By Hans Peter Peters.
Some may have already noticed on the homepage of Public Understanding of Science that we recently had a change in our editorial team. Mojirayo Ogunkanmi succeeds Elena Milani as Social Media Editor. For two years Elena had been responsible for our X (Twitter) account (@scicom) and this Blog. In the past months, she has handed over these tasks to Mojirayo in what I can only call a seamless transition.
Elena quit her position in the Editorial Team of PUS because of new professional and personal duties. As mother of a newborn daughter, she needed to readjust her priorities and make economic use of increasingly precious resources such as time and energy. For me it is a long time ago, but I remember well the changes in family life caused by both the excitement and burden in tending our children. I wish for Elena that she gets a lot of the excitement and at least some sleep in the months to come.
We are grateful for the two years Elena contributed with her sizable social media skills and high engagement to the success of Public Understanding of Science, and wholeheartedly wish her all the best for her personal and professional future.
In an email to us Elena wrote (and with her permission we quote it):
"The last two years have been a brief but exciting journey into the dissemination of science communication research. Collaborating with early career researchers who contributed to the blog was particularly enjoyable for me, as they shared fascinating insights into their research and its implications for society, academia, and science communicators. I had a great time working with Sue Howard and Hans Peter Peters and discussing ways to enhance the visibility of the journal online."
"To Mojirayo, the new social media editor, I wish you all the best in this role and best of luck in the fast-growing social media landscape."
Susan Howard and I have had a good start working with Mojirayo as new Social Media Editor.
Moji has a background in paleontology with a BSc in Natural Sciences from UCL, and a research masters in Paleontology and Geobiology from the University of Edinburgh. She then went on to study Social and Public Communication at the London School of Economics. Up until recently, she worked as the health communication lead at the African Health Observatory Platform (AHOP) at the London School of Economics. Her interests focus on science and health communication in Africa.
 |
| Mojirayo Ogunkanmi, the new Social Media Editor |
Moji is currently exploring the COVID-19 infodemic management strategies in Nigeria and Kenya. She is also looking at the impact of third person narratives (particularly gossip) on health risk perception in Nigeria.
She likes to keep busy and be out there in the community. So, she also does some work in schools in London, leading afterschool maths clubs as well as sexual health and racial identity sessions.
Welcome to our team, Moji!
We used the occasion of the social media editor change to discuss our social media strategy with the parting and new editor. In particular we considered our stay with X in the light of its erratic and questionable policy. For the time being, we decided to stay with X because it would be a hard decision to give up our large group of followers by moving to another social network.
With our limited resources for social media activities, we cannot easily extend them but we plan to put more weight on our Blog and introduce some new features such as making our Historical Moments Essays available through the Blog, as we currently do with our book reviews. Moji also plans to motivate authors of articles published in PUS to produce one-minute videos to be used in promoting the articles on X.
Blog and social media activities can only flourish when authors and readers of our journal contribute. While most blog posts so far are from authors of articles published in Public Understanding of Science, our Blog is open to qualified contributions from everybody. Please get in contact with Mojirayo when you have a manuscript or an idea for a blog post that is related to our scope.