A: TC stories are posted to Facebook B) those posts are engaged with by Facebook users C) TC stories are republished by other media outlets D) those republished stories are posted to Facebook E) those posts sharing republished stories are engaged with by Facebook users.

We also look at the qualities of those republishing outlets (e.g., Are they local, national, or international? Legacy journalism or nontraditional?) that predict whether republished versions of a story get amplified on Facebook.

Screenshot of journal article titled Amplifying the News: An Analysis of the Factors Driving Republication and Facebook Engagement with News.

New study — out today in Journalism Practice!

In it, we analyze the qualities of a news story (about climate-related emergencies) that predict whether/how much it is shared/engaged with on Facebook and republished by other media outlets.

All of this underscores the point above: if we want to truly make research open, and avoid public misunderstanding—we need to actually consider the public (and the journalists who share research with them) in our approach to #openscience, preprints and otherwise.

I am deeply concerned about the research integrity issues we are seeing right now. Including around preprints, but also science more broadly.

But I am equally concerned that our fears about misinformation will lead us toward an even more closed, exclusionary science system.

“I’d like to think I’d be able to spot one if I saw one”: How science journalists navigate predatory journals Predatory journals—or journals that prioritize profits over editorial and publication best practices—are becoming more common, raising concerns about the integrity of the scholarly record. Such journa...

Again, concerns about research integrity and openness go beyond preprints. We saw this in our study of journalists and their use/perceptions of predatory journals, which participants associated with #openaccess: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

[Still a preprint, but accepted at Journalism Practice]

If you have ever published in a journal, you know that peer review does not always deliver on the promise of "quality control" so many of us continue to expect of it.

Yes, LLM's are being used in problematic ways with preprints. But they are also clearly being misused within peer review itself.

Preprints at a crossroads – Are we compromising openness for credibility? - Impact of Social Sciences Natascha Chtena, Juan Pablo Alperin & Alice Fleerackers argue the benefits of preprints risk being undermined by incorporation into traditional publishing workflows.

(You can read a sum up of this argument on the @lseimpactblog.bsky.social — co-authored with @nataschachtena.bsky.social and @juancommander.scholcommlab.ca)

blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsoci...

To the point about trust and preprints: Yes, there are major concerns about how preprints are being misused in academia, policy & public comms—especially given lack of public understanding about what preprints are.

But the same is true of all research. It doesn't mean we should stop preprinting

F1000Research Article: Making science public: a review of journalists’ use of Open Access research. Read the latest article version by Alice Fleerackers, Natascha Chtena, Stephen Pinfield, Juan Pablo Alperin, Germana Barata, Monique Oliveira, Isabella Peters, at F1000Research.

Some key perspectives on this 🧵:

I love the comment in Robert's article about the stakeholders "missing" from debates about #openscience.

Beyond scholarly societies, journalists, #scicomm professionals, and the public need to be included in these conversations. f1000research.com/articles/12-...

Wow so sorry. I have been a social media ghost lately. But this is a topic I am extremely concerned about.

Slide with a blue watchdog on it and the words "Watchdog science journalism: Tensions and opportunities for critical science engagement"

#PCST2025 folks interested in science journalism, investigative journalism, and/or research integrity, join us at 10:30 am in Conference Suite 2B for an international panel on "Watchdog Science Journalism"

Featuring the fabulous An Nguyen, @riedlinm.bsky.social & @gracidade.bsky.social !

gijn.org GIJN Webinar: Gathering Evidence and Documents in Conflict and War Zones — A MENA Case Study

💻 Gathering Evidence & Documents in Conflict & War Zones: A #MENA Case Study
🗓️ May 6
⌚️10 AM EDT

In this GIJN webinar, an expert panel will explore how investigative journalists can document human rights abuses in war zones, with a focus on methods. https://twp.ai/9PR9qG

An incredibly important resource for scholars studying violence and harms, among many other critical topics. Thanks to @alicetiara.bsky.social for leading this effort.

