2016 International Conference on Social Media & Society (#SMSociety

Location: PSH (Professor Stuart Hall Building) - 326, 
Goldsmiths, University of London, Building 2
Campus Map 

Abstract: This tutorial proposes and demonstrates a new holistic approach to computational social science in general and big social data analytics in particular based on the social philosophy of associations, mathematics of set theory and the methods of social set analysis. The set theoretical approach addresses current theoretical challenges and methodological limitations in computational social science in general and big social data analytics in particular about social structure vs. individual agency, social order vs. complexity, common method bias, and endogeneity. This tutorial will contain both “show-and-tell” demos and “hands-on” training for formally modelling massive volumes of big social data constituting individual human online interactions as unordered sets with ideas, values, objects, artefacts, and social others and conducting event studies of a social media crises dataset from Facebook.

Pre-Workshop Prep: 
No Prerequisites Required

Workshop Contacts
Ravi Vatrapu - vatrapu@cbs.dk
Raghava Rao Mukkamala - rrm.itm@cbs.dk 

Location: PSH (Professor Stuart Hall Building) - 326,
Goldsmiths, University of London, Building 2
Campus Map 

Abstract: Particularly when working with large social media datasets, quantitative and mixed-methods approaches that draw especially on visual representations of ‘big data’ are now an indispensable part of the scholarly research and publication process. This data analytics and visualisation tutorial will focus on a number of emerging standard tools and methods for large-scale data analytics, using Twitter data to illustrate these approaches. The tutorial will introduce participants to the open-source Twitter Capture and Analysis Toolkit (TCAT) as a capable and reliable tool for data gathering from the Twitter API, and to the high-end data analytics software Tableau as a powerful means of processing and visualising large datasets. The skills gained in the tutorial are also transferrable to working with other large datasets from social media and other sources.

Pre-Workshop Prep: 

Welcome to this workshop. To participate, please make sure you bring your own laptop so that we can work through a number of hands-on exercises.

You will also need to install a trial version of Tableau Desktop (http://www.tableau.com/products/trial) ahead of time, and download the following data file from Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/s/o2afy089xbb2kpd/Paris%20Climate%20Change%20Conference%202015.twbx?dl=0


Workshop Contact
Axel Bruns - a.bruns@qut.edu.au

Location: PSH (Professor Stuart Hall Building) - 326, 
Goldsmiths, University of London, Building 2
Campus Map 

Abstract: Particularly when working with large social media datasets, quantitative and mixed-methods approaches that draw especially on visual representations of ‘big data’ are now an indispensable part of the scholarly research and publication process. This data analytics and visualisation tutorial will focus on a number of emerging standard tools and methods for large-scale data analytics, using Twitter data to illustrate these approaches. The tutorial will introduce participants to the open-source Twitter Capture and Analysis Toolkit (TCAT) as a capable and reliable tool for data gathering from the Twitter API, and to the high-end data analytics software Tableau as a powerful means of processing and visualising large datasets. The skills gained in the tutorial are also transferrable to working with other large datasets from social media and other sources.

Pre-Workshop Prep: 

Welcome to this workshop. To participate, please make sure you bring your own laptop so that we can work through a number of hands-on exercises.

You will also need to install a trial version of Tableau Desktop (http://www.tableau.com/products/trial) ahead of time, and download the following data file from Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/s/o2afy089xbb2kpd/Paris%20Climate%20Change%20Conference%202015.twbx?dl=0


Workshop Contact
Axel Bruns - a.bruns@qut.edu.au

Location: PSH (Professor Stuart Hall Building) - 326, 
Goldsmiths, University of London, Building 2
Campus Map 

Location: PSH (Professor Stuart Hall Building) - 326, 
Goldsmiths, University of London, Building 2
Campus Map 

Contributors:

• Ann Pegoraro, Laurentian University, Canada
• Marion Hambrick, University of Louisville, United States

Background: 

On March 15, 2015, Bruce Jenner completed a “facial-feminization surgery,” one of the last steps in the gender transition to Caitlyn Jenner (Bissinger, 2015). Prior to this transition, Jenner was arguably most famous for winning a gold medal for decathlon during the 1976 Summer Olympic Games and appearing with his family on the reality television show, Keeping Up with the Kardashians (Bissinger, 2015). Post-transition publicity included an exclusive interview conducted by Diane Sawyer for ABC’s 20/20, a Vanity Fair cover story, and a new reality television show, I Am Cait. Accompanying this media blitz, Jenner received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award during the ESPY Awards on ESPN (Bissinger, 2015). The award celebrates “individuals whose contributions transcend sports through courageous action,” and previous recipients include Muhammad Ali and Billie Jean King (Braxton, 2015). 

Objective: 

This research focused specifically on the traditional media and social media coverage occurring during and in response to Jenner’s receipt of the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the 2015 ESPY Awards. The current study sought to analyze the top-down framing (Goffman, 1974) and bottom-up framing (Nisbett, 2010) processes in more detail. 

Methods: 

Framing allows media producers and consumers to present and better understand news events, respectively (Goffman, 1974). Pegoraro, Burch, Frederick, and Vincent (2014) noted the shift in news coverage, from news stories created and distributed solely by traditional and official media outlets to news produced and disseminated by individuals. In order to address the research purpose and questions, this study compared newspaper coverage of the ESPY Awards (Top-down framing) to social media comments (Bottom-up Framing) made on the Facebook pages of media outlets. To gather the top-down data, a LEXIS-NEXIS news search was conducted for news stories containing the following terms: “Caitlyn Jenner,” “ESPYs,” and “ESPY Awards.” Stories published within a 24-hour period during and after the event took place were collected, and their publication dates ranged from July 15, 2015 to July 16, 2015. A total of 700 stories were collected during this time period. The bottom-up sample was collected from the Facebook page of ESPN and its parent company ABC. Comments were gathered on the articles posted to that page as well as any comments posted directly to the pages that pertained to Jenner. This resulted in 26,221 comments for the sample. The researchers then utilized Leximancer, qualitative software to identify themes in both data sets. Then the researchers immersed themselves in the data to produce the final frames emerging from the data. 

Results: 

Preliminary results indicate four themes emerged from the traditional media news stories and comments made on the ABC and ESPN Facebook pages: (a) transgender conversation; (b) what constitutes courage; (c) ESPN and the ESPY Awards; and (d) Jenner’s personal life. Differences emerged in framing patterns between the two groups. Media outlets adopted a primarily positive stance in regards to Jenner, including her receipt of the award and her ability to use this platform to seek awareness and acceptance for transgender individuals. Direct quotes from Jenner were frequently included in these stories, giving a voice to Jenner and the transgender conversation. Conversely, SM users engaged in more negative conversations—against Jenner as a transgender individual and her receipt of the award, her perceived need for publicity and attention, the transgender movement and acceptance, and the ESPY Awards and ESPN’s publicity-seeking intentions. These individuals used Facebook comments to counter the more positive frames put forth by traditional media outlets, and instead favoured their personal negative frames and those espoused by likeminded individuals. 

References: 

Bissinger, B. (2015, June 30). Caitlyn Jenner: The full story. Vanity Fair. Retrieved from 
http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/06/caitlyn-jenner-bruce-cover-annie-leibovitz 
Goffman, E. (1974). Frame analysis: An essay on the organization of experience. New York: Harper & Row. 
Nisbet, M. (2010). Knowledge into action: Framing the debates over climate change and poverty. In Paul D’Angelo & Jim Kuypers (Eds.), Doing frame analysis: Empirical and theoretical perspectives (pp. 43-83). New York, NY: Routledge. 
Pegoraro, A., Burch, L. M., Frederick, E., & Vincent, C. (2014). I am not loving it: Examining the hijacking of #CheersToSochi. International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 15, 163-183.  

Location: PSH (Professor Stuart Hall Building) - 326, 
Goldsmiths, University of London, Building 2
Campus Map 

Contributors:

• Jacob Groshek, Boston University, United States
• Chelsea Cutino, Boston University, United States

This study explores the nature of how mobile social media may potentially be sharpening the tenor of communicating online. Specifically, randomized representative Twitter data was collected for several controversial issues and then examined to determine the extent to which mobile or web-based content tends more toward greater incivility and impoliteness. Additional analyses further model how certain dialogic features, such as explicitly mentioning other users and retweeting others’ posts positively relate to hostility in the discourse. Building on the basis of technological affordances and user negotiation in digitally mediated environments, this study contributes to a better understanding of how individuals express themselves on mobile devices as these rapidly are becoming normalized modes for communicating with one another online. 

