Tag: Research

Categories
Digital

[DIGITAL] New Media Literacy Bulletin from @Ofcom

July’s media bulletin from @Ofcom was released today, highlighting four reports that Ofcom have produced – essential reading for understanding the UK’s digital environment:

Key finding from ‘Adults: Media Use and Attitudes 2019‘ report from Ofcom:

  • Mobile phones are increasingly integral to everyday life and half of adults now say, of all devices, they would miss their mobile phone the most.
  • One in three adults never use a computer to go online and one in ten only use a smartphone, an increase since 2017. • Video-on-demand and streamed content is becoming a central part of adults’ viewing landscape.
  • Social media users are less likely than in 2017 to see views they disagree with on social media.
  • Compared to 2017, internet users are more likely to have encountered hateful content online, however most didn’t do anything about it.
  • Although most internet users are aware of at least one of the ways in which their personal data might be collected online, less than four in ten are aware of all the ways we asked about.
  • There has been little change in critical awareness in the past few years, with many still lacking the critical skills needed to identify when they are being advertised to online.
  • One in ten internet users say they don’t think about the truthfulness of online content, although those who do are more likely than in 2017 to make checks to verify the information.
  • Thirteen percent of UK adults do not use the internet, unchanged since 2014; those aged 55 and over and in the DE socio-economic group remain less likely to be online.
  • One in seven adults of working age in DE households do not go online, and when they do, one in five only go online via a smartphone.

Extract from key findings of Adults’ Media Lives 2019 from Ofcom (with discussion guide used):

  • Online behaviour is increasingly segmented across the sample, with a clear difference between those who use the internet for what might be described as “basic” tasks, and those who are using it for a wider and more diverse range of activities. The latter group includes a growing subset of participants who now use social media platforms proactively as part of their work – either promoting their own businesses or the organisations they work for.
  • Changes in lifestage and domestic circumstances continue to impact greatly upon media usage and attitudes. Some younger participants described themselves as “growing up” and having less time to spend on (e.g.) social media. Some older participants are becoming more housebound, which means that they are more dependent on media technology both for entertainment (e.g. TV) and practical support (e.g. online shopping).
  • There were numerous examples of participants using information tools to become more savvy customers. These included conducting online research to find the best new deal for mobile, broadband and TV services, and using apps and/or email notifications to check their bills and keep tabs on their data usage.
  • More participants are now accessing a range of online learning opportunities. These included formal education, work-based learning and informal learning opportunities via YouTube videos, specialist educational sites, Facebook groups, etc. However, such use is concentrated among the internet savvy, and is not necessarily empowering those with less confidence or less appetite to learn to try something new.
  • Cameras are being used more for online communication and other applications. There has been a marked increase in claimed use of FaceTime and Skype, examples of participants enjoying the benefits of specialist apps which exploit their devices’ camera functionality, and increased interest in dashcams and bodycams.
  • There are growing concerns about media technology “spying” on users. Some of these related specifically to “always on” voice-controlled technology such as Amazon’s Alexa. However, several participants also spontaneously cited examples of being served ads related to the topics of their face-to-face conversations (not using technology at all).

See also

  • ‘Online Nation is a new annual report that looks at what people are doing online, how they are served by online content providers and platforms, and their attitudes to and experiences of using the internet.’: Summary // Full Report.
  • Internet users’ experience of harm online 2019, designed to quantify concerns about, reported experiences of and potential sources of online harm in three key categories:
    • Content that people view, read or listen to online and interactions with other users
    • Data/privacy
    • Hacking/security
Categories
Event

[EVENT] #UKPfR – UK Parliament for Researchers

I took a range of notes from yesterday’s excellent event (might come back and share a few), but there were also a few tweets:

Categories
Academic

[RESEARCH] Quoted in Government Report on Social Media, Screen Use, and Health for @CommonsSTC

In April 2018 I had evidence accepted by the Select Commons Committee, investigating social media/screen use and young people’s health.

Today, the government published it’s report on the Impact of social media and screen-use on young people’s health (PDF), and I have a small mention:

The report summary says (within the full press release):

Social media and screens have become ubiquitous in the lives of children. Figures produced by Ofcom indicated that 70% of 12–15 year olds have a profile on social media, while the OECD reported in 2015 that 94.8% of 15 year olds in the UK used social media sites before or after school. Social media has undoubtedly connected people around the world and provided unprecedented ways to communicate instantaneously. Yet concerns have been growing about its effects on our wellbeing, and particularly on the physical and mental health of children. With the Government set to legislate on Online Harms in the next parliamentary session, our Report considers:

  • whether the growing use of social media, and screens, among children is healthy or harmful;
  • the evidence base for such claims; and
  • whether any new measures or controls are required.