"public engagement and participation are predominantly framed as a way to build public trust—and thus maintain science’s cultural power and authority—rather than incorporate citizens’ unique perspectives"

Our new study examines how policies address #EDI and public #scicomm in #openscience 👇👇👇

Oof. Niet goed 😱

Als ik dan vraag wat die bot ervaren maakt, antwoordt die: "Als Dr. Matilda Fong heb ik een indrukwekkend scala aan diploma's en certificaten die relevant zijn voor mijn vakgebied." 🫠🆘 Ik kan me dus voorstellen dat mensen (bv ook met lagere geletterdheid) hier wel makkelijk in meegaan #drGoogle

Great opportunity to work with an amazing group of scholars on an important project.

Feel free to ping me if you have questions about the lab's work (but note I have nothing to do with this project).

#openscience #scholcomm #peerreview

On a light purple background, flyer for: Inclusive event facilitation: challenges, best practices, and opportunities April 28, 2025 8 - 9pm EST From webinars and panels, to workshops and festivals-effective science communication often involves facilitating conversations with diverse individuals. But how do you ensure those conversations are welcoming and accessible to both speakers and participants? In this PCST webinar, four international panelists will share opportunities and best practices for inclusive science communication event facilitation. Moderator: Ana Claudia Nepote (she/her), Member of the PCST Network's Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Committee and Associate Professor at National Autonomous University of Mexico Panellists: - Luz Helena Oviedo Villegas (she/her), Head of Community Engagement at Parque Explora - Thilina Heenatigala (he/him), Assistant Professor and Director of Communications, Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) -Nic Bennet (they/them), Postdoctoral Researcher with the Scicomm Identities Project at Michigan State University - Michelle Riedlinger (she/her), Associate Professor, Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology Link to register in post

What does it take to make a #scicomm event inclusive—for the audience AND speakers?

In next week's @pcstnetwork.bsky.social webinar, @riedlinm.bsky.social @nicbennett.bsky.social Luz Helena & Thilina Heenatigala @nepologia.bsky.social will share their tips!

www.pcst.network/webinars/upc...

🚀 Postdoctoral Job Opportunities within our community! 🚀

🔎 University of Antwerp: AI, media, and society. More info: shorturl.at/4mA2k
📆 Deadline: April 22, 2025

🔎 University of Amsterdam: Bias in AI face classification models. More info: shorturl.at/0tipG
📆 Deadline: April 14, 2025

Ugh.

Open #postdoc position in #science #communication at @ikmz.bsky.social – one that I fully and genuinely recommend.
I've worked 6+ years in this team, and it's these very colleagues, NB @mss7676.bsky.social, and the exceptional research conditions that make me sad to leave #IKMZ soon 🙏
➡️ t.uzh.ch/1PM

thank you Elon and DOGE! what the world definitely needs is unchecked drug resistant gonorrhea

Interesting. But is shifting academic reward systems away from citation metrics to "AI-driven analytics" as metrics of #openscience the answer?

More and different metrics is not the answer to our obsession with metrics. Even (& maybe especially) when those metrics are controlled by AI.

#scolcomm

PCST is an amazing organization and being part of the scientific committee these past few years has been incredibly rewarding, professionally and personally (because the people are great!).

If you want to get more involved in #scicomm, consider nominating yourself!

Details 👇👇👇

Next Issues | Media and Communication Media and Communication is an international peer-reviewed open access journal dedicated to a wide variety of basic and applied research in communication and its related fields.

⭐ CfP: Journalism as a Science Watchdog ⭐

If you are studying investigative #journalism, #scicomm, or a related field, we would love to invite you to contribute to a Special Issue for Media and Communication on “Journalism as a Science Watchdog"

Details: www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcomm...

Happening today at 11 am (Amsterdam time)!

Join me in talking about using #openscience to support #scicomm

Details 👇👇👇