Which social media platforms do you normally use?
My social media presence pattern depends on the purpose and goal. For more personal reasons, to connect with my friends, relatives, and former colleagues, I use my Facebook account, as most of my contacts in Bangladesh use Facebook. Twitter helps me to connect with a more international audience. I also use LinkedIn for my professional connections and network building. I have a Facebook page and a YouTube channel, where I provide commentary on contemporary Bangladesh politics. I also use three social networking platforms for academics ― Academia.edu, ResearchGate, and ORCID ― to maintain connections with fellow academicians, to be informed about recent scholarships, and to showcase my publications.
Which social media platforms would you recommend to young researchers?
| “An active social media and online presence often helps you get connected with journalists” |
For young researchers, I would recommend selecting social media according to their specific goals and target audiences. We can’t deny that social media have several downsides. These are the platforms that consume much time, shrink our attention span, create an echo chamber and opinion bubble, and often spread misinformation. However, we also can’t avoid the necessity of building connections, expressing our opinions, disseminating our research outcomes, and creating an impact on society. I would recommend keeping the use of more personal social networking sites, such as Facebook, minimum, and increasing in-person contacts. Young researchers should take the opportunity of establishing connections and building networks in professional and academic networks, such as LinkedIn and ResearchGate. Besides regular social networking sites, young researchers should also participate and present in webinars, radio programs, podcasts, and interviews in the mainstream media.
How and when were you approached by the journalists to comment on the latest events in Bangladesh?
In the last six months, I have been interviewed or sought for comments on specific political and economic development of Bangladesh by several media outlets, including Al-Jazeera and Deutsche Welle. I also write op-eds for dailies and online news sites in Bangladesh. Regularly, I present papers or participate as an interviewee in webinars or online talk shows. An active social media and online presence often help to get connected with the journalists. Media outlets and journalists search for experts and commentators for relevant information, expertise, and insights. The social media profiles of the researchers work as the initial connectors.
How to prepare for a journalist interview?
The keys to a good interview are four:
- Be prepared: Most of the time, journalists will provide you with probable questions or themes of the interview. Always be prepared with relevant data, information, and opinions.
- Be confident: Nobody knows the answer to every question in the world. Be confident and prepare to say, ‘I don’t know.’ But you can always inform your audience how much you know, why you don’t know, and why not knowing is also important!
- Be presentable: You don’t need to be overdressed, but being well-dressed will surely boost your confidence.
- Be precise: Time is very valuable for most of TV channels. Also, newspapers are not going to publish a long comment unless they are taking a long interview of you. Be succinct and relevant.
Saimum Parvez, Ph.D., is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie (MSCA-Impact Co-fund) postdoctoral fellow at Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB), Belgium. He is a member of two Brussels-based research centers – RHEA and BIRMM. Before joining VUB, he was a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Political Science and Sociology at North South University in Bangladesh. He obtained his PhD from the University of Sydney, Australia, and M.A. from the George Washington University, USA.