Location: PSH (Professor Stuart Hall Building) - 326, 
Goldsmiths, University of London, Building 2
Campus Map 

Contributors:

• Tien Ee Dominic Yeo, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong
• Yu Leung Ng, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong

The rise of social networking mobile apps (e.g, Grindr, Jack’d) created specifically for men who have sex with men (MSM) has generated public health concerns and conflicting studies about the impact on risky sexual behaviors. This study seeks to gain a more precise understanding of why and how MSM are using social networking mobile apps, and informs the theoretical debate concerning the impact of social networking technology on sexual risk behaviors. A questionnaire survey was conducted, both online and offline, with young MSM app-users in Hong Kong to examine their apps use (frequency, history, and exposure of own face and body) and recent sexual partnering via apps (total sexual partners [TSP] and condomless sex partners [CSP]) in relation to gratifications sought and sexual sensation seeking. The results indicated that finding sexual partners was not a high priority for using MSM apps; surveillance, relationship, and diversion motives were more important while social motive shared similar importance. App-use frequency, sex motive, and sexual sensation seeking predicted more TSP while surveillance motive predicted fewer TSP. None of these variables, however, directly predicted CSP. Sexual sensation seeking in interaction with sex or diversion motive predicted both TSP and CSP. Despite lacking significant association with sex motive or sexual sensation seeking, app-use frequency was a stronger independent predictor of TSP. While frequent app use may facilitate more app-met sexual partners, this study found no evidence indicating that apps use promote riskier sexual behavior with those partners. 

Location: PSH (Professor Stuart Hall Building) - 326, 
Goldsmiths, University of London, Building 2
Campus Map 

Contributor: Lukas Labacher, McGill University, Canada

Background: 

The rate of sexual assaults in dense metropolitan spaces in Canadian cities (with 100,000 inhabitants or more) has not declined since as far back as 1999 (Perreault, 2015). This continues to be a particular concern in and around public transportation systems, such as buses, trains, and metros (Gekoski et al., 2015). In the quest to integrate technology as an innovative approach to end sexual violence against girls and women, a number of mobile phone apps (Circle of 6), crowd-sourcing websites (Hollaback!), and geo-mapping platforms (HarassMap) have been developed to help girls and women call on close friends and family as support before or after impending sexual assaults occurred. But what about influencing strangers standing in public spaces, where there is an immediate opportunity to intervene, to interrupt violence perpetrated against girls and women before it happens?

Objective and Methods: 

A three-month doctoral candidacy exam review was conducted on the title question, with a number of sub-questions explored: 1 – What theories exist informing research on nonviolent prosocial helping behaviours? 2 – What technologies (mobile phones & LCD screens) are currently being used to address sexual violence? 3 – What methods exist to evaluate the efficacy and effectiveness of these technologies? A second month-long review adds an examination on social work theory, practice, and policy, and on the intersectionalities between gender, identity, and the realities of victimization affecting women as well as men.

Results:

Theories explaining the Bystander Effect (Latané & Darley, 1970) and the Diffusion of Responsibility (Darley & Latané, 1968) show that people do intervene, particularly when situations are recognized as an emergency, prove to be dangerous, and fewer people are present (Fischer et al, 2011). Empathy training is not entirely effective (Schewe & O’Donohue, 1993). Persuasive technology researchers would be wise to focus less on influencing prosocial attitudes and favor showing helping behaviours exhibited in similar situations (Fabiano et al. 2003). Recognizing the value of digital technologies to support social work policy and practice is controversial (Sapey, 1997) but is growing (Goldkind & Wolf, 2015).

Future Work: 

Mass Interpersonal Persuasion (Fogg, 2008) models offer innovative solutions for designing persuasive messages in and around public transport spaces. Including pre-and post effectiveness evaluations (Gekoski et al., 2015) and men’s voices in future program and policy evolutions (Birchall, Edstrom, & Shahrokh, 2016) is the next step in this important work in improving on the efficacy (Glasgow, 2003) of bystander intervention surveys (Banyard, 2008). Future doctoral work will explore the use of visual arts-based research methodologies for social change, policy development (De Lange, Mitchell, & Moletsane, 2015), and creating networks of supportive relationships (Bock, 2012) at the local as well as international level.

References:

Banyard, V. L. (2008). Measurement and correlates of prosocial bystander behavior: The case of interpersonal violence. Violence and Victims, 23(1), 83–97.

Birchall, J., Edstrom, J., & Shahrokh, T. (2016). Reframing men and boys in policy for gender equality. Retrieved from ~opendocs.ids.ac.uk/ 123456789/9709/FINAL%20DESIGNED%20VERSION.pdf

Bock J. G. (2012). The technology of nonviolence: Social media and violence prevention. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Darley, J. M., & Latané, B. (1968). Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 8, 377–383.

De Lange, N., Mitchell, C., & Moletsane, R. (2015). Girl-led strategies to address campus safety: Creating action briefs for dialogue with policy makers. Agenda, 29(3), 118–127.

Fabiano, P. M., Perkins, H. W., Berkowitz, A., Linkenbach, J., & Stark, C. (2003). Engaging men as social justice allies in ending violence against women: Evidence for a social norms approach. Journal of American College Health, 52(3), 105–112.

Fischer, P., Krueger, J. I., Greitemeyer, T., Vogrincic, C., Kastenmüller, A., Frey, D., ... & Kainbacher, M. (2011). The bystander-effect: a meta-analytic review on bystander intervention in dangerous and non-dangerous emergencies. Psychological Bulletin, 137(4), 517–537.

Fogg, B. J. (2008). Mass interpersonal persuasion: An early view of a new phenomenon. In Persuasive Technology (pp. 23–34). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Gekoski, A., Gray, J. M., Horvath, M. A. H., Edwards, S., Emirali, A. & Adler, J. R. (2015). ‘What Works’ in Reducing Sexual Harassment and Sexual Offences on Public Transport Nationally and Internationally: A Rapid Evidence Assessment. London, UK.

Glasgow, R. E., Lichtenstein, E., & Marcus, A. C. (2003). Why don't we see more translation of health promotion research to practice? Rethinking the efficacy-to-effectiveness transition. American Journal of Public Health, 93(8), 1261–1267.

Goldkind, L., & Wolf, L. (2015). A digital environment approach: Four technologies that will disrupt social work practice. Social Work, 60(1), 85–87.

Latané, B., & Darley, J. M. (1970). The unresponsive bystander: Why doesn’t he help? New York, NY: Appleton-Century-Croft.

Perreault, S. (2015). Criminal victimization in Canada, 2014. Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Catalogue no. 85-002-X ISSN 1209–6393. Retrieved from statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-002-x/2015001/article/14241-eng.pdf

Sapey, B. (1997). Social work tomorrow: Towards a critical understanding of technology in social work. British Journal of Social Work, 27(6), 803–814.

Schewe, P., & O’Donohue, W. (1993). Rape prevention: Methodological problems and new directions. Clinical Psychology Review, 13, 667–682.

Location: PSH (Professor Stuart Hall Building) - 326, 
Goldsmiths, University of London, Building 2
Campus Map 

Location: PSH (Professor Stuart Hall Building) - 326, 
Goldsmiths, University of London, Building 2
Campus Map 

Contributors:

• Anders Kristian Munk, Aalborg University Copenhagen, Denmark
• Mette Simonsen Abildgaard, Aalborg University Copenhagen, Denmark
• Morten Krogh Petersen, Aalborg University Copenhagen, Denmark
• Andreas Birkbak, Aalborg University Copenhagen, Denmark

This paper presents three ways of appropriating Instagram for social research through the case of obesity. We draw on the notion obesogenic environment, in which obesity is understood as related to a wide range of cultural, social and physical factors. In a data sprint, digital methods and obesity researchers together explored a dataset of 82,449 instagrams tagged with location from the 5 most and the 5 least overweight local authorities in the UK. These geo-located instagrams from low and high-BMI areas were studied in three distinct approaches to the data; each drawing on interrelated conceptualizations about what is the obesogenic environment, Instagram and cultural analysis. The first appropriation values Instagram as a repository of images that can be coded and counted, while the second asks about the everyday practices of Instagram users. In a third appropriation, we view Instagram as an analytical tool in itself that produces a media-specific version of phenomena such as obesity. Following this third appropriation, we conclude that Instagram, to unfold its potential for social research, must be considered as more than a collection of user-tagged images, but as an analytical context in its own right. 

