Scholars in the Digital Age: Social Scholarship and Practices

Social Scholarship In The Digital Era

Understanding how to use social media in a professional manner is an asset in most work environments, including academia. Search committee members would be remiss if they did not consider candidates’ digital identities as part of the evaluation process. Among the digital skills increasingly prized in scholarly communities and elsewhere are fluency in diverse communication media that include visual and auditory elements, the ability to disseminate information in a way that is both professional and attention-getting, and an understanding of how memes and crowds behave. All of these skills contribute to a scholar’s ability to connect his or her scholarship to public discourse, typically playing out over traditional and social media channels. These abilities often are acquired through experiential learning outside of formal classroom settings. They are the skills of social scholars.