by Urooj Ali

Reddit is an enigma, and social media networks have built it out to be a secret place where people gather anonymously to discuss potentially unsavory topics. Perhaps you’ve seen an r/AITA post on your TikTok for you page or Instagram reels. Maybe reddit is so far outside your orbit that you may not even consider it a social media network. Whatever the case maybe, Reddit is regularly disregarded by a majority of the general public, until now. The reddit thread r/science has a growing community of curious thinkers looking to learn more about the scientific world. 

Before diving into Reddit, here’s a quick guide to its common shorthand. “r/” indicates a subreddit, like r/science for science topics. “AMA” means “Ask Me Anything,” where users can ask questions on a specific topic. Users can also “upvote” posts they like or agree with.

Traditionally, public engagement with science (PES) is done through museum visits and interaction with written materials like news or books, however r/science is making PES more accessible than ever. The r/science AMA thread is hosted by a number of scientists from varying fields. At the moment, there are nearly 315 scientists that host AMA sessions in the subreddit. The hosts are located around the world, and practice subjects such as: Medicine, Biology, Paleontology, and Animal Science. Researchers at Indiana University studied how scientists interact with users on Reddit’s r/science. They analyzed the content of these discussions and surveyed both scientists and Reddit users.

To understand the online community in-depth, scientists developed a survey that collected data on the demographics and interests of the general public. It was found that the gender breakdown is almost evenly split with a 51% male audience and a 46% female audience (3% unidentified). This is surprising since the general gender breakdown of the entire platform skews heavily male at 67%. 

The study had some limitations. The researchers used a manual coding system, which only allowed them to choose threads that had 200 to 300 responses because it can only process quantitative data, limiting them to a sample size of six scientists. With time, they aim to collect more representative data using natural language processing, which would allow them to process qualitative data. Additionally, the sample size only provided positive responses, which indicates that folks who had a negative experience did not respond. The researchers are working on diversifying their responses.

Overall, the research team found that the most popular AMA subreddits are Medicine, Biology, Environmental Science, Astronomy, Geology, and Chemistry. Many scholars that have hosted these sessions have reported enjoyable conversations that they’d happily host again. This is a wonderful and inclusive way to engage knowledge production, one of three modes of public participation.

Society functions and progresses through public participation, which includes policy making, dialogue, and knowledge production. With the increased interconnectedness of the world, r/science is a great host for interesting and informative discussions. Do you have a burning science question? Head over to r/science and ask it today!

References

Hara N, Abbazio J, Perkins K (2019) An emerging form of public engagement with science: Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions on Reddit r/science. PLOS ONE 14(5): e0216789. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0216789