Location: PSH (Professor Stuart Hall Building) - 326, 
Goldsmiths, University of London, Building 2
Campus Map 

Contributors:

• Oluwaseun Ajao, Queen's University Belfast, United Kingdom
• Anna Jurek, Queen's University, United Kingdom
• Aisling Gough,  Queen's University Belfast, United Kingdom
• Ruth Hunter,  Queen's University Belfast, United Kingdom
• Eimear Barrett,  Queen's University Belfast, United Kingdom
• Gary Mckeown,  Queen's University Belfast, United Kingdom
• Jun Hong,  Queen's University Belfast, United Kingdom
• Frank Kee, Queen's University Belfast, United Kingdom

Social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook have been shown to function as effective social sensors that can “feel the pulse” of a community. The aim of the current study is to test the feasibility of designing, implementing and evaluating a bespoke social media-enabled intervention that can be effective for sharing and changing knowledge, attitudes and behaviours in meaningful ways to promote public health, specifically with regards to prevention of skin cancer. We present the design and implementation details of the campaign followed by summary findings and analysis.

Background

Research has shown that social networks can mediate the transmission of healthy and unhealthy behaviors in populations; either through selection (Centola, 2010, 2011) or influence (Cha et al, 2010) Social Media (SM) platforms have also been shown to transmit moods, feeling and behaviours (Naveed et al, 2011). There are several studies that have shown the effectiveness of social media in terms of behavioural changes in public health interventions such as in physical activity (Cavallo et al, 2012), sexual health (Bull et al, 2012) and risky sexual behaviours (Jones, Baldwin, & Lewis, 2012). To the best of our knowledge our study is one of the first to use Twitter and Facebook social networking platforms to study public health behaviour while raising awareness about skin cancer and its prevention.

Objective

The study aimed to address the following research questions to support the feasibility assessment: (1) Does SM constitute an acceptable means for delivering public health information in the target population? (2) Are people willing to share personal issues (e.g. health behaviours or attitudes) across a SM platform? (3) What type of SM communication would attract the attention of the target population? (4) Are individuals, organizations, celebrities more likely to tweet or re-tweet messages related to the public health campaign? (5) What are the key factors that motivate users to share messages amongst themselves? 

Methods

We began by conducting a survey of 752 households to understand SM usage amongst people in Northern Ireland–the study’s target population. We found Facebook and Twitter to be the two most popular platforms as shown in Table 1. To prepare for the two main phases of the intervention we chose hashtags which broadly differentiated skin cancer awareness from skin surveillance messages respectively. The first Phase which ran from the 1st May – 15th July 2015 contained messages with the #SkinSmartNI, #SkinSavvyNI hashtags. The second Phase ran from 1st August - 30th September 2015 and used the hashtag #KnowYourSkinNI. We chose influencers (including radio, TV weather presenters and celebrities such as music artistes) who we hoped would help diffuse our messages. A coordinated SM event promoting the campaign – a Thunderclap – was designed and then delivered on 1st September 2015 with the aim of creating a trending online meme of the various hashtags used. Figure 1 shows the five message types posted - shocking, story, informative, opportunistic and humorous.

To effectively capture the Twitter data we chose to subscribe to a data provider for the provision of 100% access to the Twitter firehose while Facebook data collected from the analytics dashboard was sufficient for this purpose. However, due to privacy concerns, analysis of Facebook data is limited and beyond the scope of this current paper. JSON data was parsed into CSV and an SQL database for analysis.

Results

In summary, the first phase of the study generated 1,404 interactions comprising tweets, retweets and replies from 366 distinct users while the second phase generated 486 interactions from 217 distinct users. 70% of the messages were sent by users based in the UK. We inferred gender for 65% of the users using “twitterreport” R package. For messages on Twitter we measure message performance in terms of impressions (views) and engagements (clicks). In Table 2 we see the most retweeted messages were “informative” and “humorous” for phases 1 and 2 respectively. We also found no significant difference between promoted and non-promoted messages on both platforms. 

Future work

In our ongoing work we examine diffusion of information based on the message topic and the locations of users who propagate the information. Also, we are assessing how the various message types differ in terms of their diffusion. It would be beneficial for assessing SM enabled public health campaigns if finer granularity were obtained using a location inference algorithm (Ajao, Hong, & Weiru, 2015) which may give more location detail on campaign responses at city-level. In addition it would be interesting if future work could accurately infer more demographic characteristics of responders in platforms such as Facebook especially when response volumes were low. These features are crucial in measuring effectiveness of public health interventions.

References

[1]    Ajao, O., Hong, J. and Liu, W. (2015) A Survey of Location Inference Techniques on Twitter. Journal of Information Science (Big Social Data Special Issue, Dec 2015) Vol. 41(6) 855–864. DOI: 10.1177/0165551515602847

[2]    Bull, S. S., Levine, D. K., Black, S. R., Schmiege, S. J., & Santelli, J. (2012). Social media–delivered sexual health intervention: a cluster randomized controlled trial. American journal of preventive medicine, 43(5), 467-474. DOI: 10.1016/j.amepre.2012.07.022

[3]    Cavallo, D. N., Tate, D. F., Ries, A. V., Brown, J. D., DeVellis, R. F., & Ammerman, A. S. (2012). A social media–based physical activity intervention: a randomized controlled trial. American journal of preventive medicine, 43(5), 527-532. DOI: 10.1016/j.amepre.2012.07.019.

[4]    Centola, D. (2010) The spread of behavior in an online social network experiment. Science. 329:1194-97. DOI: 10.1126/science.1185231.

[5]    Centola, D. (2011) An experimental study of homophily in the adoption of health behavior. Science; 334:1269-72. DOI: 10.1126/science.1207055

[6]    Cha, M., Haddadi, H., Benevenuto, F. & Gummadi, P.K. (2010), "Measuring User Influence in Twitter: The Million Follower Fallacy.", International Conference on Web & Social Media, vol. 10, no. 10-17, 30.

[7]     Jones, K., Baldwin, K. A., & Lewis, P. R. (2012). The potential influence of a social media intervention on risky sexual behavior and Chlamydia incidence. Journal of community health nursing, 29(2), 106-120. DOI: 10.1080/07370016.2012.670579.

[8]    Naveed, N., Gottron, T., Kunegis, J. & Alhadi, A.C. (2011), "Bad news travel fast: A content-based analysis of interestingness on twitter", Proceedings of the 3rd International Web Science Conference ACM, 8. DOI: 10.1145/2527031.2527052

[9]    Vega Yon, G. (2015). “twitterreport”: Out-of-the-Box Analysis and Reporting Tools for Twitter. R package version 0.15.8.26. http://github.com/gvegayon/twitterreport [Accessed: 14th April, 2016]

Location: PSH (Professor Stuart Hall Building) - 326, 
Goldsmiths, University of London, Building 2
Campus Map 

Contributors:

• Anabel Quan-Haase, University of Western Ontario, Canada
• Barry Wellman, University of Toronto, Canada
• Kim Martin, UWO, Canada
• Christian Beermann, University of Toronto, Canada
• Meghan Miller, University of Western Ontario, Canada

Building on three previous studies of East York, we employ detailed qualitative analyses to examine how senior residents of this Toronto area find social support via the internet, their phones, and in-person. Focusing on residents who are 65+, as they comprise nearly half of our sample, we can see that the analytic categories employed in the second East York study remain useful despite advances in digital media. Through this we are able to determine that social support is widely available, with these older adults using the internet, particularly email and Facebook, as well as their phones, and in-person contacts to mobilize their social networks. Many of our participants rely heavily on the assistance of relatives and some on friends for technical support, they continue to learn how to best access their social support via digital networks. 

Background:

Many researchers and pundits have claimed that social life has eroded, pointing to different prime causes including industrialization, capitalism, socialism, urbanization, colonialism, and bureaucratization. Recently, some have blamed technology, especially the diffusion of trains, cars, telephones, radios, televisions from diminishing involvement in formally organized groups of parents, veterans, social clubs, and the like (Putnam, 2000), while others have pointed to a supposed lack of authentic connections engendered by digital media (Turkle, 2011; Livingstone, 2008). At the center of this debate is the assumption that ties sustained via computer-mediated communication do not support the mobilization of social support as well as in-person ties (Turkle, 2011; Livingston, 2008). Even if individuals are more connected, it is argued that this increase in ties does not translate into greater networks of social support. Contrary to these claims, our evidence shows that while things are not what they used to be, they have not fallen apart either and social support is exchanged among networks of older Torontonians both on and offline. 