First and foremost, providing unambiguous answers to our questions was hindered by the limited quantity and quality of academic evidence available. Social media is a relatively new phenomenon and, consequently, there is not yet a well-established body of research in this area examining its effects on children. Similarly, research on screens has tended not to focus on newer devices like smartphones. We found that the majority of published research did not provide a clear indication of causation, but instead indicated a possible correlation between social media/screens and a particular health effect. There was even less focus in published research on exactly who was at risk and if some groups were potentially more vulnerable than others when using screens and social media. Given the Government’s intention to legislate in this area, we are surprised to find that it has not commissioned any new, substantive research to help inform its proposals. We recommend that, as a matter of urgency, the Government should commission research to identify who is at risk of experiencing harm online and on social media, and why, and the longer-term consequences of that exposure on children. We also call on social media companies to make anonymised high-level data available, for research purposes, to bona fide researchers so that a better understanding of social media’s effects on users can be established. The Government should consider what legislation is required to improve researchers’ access to this type of data.

Notwithstanding these limitations, the absence of good academic evidence is not, in itself, evidence that social media and screens have no effect on young people. The potential links between social media, screens and health is an area of concern for parents, carers, teachers and children alike. While we heard about a variety of instances where social media could be a force for good, we also received evidence about some of the potential negative impacts of social media on the health and emotional wellbeing of children. These ranged from detrimental effects on sleep patterns and body image through to cyberbullying, grooming and ‘sexting’. Generally, social media was not the root cause of the risk but helped to facilitate it, while also providing the opportunity for a large degree of amplification. This was particularly apparent in the case of the abuse of children online, via social media. It is imperative that the Government leads the way in ensuring that an effective partnership is in place, across civil society, technology companies, law enforcement agencies, the Government and non-governmental organisations, aimed at ending child sexual exploitation (CSE) and abuse online. We recommend that the Government commissions research to establish its scale and prevalence and then sets itself an ambitious target to halve reported online CSE in two years and all but eliminate it in four years.

Children must, as far as practically possible, be protected from harm when accessing and using social media sites. At present, however, there is a patchwork of regulation and legislation in place, resulting in a “standards lottery” that does little to ensure that children are as safe as possible when they go online, as they are offline. This principle—to protect children from harm when on social media sites—must be enshrined in legislation as social media companies having a ‘duty of care’ towards its users who are under 18. Social media companies must also be far more open and transparent regarding how they operate and particularly how they moderate, review and prioritise content.

To achieve this, the Government should introduce, through new primary legislation, a statutory code of practice for social media companies, to provide consistency on content reporting practices and moderation mechanisms. This should be accompanied by a requirement for social media companies to publish detailed Transparency Reports every six months. Furthermore, when content that is potentially illegal under UK law is reported to a social media company, it should have to review the content, take a decision on whether to remove, block or flag that item (if appropriate), and relay that decision to the individual/organisation reporting it within 24 hours, such as now occurs in Germany. We believe that Ofcom is well-placed to perform the duties of the regulator and recommend that the Government resources Ofcom accordingly.

Finally, the digital literacy and resilience of children, as well as their teachers and parents, must be improved to help safeguard children from risks and harms when using social media. PSHE education must be made mandatory by the Government for primary and secondary school pupils and should deliver an age-appropriate understanding of, and resilience towards, the harms and benefits of the digital world.

I was contacted by BBC Tees to comment on this report, but unfortunately was involved in hospital appointments.

Categories
Academic Cancer Digital

[FUNDING/RESEARCH/CANCER] Onto Second Round for Social Media Bid with @MacmillanCancer

Macmillan, a cancer charity, seeks to undertake research with impact, keen to invest ‘in research that will deliver long term benefits for people living with cancer’. As someone who has found herself in ‘the cancer world’, and as a digital researcher, I was not surprised to find how helpful Facebook groups (along with other social media, and the occasional foray into an official forum) were in helping source information, especially when appointments with the medical teams are fairly ‘swift’ (although if you have a list of questions they’ll answer them!). From a fairly early point, I started wondering if there was a research question in this, that would help health care professionals understand what information is occurring in those spaces, how these are managed, and how this impacts on the decision making process of patients (and their friends/family).

Around about the time that I was undergoing radiotherapy, Macmillan put out their call for the Research Grants scheme, and this included:

How to most effectively get information about their diagnosis and prognosis to people living with cancer to enable them to make the right decisions about their life, treatment and care: with sub-clause The role and impact of peer to peer information provision (eg through online forums, social media, face to face) for people living with cancer, and the implications for healthcare professionals.

This was a little earlier than I might have planned to go for funding, and I spent quite a chunk of sick-leave sketching out ideas. Once back in work (Manchester Metropolitan University), there was support from other academics, and the research team, and we put together the short ‘expression of interest bid’, submitting it just after I’d been to see ‘A Space for Sharing‘.

