Facilitating networking is one of the most important topics of the Leibniz PostDoc Network. Since our annual general meeting has been held online for two years, we have organized a
Network Meeting – Media for Scientists
on June 22 and 23 in Frankfurt am Main
hosted by the Senckenberg Museum.
First things first: We would like to thank our spokesperson Marta Ferreira-Gomes for organizing this wonderful event. She was supported by Rajini Nagrani, our second speaker – our thanks go to her as well.
The session began with an engaging summary by Marta of the structure of our network and the activities of the working groups. Her presentation perfectly introduced the high-quality courses that followed. Our first workshop was an introduction to the use of social media for scientists, especially to reach the non-scientific community. The workshop could not have been more professionally arranged than by Rebecca Winkels and Janne Steenbeck from Wissenschaft im Dialog. The 18 participants were very engaged with the content and lively discussed the pros and cons of the different platforms. In the second half, we were able to test our new knowledge with the task of creating a post for one of the platforms.
Day 1 was concluded with a convivial dinner outdoors on a warm summer evening. Participants had the opportunity to network, discuss new collaborations and topics related to the Leibniz PostDoc Network.
It must be mentioned that our hosts provided us with excellent catering during the meeting. So nobody had to start day 2 hungry. This time we divided into 2 groups, one of which received a practical lesson on video creation with Mathis Horlacher.
The first group followed Matthias Horlacher, self employed media scientist for a 3 hour workshop containing theory and practical aspects about video production via the smart phone. This interactive course first introduced us to the concepts of a video production, such as making a story board (skript) and thinking about location and settings. In a hands-on activity, we learned how to speak freely in front of the cell phone camera of our colleagues and realized how important it is to get practice to feel comfortable in front of the camera.Then we learned a lot about the production process itself, about camera angle, light conditions and so on. We concluded with more tipps on editing using the right software (apps). In summary the workshop was a lot of fun, as through the small group we could ask a lot of questions and had lively discussion with our peers.
The second group followed Dr. Katja Flieger from Medientraining für Wissensschaflter into a media landscape survival training. We learned about offline and online media and strategies for dealing with them. Especially the tips on risks and critical situations will be of practical use for all of us. In the practical part, we created a post about our work and had it improved first by a partner and then – in a lively and stimulating discussion – by all participants and the trainer.
Watch out, non-scientists: we are professionals now and will explain our science to you with relentless clarity.
(Christiane Schmidt | ZMT & Christian Nehls | FZB)
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