Feature: Social Media Solutions for Major Societal Issues
Keeping up with the rapid surge of social media, MSU researchers are exploring the use of new technology to address major issues confronting society.
Social media is increasingly helping people find solutions to health, economic, employment, relationship and community issues. It’s also a research focus and area of expertise in the MSU College of Communication Arts & Sciences. MSU’s social media research has been featured in The New York Times, Newsweek, The Economist, Scientific American, Discovery News, Smart Money, MIT Technology Review, and other media worldwide.
Social media is a term for online media that allows people to share and discuss online content, transforming them from content consumers into content producers. One expanding area of social media includes social network sites such as MySpace or Facebook. These sites enable people to connect with people they know and to share online content, create online communities and communicate with one another.
But the technology alone isn’t enough, says Pamela Whitten, dean of the MSU College of Communication Arts & Sciences. “It’s about behavior change,” she says. “At MSU, we are researching social media to reach concrete outcomes for a wide array of needs.”
That, in fact, is the goal of the college’s Social Media Research Laboratory. The lab involves about a dozen faculty and at least as many graduate students. A new research and development partnership with INgage Networks is providing more staff, space renovations, and increased opportunities around the globe. At least 20 social media projects are in development, and many projects are under way.
What follows are some examples of communication technology and social media research extending from campus to around the world.
Potential life-saver
According to Donate Life America, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to increase education about organ and tissue donation, more than 100,000 Americans currently need life-saving organ transplants. The organization says an average of 18 people die each day from the lack of available organs for transplant. In a new project funded through a $340,000 grant from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration’s Division of Transplantation, MSU researchers are studying ways in which social media—in particular Facebook—can increase the numbers of people who register as organ and tissue donors.
“There is a great need in the state of Michigan to increase the number of citizens who enroll on the state organ donor registry,” says Sandi Smith, director of MSU’s Health and Risk Communication Center and director of the project. “We’re hopeful that we can help increase the number of young adults registering on the Web by as much as 15 percent.”
Match made online
Online dating is part of today’s world, but how can Internet users navigate through dating networks successfully and safely?
Researchers at MSU have found some interesting clues to online dating self-presentation, especially in regards to how truthfully people present themselves online.
Assistant Professor Nicole Ellison and colleagues recently compared online dating profiles with users’ driver’s licenses to determine who lies about what. They found lying occurred, but was usually limited to one characteristic: height, weight, or age. About 52.6 percent of the men in the study lied about their height, as did 39 percent of the women. More women (64.1 percent) lied about their weight. However, Ellison said, most discrepancies were very small and might not be noticed in a face-to-face meeting.
According to Ellison, this demonstrates a tendency for an Internet user to portray his or her “ideal self,” which might include aspirations and goals. “Online dating users are striking a balance between honestly reporting their true offline characteristics and embellishing a bit in order to attract more attention,” Ellison says.
So what does this research mean for online daters? Ellison offers a few tips. She suggests that Internet users keep an open mind regarding their searches and to look at all aspects of the profile, not just the physical descriptions, when assessing potential mates. “A profile that makes you laugh out loud will probably be a better match than a boring profile that claims to represent someone with a ‘great sense of humor,’” she notes.
Facebook and grades
Although people assume that the use of Facebook and other similar sites can have a detrimental effect on a student’s grades, this idea has not been empirically demonstrated. In fact, work by professors in MSU’s Dept. of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media has shown that there are social capital benefits associated with Facebook use. Social capital is benefits people receive from their social relationships, such as emotional support or access to new information.
Now, with a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, MSU researchers are studying how social network sites such as Facebook are used to connect and collaborate with others. The researchers are focusing on a number of issues, including how college students’ use of such tools can enhance their academic experiences.
“This work will prove interesting because it is in contrast to the popular conception of social network sites detracting from time spent on academic pursuits,” says MSU assistant professor Nicole Ellison, the lead researcher on the project.
In addition, Ellison and her colleagues are looking at how others may use the collaborative nature of social networks for non-academic purposes. She says the work can impact organizations and groups that could benefit from expanded collaboration.
Advancing Michigan
Across the nation, University Extension operations are at a crossroads and facing momentous changes in assessing the needs of people they serve. MSU Extension (MSUE) and the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station (MAES) are no exception. With more than 80 county Extension offices and 15 field stations around the state, MSUE and MAES are helping with mortgage, nutrition, credit and other questions, and engaging in innovative leading-edge research to address the issues that matter most to Michigan residents. In addition, MSUE and MAES are always looking for opportunities to serve people in new ways.
Every few years, the two MSU units are required to conduct a federal needs assessment, which was normally conducted in the form of a survey.
This year, the process was different. MSUE and MAES are gathering feedback from a variety of stakeholders using a specially designed social media platform with a crowdsourcing application in which ideas can be proposed and the crowd can vote them up or down.
Assistant Professor Cliff Lampe leads the research team with corporate partner INgage Networks to strategize and deliver the social media platform, which is more interactive and more detailed than a survey. “This can help MSUE and MAES determine how they spend their money and what Michigan residents really need,” Lampe says.
