[Air-L] Migration to Mastodon

[Robert W Gehl]

Hi, Emma --

I looked at the threads on the fediverse. I think the argument I'll put 
forward here doesn't repeat some of the ones you've already received.

In my experience, being on a Mastodon instance has made visible to me 
queer, trans, BIPOC, and radical artists and writers -- many of whom are 
on the fedi because they do not feel safe on corporate social media. I 
now support a bunch and have interacted with them. While these are not 
junior academics or reporters just starting out (a population not as 
present on the fediverse -- yet), I think that case is somewhat analogous.

The mechanism for my seeing these artists and engaging with them has 
been through the timelines, not through bios. The flow is like this:

An artist's post might get boosted into my timeline; I see it and think 
it's brilliant; I click on their username; THEN I read the bio and 
follow; conversation commences.

So I'd recommend that, instead of the follower bio approach, what the 
fediverse emphasizes is the conversational approach. I follow based on 
intriguing posts, not after a quick look at the bio.

So advice I would have for journalists is to rethink things. I'm sure 
journalists and others can do it -- after all, we're 10 years into the 
"How Twitter Will Change Journalism" phase of Journalism Studies 
publications. Perhaps in 10 years will be into "Journalists on the 
#fediverse" phase.

- Rob

On 11/6/22 09:26, Dr. Emma Briant via Air-L wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> I wanted to highlight an issue to the community if I may relating to our
> transition to Mastodon, which I think could have implications for diverse
> and emerging scholar expertise. Of course Mastodon isn’t a replacement
> Twitter, it operates differently, but it may well replace it in the daily
> lives of many of us.
>
> Twitter has helped many previously obscure scholars, experts and scientists
> to get their voices out in a way previously not possible. I’m a little
> worried the way Mastodon works may not enable visibility as easily for
> those who aren’t already *known* in the same way, and potentially, in this
> aspect, more readily reproduce inequality.
> https://twitter.com/emmalbriant/status/1589170894303551488?s=46&t=GuaOniF5NwGVCSM-r9kPFg
> https://mastodon.online/@emmalbriant/109295686807615811
> The issue is when people follow… in notifications Mastodon doesn’t seem to
> show follower bios like it does in Twitter. An apparently small thing, but
> I think it has important implications as I try to explain in the thread.
>
> Grateful for your thoughts.
> Emma