How long did you scroll today? Short video has become a huge pool of attention, and this year several delegates proposed using it to spread knowledge: encourage experts and scholars to do science communication on the platforms, support professionals who do, and strengthen platform oversight of what claims to be science.
The pool is enormous — 880 million users in China — and noisy. Some videos dress selling up as science, citing studies and data that do not exist. Some accounts look authoritative but stitch together other people’s content, distorted and exaggerated, misleading audiences.
Meanwhile more researchers are embracing the science-communicator role. Where the attention is, that is where the explanation should be — you need the right megaphone for the message.
But most of these communicators run on enthusiasm: no team, no funding, sometimes a reputation cost among colleagues who see it as a distraction. Short video’s demand for speed clashes with the care that real research content needs. Making a good science video is genuinely hard work for someone trained in a lab.
What would help
Mechanisms that make it normal, and safe, for researchers to show up on camera and use these platforms. Platforms tilting distribution toward quality science content and pushing it to the audiences who want it. An entry bar for accounts claiming expertise, with formal checks and content review for knowledge accounts.
Regulators and institutions can also broker partnerships: research institutes and science organisations working with short-video teams, so that professionals handle the format while scientists handle the facts. The researcher does not have to do it alone — pairing a lab with a production team is often the better division of labour.
Republished for information. The original text has not been independently verified and does not necessarily reflect our views.
Want to talk through what you just read?
We work end to end, from product design to launch. Tell us about your scenario and we can start there.
Shenzhen XZS Technology Co., Ltd. · Tel 0755-82494862 · 13760424861