Objective:

Much work in the area of social capital suggests that resources can indeed flow through social media such as Facebook (Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe, 2007) and Twitter (Quan-Haase, Martin, & McCay-Peet, 2015). However, much of this work has collected data from university students and young adults, who have grown up with the internet and mobile devices, the so-called "digital natives" (Prensky, 2001). This study by contrast aims to understand how social support is mobilized within the context of older Canadians’ everyday lives by examining what types of social support older residents of East York exchange with their networks, from whom they receive social support, as well as whom they supply with the same, and finally what role social media plays in facilitating or hindering the mobilization of social support in these networks? 

Methods:

The present study represents the fourth wave of data collection that has taken place in East York since 1968 (Coates, Moyer, & Wellman, 1969; Wellman, 1979; Wellman & Wortley, 1990; Wellman et al. 2006) , taking place from November, 2012 to June 2013. The sample frame consisted of 2,321 residents , of which 304 were randomly contacted and 101 agreed to participate. Of these, 41 respondents ranged from 65 to 93 years of age and have been included in this analysis. Employing these participants we investigated the types of social support exchanged, ranging from companionship and the exchange of small and large services, to emotional and financial aid. 

Results:

Residents of East York continue to exchange the same types of social support witnessed in previous waves of data collection ranging from emotional aid, small services, large services, and companionship (Wellman, 1979; Wellman & Wortley, 1989; Wellman & Wortley, 1990; Wellman et al. 2006). In contrast, major financial aid was hardly discussed by participants as a type of social support exchanged. Uniquely, we did find that communication is a type of social support that has not been captured in previous typologies and was central to our study, suggesting that for this population of older residents, communication via mobile phones, email, and social media is a kind of social support that is received and exchanged.
As long as the older residents of East York surveyed possessed the necessary skills and means to utilize information and communications technologies (ICTs), they employed them to further connect with their social networks near and far to mobilize social support, maintain ties, plan face-to-face activities, ask for expertise, or engage in casual conversation. Thus ICTs are adding another layer to the mobilization of social support within personal social networks, and therefore potentially increasing happiness and situational satisfaction.

At the same time, this age group shows great appreciation for face-to-face exchanges and consider communication via email and social media an add-on, instead of a substitute. Here email was the most prominent medium employed for communication, while using Facebook was also common, even if respondents did not actively post their opinions online but followed and interacted with friends and family.

For others it brings frustration and feelings of segregation. These respondents often felt a lack of confidence with technology and their low digital skills block them from taking full advantages of the possibilities afforded by these digital technologies. Thus, the older residents of East York could benefit from further support in learning how to make digital media work for them, for their needs. 

Future Work:

Respondents considered computer-mediated communication (CMC) to be a form of social support, suggesting that increases in digital communication also increase the exchange of overall social support. Future work can further shed light on ICT use by seniors and their potential reliance on both traditional sources of social support as well as their adoption of social media and social networking platforms. Simultaneously, investigations of the overall social network makeup of all networks within the sample using similar methods will enable researchers to suggest methods to enhance digital literacy, change the features of particular media platforms, and understand the motivations that propel usage by the elderly so as to enable their usage of potential affordances. Likewise an investigation of individual views of privacy, both interpersonal and institutional, alongside further study of technology usage within the sample on the whole may uncover peculiarities of the senior population not yet revealed. 

References:

Coates, D. B., Moyer, S., & Wellman, B. (1969). Yorklea study: Symptoms, problems and life events. Canadian Journal of Public Health 60(12), 471-481.

Ellison, N. B., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C. (2007). The benefits of Facebook “Friends:” Social capital and college students’ use of online social setwork sites. Journal of Computer- Mediated Communication, 12(4), 1143−1168.

Livingstone, S. (2008). Taking risky opportunities in youthful content creation: Teenagers' use of social networking sites for intimacy, privacy and self-expression. New Media and Society 10(3), 393-411.

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon 9(5). http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky - Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants - Part1.pdf

Putnam, R. (2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of american community. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.

Quan-Haase, A., Martin, K., & McCay-Peet, L. (2015). Networks of digital humanities scholars: The informational and social uses and gratifications of twitter. Big Data & Society 2(1). http://arxiv.org/abs/1507.02994

Turkle, S. (2011). Alone together. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Wellman, B. (1979). The community question: The intimate networks of East Yorkers. American Journal of Sociology 84(5), 1201-1231.

Wellman, B. & Wortley, S. (1990). Different strokes from different folks: Community ties and social support. American Journal of Sociology 96(3), 558-588.

Wellman, B., & Wortley, S. (1989). Brothers’ keepers: Situating kinship relations in broader networks of social support. Sociological Perspectives, 32(3), 273-306. Wellman, B., Hogan, B., Berg, K., Boase, J., Carrasco, J. A., Côté, R., Kayahara, J., Kennedy, T. L. M., & Tran, P. (2006). Connected lives: The project. In P. Purcell (Ed.), Networked neighborhoods: The online community in context (pp. 157-211). Guildford, UK: Springer. 

 

...

Location: PSH (Professor Stuart Hall Building) - 326, 
Goldsmiths, University of London, Building 2
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Contributors:

• Vassilis Plachouras, Thomson Reuters, United Kingdom
• Jochen Leidner, Thomson Reuters, United Kingdom
• Andrew Garrow, Thomson Reuters, United Kingdom

A well-functioning ecosystem of drug suppliers includes responsive regulators and pharmaceutical companies when a sold drug exhibits side effects. Existing systems for monitoring adverse drug events such as the Federal Adverse Events Reporting System (FAERS) in the US have shown limited effectiveness due to the lack of incentives on the side of healthcare professionals and patients. While social media present opportunities to mine adverse events in near real-time, there are still important questions to be answered in order to understand their impact on pharmacovigilance. First, it is not known how many social media posts occur per day on platforms like Twitter, i.e. whether there is "enough signal" for a post-market pharmacovigilance program based on Twitter mining. Second, it is not known what other topics are discussed by users in posts mentioning pharmaceutical drugs.

In this paper, we outline how social media can be used as a human sensor for drug use monitoring. We introduce a large-scale, near real-time system for computational pharmacovigilance, and use our system to estimate the order of magnitude of the volume of daily self-reported pharmaceutical drug side effect tweets. The processing pipeline comprises a set of cascaded filters followed by a supervised machine learning classifier. The cascaded filters quickly reduce the volume to a manageable sub-stream, from which a Support Vector Machine (SVM) based classifier identifies adverse events based on a rich set of features taking into account surface-textual properties as well as domain knowledge about drugs, side effects and the Twitter medium. Using a dataset of 10,000 manually annotated tweets, a SVM classifier achieves F1=60.4% and AUC=0.894. 

The yield of the classifier for a drug universe comprising 2,600 keywords is 721 tweets per day. We also investigate what other topics are discussed in the posts mentioning pharmaceutical drugs. We conclude by suggesting an ecosystem where regulators and pharma companies utillize social media to obtain feedback about consequences of pharmaceutical drug use. 

Location: PSH (Professor Stuart Hall Building) - 326, 
Goldsmiths, University of London, Building 2
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Presenters: 

• Rebecca Coleman, Goldsmiths, @rcecoleman
• Karen Gregory, Edinburgh University, @claudiakincaid
• William Housley, Cardiff University, @ProfWilHousley
• Helena Webb, University of Oxford, @EthicsWildfire

Objectives: Social media is conventionally located within a commercial narrative that theorises an array of emerging ‘disruptive technologies’ that includes big data, additive manufacture and robotics. These and related technologies are underpinned by computational developments that are networked, distributed, digital and data driven. It has been argued that these technologies not only disrupt markets; but also wider social and economic relations and organization. These include social institutions such as the family, work, health care delivery, education, relationships and the ‘self’. Social media is one of the first waves of digital disruptive technologies whose mass global take-up via multiple platforms is still being assessed and understood, as a social force in it’s own right. Standardly, ‘social media as data’ has provided a plethora of studies and projects that have examined the big and broad social data opportunities provided by the social media for understanding populations on the move ‘in real time’. In some cases this has led certain commentators to enthusiastically claim that the analysis of social media as data offers opportunities for prediction and the forecasting of behavior at the population level although this rhetoric is not without it’s skeptics and critics. Furthermore, these methodological opportunities and oracular imaginaries are being accompanied by an ‘ontological velocity’ generated by the social and economic implications of social media as data, practice and a globalizing networked communicative force that is shaping being and becoming in the digital age. A key issue here is the relationship between social media, society, time and the ‘future making’ capacities and affordances of these and allied technologies.