Today, we found out that we are one of only 12% of projects being taken through to the second stage, so I/we have til September to put together the full bid. Lots of learning for me, but I think a lot of support from work to help progress this – we’ll find out if the final bid is successful in February, with a view to having a research assistant in place by summer 2019.

Living with and beyond cancer in a digital age: the role and impact of peer to peer information provision, via social media, for people living with and beyond cancer, and the implications for healthcare professionals

Social media is now a part of everyday life (Lewis, 2018b), with 77% of UK internet users having at least one account, and 91% of those having a Facebook account (Ofcom, 2018). Social media spaces provide a sense of community for individuals in user-constructed networks (Pittman, 2016). Facebook provides both personal space for individuals to connect with their own friends and families, and public-private spaces that allow individuals to network with strangers with shared interests (GlobalWebIndex, 2017). One shared interest group is ‘the coolest club you never want to be part of’: cancer (BBC, 2018), which Lewis became part of in 2017. There are an estimated 2.5 million people living with cancer in the UK (Macmillan, 2017c), and with more living longer (Cancer Research UK, 2015, Macmillan, 2017b), and feeling lonely (Macmillan, 2015), people are looking for support/information online, including through peer-to-peer social network spaces (Bath, 2017, Baucom, 2017, James, 2014, Pietrangelo, 2017).

Lewis (2018a) with 17 years of experience researching the digital environment is a very active member of cancer spaces online. Cancer communities on social media ‘have a lot of information to share with each other’ (Veinot, 2010). With the internet seen as a ‘dangerous place’ by the media (Lewis, 2014a), full of ‘misinformation’ (Macmillan, 2017a), there is a growing drive/need to research the intersection between social media and cancer. Social media is at its heart about relationships and communication (Lewis, 2014b). Campaigns such as #ThisGirlCan have demonstrated that listening to a target community, understanding fears/needs, enables effective communication and informs policy and practice decisions (Kemp, 2016). The activities occurring in social media spaces, both the therapeutic impact gained through the sharing of knowledge and information, and its impact on clinical practice, needs to be understood.

Research Aims: 

The key focus of the project will be upon the nature of online cancer spaces and communities, particularly what and how information is shared within them, and how this interacts with information elsewhere:

  • To understand how people affected by cancer use social media as peer-to-peer networks and communities of practice (Lewis, 2013). Positive and negative aspects, digital literacy, visual culture, and whether people with different forms/stages of cancer use spaces differently will be key.
  • To understand how social media spaces are managed, such as through their structure, and the use of administrators for Facebook groups. This will impact questions of authority and trust online.
  • To understand how the use of social media by people affected by cancer affects their feeling of wellbeing, and impacts on how they participate in clinical decision-making.
  • To understand how health care professionals (HCP) feel about the use of social media and digital information by their patients with cancer, and how or if they transmit their feelings to their patients.
  • To understand how social media works with other forms of information given to patients, including by HCP, cancer charities, and other forms of media.
  • To understand how loved ones use social media with patients, and how this impacts information flow.

The bid then continues to give the methodology of the project (qualitative interviews, larger survey to cross-check, and focus groups to test the recommendations provided). It’s not possible to undertake participant observation within groups, and there’s also a lot of sensitivity re even asking in groups, so there’s a lot of thought has gone into this. Collecting participants is likely to be through The Christie, one of the project partners; other project partners are De Montfort University, and University of Winchester. The second page of the form focused on the anticipated impact of the project.

References: 

There is an extensive further reference list behind this project.

Categories
Digital

[REPORT] The Real Digital Divide by @goodthingsfdn

 

As I seek to encourage people to see the possibilities and the positives in digital technology, it’s important to keep an eye on where the digital divide is (see recent Digital Leaders event), such as in this latest research:

“The real digital divide?’ report breaks down the demographics of people who are not gaining full benefit from the internet – either because they’re complete non-users, or that they’re using the internet in a limited way – be it only using one site or a couple of apps, or going online less than once a week.

90% of non users are likely to be disadvantaged – which takes into account poor health and disability, social class and those who left school at 16 or under.  We know basic digital skills is a big issue (18% of people say they aren’t online as they don’t have the skills), but it’s not the only measure of whether people are digitally excluded. Looking at usage helps us to show that digital exclusion is a much more complex issue.

For people to thrive in today’s increasingly digital world, using the internet on a regular basis and using the breadth of what’s on offer is vital. This might be to keep an eye your bank balance, check on the price of your utilities, or to find work. Most people in work are using the internet on a daily basis. If people aren’t using the internet weekly, they’re likely to be excluded in a range of ways – including having less money available, fewer opportunities to find work, and less access to information that might make their lives better – such as health information, information to help their children with their homework, and more. So the way people are using the internet – how much and how often – is vital to understand whether they’re really getting the benefit they could be.”

Download report from Good Things Foundation.