YouTube, has become the biggest platform to share any kind of content. It goes from the DIY, beauty tutorial, gaming videos to cute cats.
The number of views of some YouTubers/videos, only show how popular and how many people it reaches (1,300,000,000 current users!). It has become so big that YouTubers can actually make a living of it: first, through the platform and their advertisement, then by sponsors, and finally via merchandising and books.
The fact that it’s a video platform, make it a perfect place of educational purpose. Few educational and vulgarisation channels (from different languages) are currently on the platform. But you won't regularly see them on the “trending” page.
Could science be funny? Can it reach people enough to help break misconception between scientist and the public?
The answer is definitely yes. The problem is, for now, the few vulgarisation channels are hold by passionate individuals that often, don’t have the supply/time/money to offer the best content they could. Here, we can make a difference.
Government and university should try to improve and help these passionate in their work. Scientific journals could even have their own channel to present to the public “the paper of the month”. All that work could increase exchange with the public, address misconception, and increase journals/university/lab visibility. Win-win-win.
Multimedia platforms, video (Youtube, dailymotion etc...) or audio-based (podcasts), are deeply undervalued as a powerful educational tool. But hopefully, the generation raised by it, will lead to a more open-science generation of youtubers and podcasters. And will improve our relation between Scientist and the public.