Yet little work has been carried out on the temporal ramifications of social media (and other disruptive technologies) in relation to emerging digital timescapes. To this extent the study of the relationship between social media and society remains under conceptualized especially in relation to our understanding of late modernity at the beginning of the 21st century. The relationship between social media and the social generation of risk, it’s contributions to new digital timescapes and the trajectory of the self and identity alongside empirical concerns is sociological work in waiting. In addition to this social media as a mass networked ‘digital agora’ can also be understood as a reflexive space in and through which different agents and actors are imagining the future in a variety of ways.

Significance: This panel would address a number of the themes concerning social media impact on society e.g. private self/public self, the sharing/attention economy, virtality & memes, political mobilization and engagement. It would do so in a synthetic way, building upon discussion of a number of substantive topics in order to frame an important broader discussion about the relationship between social media and social futures. 
Why a Panel? The panel format allows our broad topic to be approached through a number of individual contributions, leading to a broader conversation through engagement between the speakers and engagement with the audience. Each speaker will give a short provocative talk and there will be an opportunity for questions from the audience. At the end of these talks, the speakers will be invited to briefly respond to each other before we open up for a general discussion with the audience. 

Logistics: Mark Carrigan (@mark_carrigan, University of Warwick) will chair the session, introducing each speaker and facilitating discussion. Each speaker will give a brief talk. 

Interactivity: As well as the aforementioned opportunity for discussion within the session, allowing time for the Q&A with each individual speaker but also to participate in synthesising the session contents as a whole, we intend that the contents of the session will be the basis for an extended conversation leading beyond the conference itself. These panel will provide the basis for a special issue of the online magazine Discover Society, building on a similar initiative (the politics of data) organised by Mark Carrigan in the same publication. Each speaker will submit an article to Discover Society and audience members will be invited to submit to the special issue, as well as to the contents of a  general call for articles that will be circulated within a month of the event. 

Conclusions: Participants in the session will have a clearer understanding of the relationship between social media and social futures. They will have been invited to contributing to fleshing out this relation, both through participation in the session itself and in the ensuing special issue of Discover Society. In doing so, we intend that the session starts a broad conversation in which we might ‘join the dots’ of discrete areas of transformation in order to better understand how social media is both shaped by and is shaping social futures. 

Brief Biography of Each Presenter: 

• Rebecca Coleman is senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Goldsmiths. Her research interests include images and visual/sensory culture; bodies and materiality; surfaces; temporality and the future; affect; inventive methodologies; feminist, cultural and social theory  
• Karen Gregory is a lecturer in digital sociology at the University of Edinburgh, and co-editor of the forthcoming Digital Sociologies. Her research focuses on the experience of working online and the embodied nature of digital labor. She is currently at work on a project that explores the possibilities for solidarity in a digital economy.
• William Housley, is a sociologist, based at the Cardiff University School of Social Sciences, who works across a number of research areas that include language and interaction, social media, the social aspects of disruptive technologies and the emerging contours of digital society, economy and culture. Professor Housley was a co-founder of COSMOS and is currently working on a number of ESRC funded projects that relate to digital society and research; he co-convenes the Digital Sociology Research Group at Cardiff University, is co-editor of Qualitative Research (SAGE) and serves on the editorial board of Big Data and Society (SAGE).
• Helena Webb is a sociologist based in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Oxford. She is a member of the ongoing Digital Wildfire research project, which investigates the spread of provocative content on social media and opportunities for the responsible governance of digital social spaces.

Location: PSH (Professor Stuart Hall Building) - 326, 
Goldsmiths, University of London, Building 2
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Location: PSH (Professor Stuart Hall Building) - 326, 
Goldsmiths, University of London, Building 2
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Contributor: Gabriela Morales, The University of Sheffield

Introduction

The information people choose (in the form of opinions, advice or ideas) determines to a great extent the knowledge they acquire (Barthelme, Ermine, & Rosenthal-Sabroux, 1998; Nonaka, 1994). However, in order to forego the costs of individual learning, people have evolved to acquire knowledge through social learning processes like teaching, language and imitation (Mesoudi, 2011). Specifically, some evolutionary scholars have focused on three biases that take place when grouped individuals interact: they tend to conform to the beliefs of the group (frequency-based); they tend to imitate the ideas of powerful or alike individuals (model-based); or they simply select information that is perceived as having more benefits compared to the other options (content-based), (Mesoudi, 2011; Richerson & Boyd, 2005).

These biases tend to happen whenever people are grouped, but never before have we seen as many individuals interacting as we do now. With almost half of the world’s population making use of the internet (Internet Live Stats, 2015) and given the amount of information that is being shared and received by users, online communities have had to implement different structures that simplify the sharing of information. However, at the same time that these structures simplify and tailor the information we need, they also make us prone to obtaining information that is biased (Kahneman, 2003; Tversky & Kahneman, 1981). These structures affect: the amount of information allowed to be transmitted to other users (maximum or minimum characters allowed per ‘post’), the type of information that can be used (for instance, text, images, or video), the reach within the whole online community (i.e., some opinions are shared only within a selected group of acquaintances while others are meant to be seen by any online user), and the level of conformity towards an idea shared by someone in the network (by making use of different rating-scales).

Objective

The main aim of this research will be to analyse how these different structures might bias the information people receive, and to determine which biases have a greater impact at the moment an individual is choosing from available opinions, advice or ideas. To achieve this, the current research done in social media was structured around the three group-biases (content, model, and frequency-based). The literature review showed that research has already being performed regarding what makes information attractive to others in terms of its content (Cheng & Ho, 2015; Cheung & Thadani, 2012; Jalilvand, Esfahani, & Samiei, 2011; Liu & Park, 2015; Park & Nicolau, 2015), and also in terms of online power or expertise (Iyengar, Van den Bulte, & Valente, 2011; Jacobsen, 2015; Litvin, Goldsmith, & Pan, 2008; Wu, Hofman, Mason, & Watts, 2011). However few studies have addressed the topic of conformity in online networks (Tsao, Hsieh, Shih, & Lin, 2015). Particularly, the differentiation between the personal and the total social network has been under-studied (Jiang, Ma, Shang, & Chau, 2014; Luo & Zhong, 2015). Moreover, although some research has also been performed regarding the comparison of rating-scales in online environments (Riedl, Blohm, Leimeister, & Krcmar, 2010, 2013), these studies have not differentiated personal networks within the online platforms. 

Therefore, to address these gaps, the present study explores the following research questions: Which are the biases that mostly affect online choices? How strongly does conformity affect the choices in social media? Do people conform differently to the total-network than to their online personal-networks? Does the selection of information from someone’s personal network get affected by two different rating- systems?

Methods

To target the research questions, the study will adopt a quasi-experimental approach, and the data gathered will be both quantitative and qualitative, and longitudinal in nature. The quasi-experiment will consist of three years of data generated within an online educational website (PeerWise) where the participants will be (non-randomly allocated) undergraduate students of a particular module in the University of Sheffield. This module currently uses PeerWise throughout the semester, where students use it “to create [multiple choice questions] and to explain their understanding of course-related assessment questions and to answer and discuss questions created by their peers" (PeerWise, 2015).

The study will encompass three years of data: [1] The first year will have the characteristic that Peerwise users will be able to choose their usernames1 and rate2 each other’s questions from 0 to 5. [2] In the second year the change that will take place is that anonymity will be removed. This is, all students will be signed-in with their first and last names3, while the rating-scale continue to be 0 to 5. [3] Finally, during the third year students will continue to be logged-in with their first and last names, and the change will be that the rating scale will go from 0-5 to 0-1 (similar to a ‘like/dislike’).

Each year of the quasi-experiment will have 350 students (approx.) which will generate around 54,000 interactions4. This data will be analysed using statistical methods5. Moreover, at the end of each semester students will be asked to complete a questionnaire where their personal networks (within the group) will be mapped. The data from the questionnaire will then be compared with the way users interacted in PeerWise, using social network 6and sequence7 analyses. Finally, yearly focus groups will be used to get additional qualitative data that helps the researcher better understand the opinions and feelings of participants regarding the presence of their personal networks in online environments and the use of a particular rating scale. 

