scholarly journals Ethical Issues in Social Media Research for Public Health

2018 ◽  
Vol 108 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth F. Hunter ◽  
Aisling Gough ◽  
Niamh O’Kane ◽  
Gary McKeown ◽  
Aine Fitzpatrick ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Media Research ◽  
Social Media Research

scholarly journals Is It Time to Re-Evaluate the Ethics Governance of Social Media Research?

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 452-454 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Samuel ◽  
W. Ahmed ◽  
H. Kara ◽  
C. Jessop ◽  
S. Quinton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Research Ethics ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Ethics Committees ◽  
Research Ethics Committees ◽  
Media Ethics ◽  
Research Institution ◽  
Media Research ◽  
Social Media Research

This article reports on a U.K. workshop on social media research ethics held in May 2018. There were 10 expert speakers and an audience of researchers, research ethics committee members, and research institution representatives. Participants reviewed the current state of social media ethics, discussing well-rehearsed questions such as what needs consent in social media research, and how the public/private divide differs between virtual and real-life environments. The lack of answers to such questions was noted, along with the difficulties posed for ethical governance structures in general and the work of research ethics committees in particular. Discussions of these issues enabled the creation of two recommendations. The first is for research ethics committees and journal editors to add the category of ‘data subject research’ to the existing categories of ‘text research’ and ‘human subject research’. This would reflect the fact that social media research does not fall into either of the existing categories and so needs a category of its own. The second is that ethical issues should be considered at all stages of social media research, up to and including aftercare. This acknowledges that social media research throws up a large number of ethical issues throughout the process which, under current arrangements for ethical research governance, risks remaining unaddressed.

Challenges to Transforming Unconventional Social Media Data into Actionable Knowledge for Public Health Systems During Disasters

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 352-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer L. Chan ◽  
Hemant Purohit
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Health Service ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Health Systems ◽  
Service Personnel ◽  
Public Health Systems ◽  
Media Research ◽  
Social Media Research ◽  
The Right

ABSTRACTEvery year, there are larger and more severe disasters and health organizations are struggling to respond with services to keep public health systems running. Making decisions with limited health information can negatively affect response activities and impact morbidity and mortality. An overarching challenge is getting the right health information to the right health service personnel at the right time. As responding agencies engage in social media (eg, Twitter, Facebook) to communicate with the public, new opportunities emerge to leverage this non-traditional information for improved situational awareness. Transforming these big data is dependent on computers to process and filter content for health information categories relevant to health responders. To enable a more health-focused approach to social media analysis during disasters, 2 major research challenges should be addressed: (1) advancing methodologies to extract relevant information for health services and creating dynamic knowledge bases that address both the global and US disaster contexts, and (2) expanding social media research for disaster informatics to focus on health response activities. There is a lack of attention on health-focused social media research beyond epidemiologic surveillance. Future research will require approaches that address challenges of domain-aware, including multilingual language understanding in artificial intelligence for disaster health information extraction. New research will need to focus on the primary goal of health providers, whose priority is to get the right health information to the right medical and public health service personnel at the right time.

scholarly journals A Call for a Public Health Agenda for Social Media Research

10.2196/16661 ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (12) ◽  
pp. e16661 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sherry Pagoto ◽  
Molly E Waring ◽  
Ran Xu
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Public ◽  
Media Research ◽  
Social Media Research ◽  
Health And Well Being ◽  
Health Agenda

Research has revealed both the benefits and harms of social media use, but the public has very little guidance on how best to use social media to maximize the benefits to their health and well-being while minimizing the potential harms. Given that social media is intricately embedded in our lives, and we now have an entire generation of social media natives, the time has come for a public health research agenda to guide not only the public’s use of social media but also the design of social media platforms in ways that improve health and well-being. In this viewpoint we propose such a public health agenda for social media research that is framed around three broad questions: (1) How much social media use is unhealthy and what individual and contextual factors shape that relationship; (2) What are ways social media can be used to improve physical and mental well-being; and (3) How does health (mis)information spread, how does it shape attitudes, beliefs and behavior, and what policies or public health strategies are effective in disseminating legitimate health information while curbing the spread of health misinformation? We also discuss four key challenges that impede progress on this research agenda: negative sentiment about social media among the public and scientific community, a poorly regulated research landscape, poor access to social media data, and the lack of a cohesive academic field. Social media has revolutionized modern communication in ways that bring us closer to a global society, but we currently stand at an inflection point. A public health agenda for social media research will serve as a compass to guide us toward social media becoming a powerful tool for the public good.

