Abstract:

“El Buzón de la Ciencia” (The Science Mailbox) is a scientific outreach project on social media that started upon the COVID-19 pandemic. With the aim of answering to the large number of questions and disinformation that abounded in March 2020, we provided a virtual space in the main social platforms (Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook) as well as via e-mail, to deposit questions on various topics related to the pandemic. Once the questions were received, rigorous information was reviewed from reliable sources and updated scientific literature. Then, videos were recorded using this information. We prioritize to use a simple and informative language that could respond to the concerns received from the general audience, trying to escape from technical words and complicated explanations. During the period that the project was developed, more than 25 questions were answered through these videos, which were posted on our YouTube channel "Ciencia con Carmen", so that any social media user could easily access this information. Our videos reached a total of 325,000 views and more than 2,000 subscribers in less than a year. The rapid growth of our views and viewers shows that social media users are interested in current scientific issues and that they are looking for trustworthy social media profiles that assure the veracity of the information they are delivering.

From this experience in education, we have concluded that the use of social media represents an effective way to transmit scientific and high quality information to a general audience, as well as to generate trust in the scientific progress.

Keywords:

Covid-19, fake news, social media, YouTube, scientific outreach.