Results

Theoretically, this research will add value by addressing the previously outlined research questions. Empirically, the research will create value by performing a real-life quasi-experiment which will enable to study conformity to personal-networks and comparison of online rating-scales with a novel methodology. Regarding practice and policy, it will help to better understand the application of social media to education, by studying which structures better enable students to obtain information and retain knowledge.

Future Work

This study is part of an ongoing Ph.D. At the time of the conference the researcher will be performing the first between-group comparison, and will therefore be able to comment on some of the preliminary results.

REFERENCES

Barthelme, F., Ermine, J.-L., & Rosenthal-Sabroux, C. (1998). An architecture for knowledge evolution in organisations. European Journal of Operational Research, 109, 414–427. http://doi.org/10.1016/S0377-2217(98)00067-8

Cheng, Y., & Ho, H. (2015). Social influence’s impact on reader perceptions of online reviews. Journal of Business Research, 68(4), 883–887. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2014.11.046

Cheung, C. M. K., & Thadani, D. R. (2012). The impact of electronic word-of-mouth communication: A literature analysis and integrative model. Decision Support Systems, 54(1), 461–470. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.dss.2012.06.008

Elzinga, C. H., & Studer, M. (2015). Spell Sequences, State Proximities, and Distance Metrics. Sociological Methods & Research, 44(1), 3–47. http://doi.org/10.1177/0049124114540707
Granovetter, M. S. (1973). The Strength of Weak Ties. American Journal of Sociology, 78(6), 1360. http://doi.org/10.1086/225469

Internet Live Stats. (2015). Internet Users. Retrieved May 18, 2015, from http://www.internetlivestats.com/internet-users/

Iyengar, R., Van den Bulte, C., & Valente, T. W. (2011). Opinion Leadership and Social Contagion in New Product Diffusion. Marketing Science, 30(2), 195–212. http://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.1100.0566

Jackson, M. O. (2008). Social and economic networks. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Jacobsen, G. D. (2015). Consumers, experts, and online product evaluations: Evidence from the brewing industry. Journal of Public Economics, 126, 114–123. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2015.04.005

Jalilvand, M. R., Esfahani, S. S., & Samiei, N. (2011). Electronic word-of-mouth: Challenges and opportunities. Procedia Computer Science, 3, 42–46. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2010.12.008 

Jiang, G., Ma, F., Shang, J., & Chau, P. Y. K. (2014). Evolution of knowledge sharing behavior insocial commerce: An agent-based computational approach. Information Sciences, 278, 250–266.http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ins.2014.03.051

Kahneman, D. (2003). A Perspective on Judgment and Choice: Mapping Bounded Rationality. American Psychologist, 58(9), 697–720. http://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.58.9.697

Litvin, S. W., Goldsmith, R. E., & Pan, B. (2008). Electronic word-of-mouth in hospitality and tourism management. Tourism Management, 29(3), 458–468. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2007.05.011

Liu, Z., & Park, S. (2015

...

Location: PSH (Professor Stuart Hall Building) - 326, 
Goldsmiths, University of London, Building 2
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Contributors:

• Chandell Gosse, Western University, Canada
• Anabel Quan Haase, Western University, Canada
• Alyssa MacDougall, Western University, Canada

Background: This project examines the popular term “slacktivism” through an investigation of social media users’ participation in social movements online and offline. Ensuring the success of social movements is an impossible task because their success, i.e., social or political change that occurs as a result of organized efforts to do so, rests on a complex matrix of conditions (e.g., social, economic, political, personal, economic, geographical, etc.). A key feature known to be effective, at least, involves perseverance and long-term commitment (Corrigall-Brown 2011). The growth of social media as a popular communication platform for the awareness and organization of many social movements, called here social and political online campaigns (SPOCs), has led to widespread debate over the merits of its use in relation to such perseverance by dismissing involvement as “slacktivism” or simply a “feel good measure.” Beyond the campaign’s number of likes, posts, tweets, and monetary donations, however, there is little empirical data on which to form an opinion. Understanding the new shift from offline to online communication within social movements and their related SPOCs requires knowing more than simply how many people participated, or how popular the campaign appeared to be. As such, our project asks whether participation in social and political online campaigns is a determinate factor for participation outside of a social media context. 

Objective: Given the emphasis on long-term commitment, and the short-shelf life of many online campaigns, our project seeks to understand whether individuals who participate in SPOCs continue to support the causes behind the campaigns outside of the social media sphere. Our project has two objectives: first, to determine whether SPOCs mobilize action outside the sphere of social media; and second, to determine whether such action continues after the campaigns recede from social media spotlight. Our central argument states that even though participation occurs by a few highly engaged individuals, the long tail of participation—that is, the moderately engaged majority—still comprises a significant portion of total engagement. We rely on Anderson’s (2006) theory of the long tail to better understand the phenomenon of engagement in viral campaigns. 

Methods: This research comes at a crucial time; as technology continues to evolve and the ubiquity of social media as a primary form of communication increases, it is important to understand how people from all walks of life engage with online activism. Our project draws from participants’ responses to surveys advertised on the social networking sites Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook. The survey is comprised of open-ended and close-ended questions and is available to anyone over the age of eighteen. 

Results: The online survey (found here: https://goo.gl/AmQiMM) will remain active until March 2016. The results from this survey are expected to provide insight into four main areas of interest: a) why social media users’ choose to participate in SPOCs and what that participation consists of; b) whether social media users’ learn about issues pertaining to the SPOCs they participate in outside of the social media context, and if so, what the breadth of that knowledge is; c) what information or knowledge users’ feel they gained from participating in SPOCs; and d) whether users’ develop a commitment to the cause outside of social media.  

Future Work: The research presented here represents the first stage of a larger project. This stage aims to quantify whether social media users, who participated in SPOCs, participated or supported the campaign outside of social media. The next stage of this project will address related questions using a qualitative approach. The significance of our study lies in providing a better understanding of the effectiveness of these viral campaigns. Since many private and public companies, non-government organizations, health care initiatives and advocacy groups, to name a few, invest enormous amounts of time and resources into creating and disseminating these campaigns, we think that understanding how effective they are beyond their “15 minutes of fame” could help maximize the successfulness of the campaign’s goal(s) (and ultimately, effect change). 

References: 
Anderson, C. (2006). The long tail: Why the future of business is selling less of more. New York, NY: Hyperion. 
Corrigall-Brown, C. (2011). Patterns of protest: Trajectories of participation in social movements. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.  

Location: PSH (Professor Stuart Hall Building) - 326, 
Goldsmiths, University of London, Building 2
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Contributor: Kelli Burns, University of South Florida, United States

Background: 

Perhaps no other campaign has reached greater success in terms of participation, donations, social media chatter, and attention in popular culture than the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. This campaign was truly a grassroots effort, fueled by friends of an ALS victim and then spread on social media by millions of participants ranging from average citizens to celebrities. Significant coverage by traditional media and participation by personalities on television further accelerated awareness of the campaign and the cause. On Twitter, many celebrities also shared their involvement in the campaign and spurred conversation and engagement among other Twitter users. 

Objective: 

This study sought to understand the impact of influencers in spreading discussion of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge campaign on Twitter. This study examined the top accounts for retweets and mentions; the correlation between the most followed, most retweeted, and most mentioned users; and the network structure of the conversation. Finally, the conversation was examined to see whether it was "on message."

Methods: 

A historical data grant from Texifter provided access to almost 550,000 tweets and enterprise access to DiscoverText, a “cloud-based, collaborative text analytics solution.” Tweets were selected based on the criteria of inclusion of the hashtags of #alsicebucketchallenge or #icebucketchallenge and use of the English language during the period of August 18-22, 2014. Of the millions of English-language tweets during this timeframe using these hashtags, 15 percent of the tweets were randomly selected for inclusion in the sample, resulting in a sample size of 545,563 tweets. 

Results: 

Analysis of the more than 500,000 tweets determined the top influencers in terms of mentions and retweets and also explored correlation between the most followed users, the most retweeted, and the most mentioned, finding a moderate correlation between the most retweeted and mentioned. T2G 0.3 for Python was used to extract all edges from tweets with multiple mentions from a sample of 1,000 tweets, resulting in 1,457 edges to be analyzed in NodeXL. Plotting the data using the Fruchterman-Reingold algorithm resulted in large nodes (representing the vertex in-degree metric) for certain celebrities and close relationships for others. The vertices were grouped by cluster using the Clauset-Newman-Moore algorithm and further examined. This study also modeled a larger sample of the dataset using Gephi and D3. Finally, although ALS was mentioned in a larger percentage of tweets, variations of the word donate were mentioned much less frequently.

