Academicians on Online Social Networks: Visibility of Academic Research and Amplification of Audience

Abstract

With Web 2.0 and online social networks, the contemporary idea of networking finds its application also within the academia, thereby allowing free access to scientific work through voluntary sharing of the scholar researchers/authors. This article investigates the tools that facilitate such amplification and its possible outcomes in the short and middle run. The explosion of user-created media content on the web in the past decade unleashed a new media universe, which was made possible by free web platforms and inexpensive software tools which enable people to share their media and easily access media produced by others. Besides the changes in the structure of the web, rapidly fallen costs and increased speed of internet connection also allowed for higher possibilities for collaboration, participation and amplification of audience for academic research.