scholarly journals A Call for a Public Health Agenda for Social Media Research (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sherry Pagoto ◽  
Molly E Waring ◽  
Ran Xu
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Public ◽  
Media Research ◽  
Social Media Research ◽  
Health And Well Being ◽  
Health Agenda

UNSTRUCTURED Research has revealed both the benefits and harms of social media use, but the public has very little guidance on how best to use social media to maximize the benefits to their health and well-being while minimizing the potential harms. Given that social media is intricately embedded in our lives, and we now have an entire generation of social media natives, the time has come for a public health research agenda to guide not only the public’s use of social media but also the design of social media platforms in ways that improve health and well-being. In this viewpoint we propose such a public health agenda for social media research that is framed around three broad questions: (1) How much social media use is unhealthy and what individual and contextual factors shape that relationship; (2) What are ways social media can be used to improve physical and mental well-being; and (3) How does health (mis)information spread, how does it shape attitudes, beliefs and behavior, and what policies or public health strategies are effective in disseminating legitimate health information while curbing the spread of health misinformation? We also discuss four key challenges that impede progress on this research agenda: negative sentiment about social media among the public and scientific community, a poorly regulated research landscape, poor access to social media data, and the lack of a cohesive academic field. Social media has revolutionized modern communication in ways that bring us closer to a global society, but we currently stand at an inflection point. A public health agenda for social media research will serve as a compass to guide us toward social media becoming a powerful tool for the public good.

scholarly journals ‘I feel the irritation and frustration all over the body’ Affective ambiguities in networked parenting culture

2021 ◽  
pp. 136787792110035
Author(s):  
Mari Lehto ◽  
Susanna Paasonen
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Research Data ◽  
The Body ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
Working Through ◽  
Media Research ◽  
Social Media Research ◽  
Study Participants

This article investigates the affective power of social media by analysing everyday encounters with parenting content among mothers. Drawing on data composed of diaries of social media use and follow-up interviews with six women, we ask how our study participants make sense of their experiences of parenting content and the affective intensities connected to it. Despite the negativity involved in reading and participating in parenting discussions, the participants find themselves wanting to maintain the very connections that irritate them, or even evoke a sense of failure, as these also yield pleasure, joy and recognition. We suggest that the ambiguities addressed in our research data speak of something broader than the specific experiences of the women in question. We argue that they point to the necessity of focusing on, and working through affective ambiguity in social media research in order to gain fuller understanding the complex appeal of platforms and exchanges.

scholarly journals Navigating Big Data dilemmas: Feminist holistic reflexivity in social media research

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 205395171880773 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Cooky ◽  
Jasmine R Linabary ◽  
Danielle J Corple
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Big Data ◽  
Institutional Review Boards ◽  
Social Media Data ◽  
Institutional Review ◽  
Slow Adaptation ◽  
Private Research ◽  
Media Research ◽  
Social Media Research ◽  
Media Data

Social media offers an attractive site for Big Data research. Access to big social media data, however, is controlled by companies that privilege corporate, governmental, and private research firms. Additionally, Institutional Review Boards’ regulative practices and slow adaptation to emerging ethical dilemmas in online contexts creates challenges for Big Data researchers. We examine these challenges in the context of a feminist qualitative Big Data analysis of the hashtag event #WhyIStayed. We argue power, context, and subjugated knowledges must each be central considerations in conducting Big Data social media research. In doing so, this paper offers a feminist practice of holistic reflexivity in order to help social media researchers navigate and negotiate this terrain.

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