Future Work: 

The implications of this study would be relevant to other activist Twitter campaigns that mobilize celebrity influencers. 

Location: PSH (Professor Stuart Hall Building) - 326, 
Goldsmiths, University of London, Building 2
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Contributor: Kamil Filipek, University of Warsaw, Poland

Introduction 

Nowadays, much of the public activities and behaviors can be found in social media. Social media became a tool enabling access, delivery, exchange and mobilization of resources embedded in personal networks. Whereas, the impact of such resources on instrumental and expressive actions is well documented in the literature (Lin 2001, Finsveen and van Oorschot 2008), the role of social media in facilitating/blocking different types of resources that may have na impact on the individual's actions remains little studied (Steinfield, Ellison, and Lampe 2008, Ellison et al. 2014). This research focus on the relationship between social media, individual social capital, and patterns of the political participation among Polish citizens.

 

Theory of social resources

The theory of social resources proposed by Lin (Lin, Vaughn, and Ensel 1981; Lin 1999; Lin 2001)⁠ makes explicit the assumption that resources embedded in personal networks have an impact on individual actions and can lead to better socioeconomic status (Lin 1999)⁠. He operationalized social capital at the individual level as 'a social asset by virtue of actors’ connections and access to resources in the network or group of which they are members' (Lin 2001). Such resources include symbolic and material goods that make up the social capital (Bourdieu 1986). To distinguish resources owned by others from private resources belonging to an individual, Lin introduced a term 'personal resources'. By personal resources he means “resources possessed by an individual [that] may include ownership of material as well as symbolic goods (e.g., diplomas and degrees)” (Lin 2001).

This research focus on social resources owned by individuals belonging to the respondent's personal network. Based on previous research with the Resource Generator tool (Webber, Huxley, & Harris 2011; Batorski, Bojanowski, & Filipek, 2015), it is assumed here that only some resources could be mobilized in a purposive action. In other words, relatives, friends and acquaintances may possess certain resources, but individuals are not able to use them when acting in various social contexts.

Thus, the main goal of this research is to find out whether and how resources embedded in personal networks (family, friends, acquaintances) influence the political participation of social media users. The following research questions are pursued:

- Do embedded and/or mobilizable resources in personal networks affect the political participiation of respondents?

- What is the impact of resources on respondents' activities selected in this research as indicators of the political participation?

- Whose resources, namely family, friends, acquaintances or respondents have an impact (positive or negative) on the political participation?

 

Methods: 

The core of the measuring tool is based on the Resource Generator (RG) (Van Der Gaag and Snijders 2005). Items included in the RG are the major independent variables. The RG items refer to the four types of resources (i.e. support, knowledge, recommendation, and material resources) embedded and mobilized through personal networks, that may have an impact on the individual's participation.

The dependent variable is represented by five items (5-point Likert scales) reflecting the respondents' political participation. Those items include (1) voting in elections, (2) signing petitions, (3) joining protests, (4) personal contacts with politicians, (5) local community meetings.

The data has been collected through the online questionnaire among individuals registered at the online research platform delivered by external partner. The research has been conducted in December 2015 on stratified random sample of 1000 (700 SM users and 300  non-users) residents of Poland.

Results: 

The research shows that resources embedded in family, friends and acquaintances ties have an impact on the political participation of respondents. The impact of resources appears be either positive or negative depending on the activity selected for analysis. For example, resources that could be only accessed, but not mobilised by respondents have no impact on dependent variable defined as voting in elections. At the same time, resources that could be mobilized have positive impact on voting. When signing petition activity is examined the impact of resources is reversed. There is no effect of mobilizable resources and positive impact of resources that are embedded in individual's personal network. The strong ties (family and friends) are better source of embedded resources that have a positive impact on the political participation of social media users in Poland. In general, weak ties have no or negative effect on activities examined in this research. The only exception is voting in elections. It is found that resources mobilizable through weak ties may have a positive impact on respondents voting activity.

Thus, the amount and quality of social capital embedded in personal networks matter when the political participation is considered. Resources embedded in family, friends and acquaintances circles have an impact on certain activities exemplifying the political participation of social media users in Poland.

Future Work: 

The quantitative data will be combined with the qualitative data obtained via in-depth interviews based on position generator tool.

References:

Batorski, D., Bojanowski, M., & Filipek, K. (2015). Getting a Job: Resources and Individual’s Chances on the Warsaw Labour Market. Polish Sociological Review, 192(4).

Bourdieu, P. (1986). The Forms of Capital. In J. G. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of Theory of Research for the Sociology of Education (pp. 46–58). New York: Greenwood Press.

Ellison, N. B., Vitak, J., Gray, R., & Lampe, C. (2014). Cultivating Social Resources on Social Network Sites: Facebook Relationship Maintenance Behaviors and Their Role in Social Capital Processes. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 19(4), 855–870. http://doi.org/10.1111/jcc4.12078

Finsveen, E., & van Oorschot, W. (2008). Access to Resources in Networks: A Theoretical and Empirical Critique of Networks as a Proxy for Social Capital. Acta Sociologica, 51(4), 293–307. http://doi.org/10.1177/0001699308097375

Lin, Nan. 1999. “Building a Network Theory of Social Capital” edited by N. Lin, K. S. Cook, and R. S. Burt. Connections 22(1):28–51.

Lin, Nan. 2001. Social Capital. A Theory of Social Structure and Action. Cambridge University Press.

Lin, Nan, John C. Vaughn, and Walter M. Ensel. 1981. “Social Resources and Occupational Status Attainment *.” Social Forces 59(4):1163–81. Retrieved (social resources, netoworks).

Steinfield, C., Ellison, N. B., & Lampe, C. (2008). Social capital, self-esteem, and use of online social network sites: A longitudinal analysis. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 29(6), 434–445. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2008.07.002

Van Der Gaag, M., & Snijders, T. a. B. (2005). The Resource Generator: social capital quantification with concrete items. Social Networks, 27(1), 1–29. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.socnet.2004.10.001

Webber, M., Huxley, P., & Harris, T. (2011). Social capital and the course of depression: Six-month prospective cohort study. Journal of Affective Disorders, 129(1-3), 149–157. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2010.08.005

Location: PSH (Professor Stuart Hall Building) - 326, 
Goldsmiths, University of London, Building 2
Campus Map 

Location: PSH (Professor Stuart Hall Building) - 326, 
Goldsmiths, University of London, Building 2
Campus Map 

Contributor: Halvdan Haugsbakken, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway

Background: 

Media scholars have systematically examined the implications of social media on society. The ways the same technology adopt into organizations is a more uncertain area of knowledge in organization studies. This aspect relates to that organization theorists prefer to engage into theorizing, than putting focus on how social media is actually used among people in organizational life. This leads to an emphasis on explaining what social media “is”, than painting a larger picture on how receptive organizations are to adopt the forces of digitalization.

Objective: 

Hence, the paper provides a research review of a large sample of empirical studies, which have examined how members in organizations use three social media services – blog, Social Network Sites and wikis. Based on an open coding strategy, the research review tries to establish common user patterns for use of social media in organizational life.

Methods: 

To complete the research review, an open-ended literature research search was performed in bibliographic databases by use of search strings. The search and data analysis period lasted from January to May 2015 and yielded a final data sample of 105 research articles, covering scientific journals and conference papers evaluated to answer the paper’s problem complex.

Results: 

The research review finds some overall user patterns for use of social media in organizations. Social media services are foremost used as a connecting site and knowledge repository. Here, wikis suggest to work as a successful knowledge repository. Employees use social media services to search and retrieve resources and communicate with people across internal organizational boundaries. For example, blogs and SNSs can enhance internal communication in organizations. But many studies also show barriers to adoption; blog and SNSs are often sustained by a core group and sharing is seen as challenging to perform in practice. SNSs are however seen as a platform that can cultivate social capital across organizational levels. To communicate externally, SNSs are typically used as a bulletin board, while employees are conscious on how they bond with peers internally in organizations. Wikis are often used as a collaborative tool and can be a suitable platform to support work processes, meaning that users are aware on their role performance.

In sum, the research review suggests that organizations attempt to ascertain basic knowledge on initial user patterns. Few studies report changes in organizational structures. Thus, social media has challenges in becoming sustainable. Rather, adopting social media in organizational life is an “uphill struggle” for those seeing it as beneficial. For many employees, social media represents another ICT that has to be learned. Therefore, one finds the common user pattern that a core group of users adopt the technology and maintain network activities, while a larger user group remain and use “older” ICTs. They remain in the email sphere and passively monitor the online content the core group shares.