“This project is about economic and human development for Michigan,”
Changes in networks over time
Some social network sites have millions of subscribers. Think YouTube, Facebook and Wikipedia, for example. The dynamics behind them are intriguing—especially for researchers.
MSU researchers from the colleges of Engineering and Communication Arts & Sciences have received a $750,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study how large-scale social networks such as YouTube and Wikipedia change over time.
Assistant Professor Cliff Lampe, who studies how users interact on social media, is part of this interdisciplinary research team with faculty in electrical engineering and computer science. He wants to understand how these large-scale networks evolve and what that means for the outcomes of the interactions on those sites.
“These networks are constantly changing as people enter and leave them,” Lampe says. “A deeper understanding of the structure of social networks and how that structure evolves can be applied to a variety of social issues. For example, norms around health behavior and information seeking have been shown to be defined by social networks, so knowing how to affect those networks could create better health outcomes.”
Campus connections
Of course, social media research is happening right in our own backyard—on the MSU campus.
The MSU Neighborhoods project (www.neighborhoods.msu.edu) involves rethinking the way student services are organized. As part of the effort, MSU Residential and Hospitality Services is partnering with the MSU College of Communication Arts & Sciences and INgage Networks to incorporate social media into student services—in a big way.
The social media project, called Spartan Connect, will be a way for students to share important academic and social information in new ways.
In focus groups earlier this year, students reported needing more ways to navigate university resources, and more support for academic goals, says assistant professor Nicole Ellison. Yet, she adds, they “didn’t want another Facebook.”
This summer, a select 3,300 students who know they are coming to MSU will become part of these online neighborhoods before they arrive on campus. When they arrive in September, they will continue to access the system for ongoing first-year experience support.
“Spartan Connect is student-centered,” says Vennie Gore of Residential and Hospitality Services. “We are finding out what students need directly from them. And we are connecting with students more than ever,”
The goals of Spartan Connect are to facilitate the transition to MSU and to improve the college experience while the students are on campus. A wonderful Spartan experience getting even better? That’s something every MSU alum can celebrate.
This research is only part of the MSU College of Communication Arts & Sciences’ larger research in communication technology, a field in which the college is well known. Communication technology includes video game design and development, online software and web sites, Internet access, and social media applications. More information about research at the MSU College of Communication Arts & Sciences can be found online at www.cas.msu.edu.
? Kirsten Khire is communications manager for the MSU College of Communication Arts & Sciences (www.cas.msu.edu).
USING INGAGE: A PRACTICAL APPLICATION
By Tom Coon, Director, MSU Extension
MSU Extension has been transferring knowledge to Michigan residents since 1914. We don’t just parachute into communities, tell them what we think they need and then leave; our staff members live in the communities they serve. We address the most pressing needs, and right now, some of the most serious issues relate to the economy and jobs.
We want to know if we’re focusing our resources on those issues that mean the most to people. After a major effort in 2009, we identified four overarching issues that can be best addressed by our educational efforts:
? Greening Michigan: Leveraging Natural & Human Assets for Prosperity
? Improving Health & Nutrition
? Preparing Michigan's Children & Youth for the Future
? Enhancing Michigan's First Green Industry: Agriculture & Agribusiness
These are all broad topics that are open to dozens of possibilities, but because we don’t have unlimited resources, we need to sharply focus our work on the issues that are most important to the state’s residents.
For example, subjects related to our “Greening Michigan” area might include growing crops for the bioeconomy, helping communities make the most of tourism opportunities or supporting our strong corps of trained Master Gardeners who provide environmentally sound yard and garden education
When it comes to improving health and nutrition, there are endless possibilities, from preventing incidence of childhood obesity to helping adults manage chronic conditions like diabetes to supporting community-wide physical activity options.
We have 100 years of experience in helping prepare Michigan’s children for the future through the 4-H Youth Development Program. We’ll still be offering 4-H to help young people develop leadership, citizenship and organizational skills that will carry them through life, but we’ll also help youngsters envision themselves finding success in post-high school education and in the careers of the future.
MSU Extension is probably best known for its work in helping farmers produce safe, bountiful yields, and we’ll continue to help Michigan’s $71 billion food and agriculture sector find new markets and discover new ways to produce the products that will feed – and fuel – us well into the 21st century.
To find out how Michigan residents want us to do all of these things, and which are the most important to them, we’re using some cutting-edge technology to generate discussion and gather input from Michiganians. We’re pleased that we were one of the first MSU entities that began working with the INgage Network team; the online presence they built (www.advancemichigan.msu.edu) has allowed residents to share their ideas, thoughts and suggestions for how we can help them meet the challenges that are facing their farms and other businesses, communities, children, families and the natural and managed resources that make Michigan such a special place.
While every state extension service is required to carry out a process to identify the issues facing residents, no other state has initiated a process that is like the one we are carrying out with INgage. In addition to generating rich and varied data that will use to benefit the state, we’ll be doing the very thing that is at the heart of MSU’s core: contributing to knowledge. Researchers in the MSU College of Communication Arts and Sciences will study our experience and use it to further our understanding of communication processes and how they are influenced by digital technology.
I’ve very pleased – but not at all surprised – that we are doing something that no other state has attempted. It’s a logical next step in our rich history of innovation and helping people explore new means for getting the information they need to improve their lives.