I’ve tweeted this and spread it around on Facebook, but it’s well worth posting again. Veteran science communicator Dennis Meredith has a very nice presentation on how and why scientists should use multimedia and social media to advance their research.

Meredith makes some very good points in the presentation, but I’m also impressed with the way he makes his points. The presentation was obviously tailored specifically for scientists. He cites examples and issues that matter to them, and shows them that he understands some of their reluctance to use social media. He gives them reasons for using multimedia and social media that are specifically incentives for scientists.

As for the points Meredith makes, I’m a big fan of using multimedia to communicate science, and I think Meredith is dead on in encouraging researchers to think visually when looking at how to present their research. Having worked in different fields, in both design and non-design roles, it’s amazing to me how often thinking visually is one of the keys to effective communication and the failure to do so creates problems.