For the 2010 Society for Historical Archaeology Conference, I co-authored a poster with Dr. Lynne Goldstein about how we were using digital social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr to engage various communities in our research with the Campus Archaeology Program. The poster argues that this form of engagement is unique in comparison to outreach that is typically “one to many”, such as typical site visits, or monthly newsletters. Instead, digital social media allows the community to watch the archaeological process in real-time, through every step of the research process, it is able to reach numerous communities that may not be able to visit the site otherwise, and it allows for an immediate back and forth between archaeologists and the community they serve.
The poster can be viewed below, or at the Campus Archaeology Website. It is best viewed in “Full Screen”.
Abstract:
Over the past five years, digital social media have revolutionized the way information is shared, people communicate, and communities are formed and defined. This digital revolution has been difficult to ignore, despite sometimes unclear concepts of how to best “use” social networking and web 2.0. Archaeologists have been especially slow to accept and use these tools. The Campus Archaeology Program at Michigan State University has used multiple social media platforms to better engage the campus community. Resources such as blogs, Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter have all played critical roles in communicating finds and results with other archaeologists, educating and informing local communities about archaeology, stewardship and cultural heritage, and providing a more transparent, communal approach to the process of collection, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of archaeological data. We will show how the MSU Campus Archaeology Program has used digital social media to make connections between archaeologists and the communities we serve.
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