Future Work: 

The research review will give suggestions for areas of future research and how practitioners and managers can use social media as part of their work practices. 

Location: PSH (Professor Stuart Hall Building) - 326, 
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Contributors:

• Anita Greenhill, University of Manchester, United Kingdom
• Jamie Woodcock, Cass Business School, United Kingdom
• Kate Holmes, University of Manchester, United Kingdom
• Chris Lintott, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
• Brooke Simmons, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
• Gary Graham, University of Leeds, United Kingdom
• Karen Masters, University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom
• Joe Cox, University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom
• Eun Young Oh, University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom

Background:

This paper explores the relationship between paid labour and users within the Zooniverse, a crowdsourced citizen science platform. The infrastructure that allows very large numbers of users to participate simultaneously in the Zooniverse is run on Amazon Web Services cloud servers. This connection between Amazon and the Zooniverse can be explored to illustrate a number of important features in this form of crowdsourcing. For example, Amazon Mechanical Turk is run on this service. This involves splitting larger tasks into small fragments and then outsourcing them to a pool of digital workers. The way in which the labour input becomes hidden on these kinds of platforms has been described by Trebor Scholz (2015) as ‘digital black box labor.’ It obfuscates a number of issues: how is the labour process organised and who is doing it? How is it managed and controlled? What is it being used for? And, particularly important for this paper, what tensions are present both inside and beyond the platform? 

Objective:

To gain deeper insight into the user activities involved in the collective categorisation of large datasets, mainly relating to images that cannot currently be analysed algorithmically. However, unlike in other examples of micro-tasking, in this case there is also the possibility for individual users to make serendipitous discoveries. Furthermore, this work aims to explore the contradictions that emerge in practice between the two, especially considering the tensions between paid and unpaid labour. 

Methods:

The paper draws on empirical data from an ongoing research project that has access to both users and paid professionals on the platform. This combination of ethnography, in-depth interviews, and quantitative data combines to provide new insights into the organisation and processes of this large citizen science platform. The Zooniverse case study provides an important starting point for understanding the dynamics of paid and unpaid work in the context of crowdsourcing and peer production. 

Results:

There is the potential through growing peer-to-peer capacity that the boundaries between professional and citizen scientists can become significantly blurred. Crowdsourcing can allow the complex tasks involved in data analysis to be collectively achieved, yet there remain limits to the contribution that individuals in the crowd can make. The findings of the paper therefore address important questions about the production of value, ownerships, and the politics of open source acts. These are considered specifically from the viewpoint of the users and therefore form a new contribution to the theoretical understanding of crowdsourcing in practice. 

Future Work:

To continue exploration on the motivation of users on crowdsourcing platforms to disentangle the key motivations such as in this case: a combination of scientific engagement and hedonistic enjoyment. We understand that while the motivation of users does not change the basic interaction on the platform (whatever the reason for participating the data is still being categorised), the former raises a number of important questions about the nature of citizen science. 

References:

Scholz, T. (2015, April 5) Think Outside the Boss. Public Seminar. Retrieved from http://www.publicseminar.org/2015/04/think-outside-the-boss 

 

Location: PSH (Professor Stuart Hall Building) - 326, 
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Contributor: Anika Batenburg, Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands

Background:

Within organizations, a recent trend is to use social media platforms for internal communication. These online platforms to share information, so called Virtual Communities of Practice (VCoP’s), enable an open communication climate (Behrend & Erwee, 2009), and therefore are assumed to be more effective as an organizational form to create knowledge and innovation than the traditional hierarchal ways of structuring interactions (Von Wartburg, Rost, & Teichert, 2006). Perhaps because viability and the value of a VCoP depend on member-generated content, previous studies are mostly focused on factors that motivate online knowledge sharing behaviour (e.g., Chiu, Hsu, & Wang, 2006; Chen & Hung, 2010; Cheung, Lee & Lee, 2013). However, it is unknown what participation does to its’ members. 

Objective:

Based on Self-Determination Theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1985), we aim to get more insight into intrinsic motivations and potential work-related consequences of knowledge sharing behaviour within a VCoP among employees of a healthcare organization. According SDT, individuals are eager to fulfil three psychological needs (competence, autonomy, and relatedness), and when satisfied individuals experience psychological growth, integrity, and wellbeing. The first aim was to test if employees who experience competence, relatedness, and autonomy within the VCoP, are more motivated to share their knowledge within the community. The second goal, as potential consequences of participation, was to test if online knowledge sharing behaviour is related to feelings of competence, autonomy, and relatedness at work, and if this relates to work satisfaction. 

Methods:

A group of 260 employees with access to a VCoP within a Dutch healthcare organization filled-out a questionnaire. First, we measured employees’ online knowledge sharing behaviour (KSB; Yoon & Rolland, 2012), feelings of autonomy, relatedness and competence within the community itself (as motivations for KSB; Yoon & Rolland, 2012), and as consequences, feelings of autonomy, relatedness and competence in performing their job (Deci & Ryan, 2001), and work satisfaction (Curry, Wakefield, Price, & Mueller, 1986). All indices appeared internally consistent (Cronbach’s α >.76) and factor analyses showed that the indices explained between 58.97% and 86.89% of the variance. 

Results:

Regarding motivations, feelings of competence within the community were positively related to online KSB (β =.61, p<.001). Feelings of autonomy and relatedness within the online community were not related to online KSB. With respect to consequences of participation, online KSB was positively related to feelings of autonomy (β =.34, p<.001), relatedness (β =.31, p<.001), and competence at work (β =.38, p<.001). Furthermore, feelings of competence at work was positively related to work satisfaction (β =.29, p=.018). The relationship between online KSB and work satisfaction was partially mediated by feelings of competence at work. 

Future Work:

To our knowledge this is the first study showing that SDT has the potential to explain both motivations and consequences of being part of a VCoP within an organization. A limitation is the cross-sectional design. Future research is needed to establish causal relationships. To reveal if results hold among different communities, we will be present results of two other studies (in progress) as well. 

References: 

Behrend, F. D., & Erwee, R. (2009). Mapping knowledge flows in virtual teams with SNA. Journal of Knowledge Management, 13, 99-114. 
Chen, C.J., & Hung, S.W. (2010). To give or to receive? Factors influencing members’ knowledge sharing and community promotion in professional virtual communities. Information & Management, 47(4), 226–236. 
Cheung, C. M. K., Lee, M. K. O., & Lee, Z. W. Y. (2013). Understanding the continuance intention of knowledge sharing in online communities of practice through the post-knowledge-sharing evaluation processes, 64(7), 1357–1374. 
Chiu, C., Hsu, M., & Wang, E., 2006. Understanding knowledge sharing in virtual communities: an integration of social capital and social cognitive theories. Decision Support Systems, 42 (3), 1872–1888. 
Deci, E.L. and Ryan, R.M., 1985. Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. New York: Plenum Press. 
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2001). Questionnaires: Basic Psychological Needs Scales. 
Gagné, M. & Deci, E.L. (2005). Self-determination theory and work motivation. Organizational Behavior, 26, 331-362. 
Von Wartburg, I., Rost, K., & Teichert, T. (2006). The creation of social and intellectual capital in virtual communities of practice: shaping social structure in virtual communities of practice. International Journal of Learning and Change, 1(3), 299-316. 

Yoon, C., & Rolland, E. (2012). Knowledge-sharing in virtual communities: familiarity, anonymity and self-determination theory. Behaviour & Information Technology, 31(11), 1–11.  

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Contributor: Lene Pettersen, Westerdals Oslo School of Arts, Communication and Technology, Norway

The study presented in this paper is the first to explore the relationship between knowledge professionals’ offline interaction practices with their interaction practices in their social enterprise media platform in their multinational workplace. The article points to findings from a comprehensive, mixed methods and longitudinal (2010 – 2013) case study of a knowledge intensive multinational organization with entities in over 20 countries in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. The findings point to a consistent pattern that offline practices are expanded online, and that the company’s social enterprise media has facilitated few new acquaintances for employees. This brings important insights to the field of social media and our society because enterprise media are today typically introduced in organizations to establish connections or relationships among employees that do not already know each other or that work at the same geographical place. The study shows that organizations’ online enterprise media spaces cannot be understood without reference to the social context in which they occur. This is explained in the framework of Giddens’s’ structuration theory and his later work on modernity that surprisingly few scholars have employed.