Leadership Opportunities at NSMNSS

We are inviting interested individuals to consider a range of exciting and flexible leadership opportunities to ensure the NSMNSS platforms remain active and informative to our 400+ members. Without your support we would be unable to continue this vibrant and engaged community of cross-discipline practitioners and researchers.

Please share, tweet, shout this news to anybody who you think may be interested in the opportunities outlined below.

Please get in touch by Monday, 2 September if you can commit to any of the opportunities described below, indicating your preference and confirming your availability to meet the requirements of the role. You can contact Jerome (jerome.finnegan@natcen.ac.uk) or Kelsey (kelsey.beninger@natcen.ac.uk).

Leadership Opportunities

• X1 Blog Editor
• Time Commitment: 3 hours a month, from September 2nd – January 1^st
• Key Role: Support the overall development of the blog by sourcing and publishing new posts, occasionally drafting your own post, co-ordinating the publishing timetable and liaising with the PhD bloggers, guest bloggers and the Twitter Account Manager.
• Requirements:
• Network member with an interest in the range of opportunities and challenges provided by new social media research.
• Write 1 new substantive blog a month (300-500 words)
• Source and post 1 new blog a week (300-500 words; could include event ad, event review, guest blog, sharing links)
• Prepare a short handover report documenting your time as Blog Editor, to support the next Blog Editor.

• X2 PhD Bloggers
• Time Commitment: 1 hour a month, from September 2nd – January 1^st
• Key Role: Publicise your research and share your experiences as a researcher of new social media in short blog posts, including the challenges you encounter, the solutions you develop, the tools you use and the topics you are researching.
• Requirements:
• PhD student
• X1 post every 4 weeks, between 300 and 500 words long
• Prepare a short handover report documenting your time as a PhD Blogger, to support the next PhD Blogger.

• x1 Twitter Manager
• Time Commitment: 1 hour a week, from September 2nd – January 1^st
• Key Role: To maintain and enhance the very popular NSMNSS twitter account.
• Requirements:
• Network member with an interest in the range of opportunities and challenges provided by new social media research.
• Login to NSMNSS twitter account at least x2 a week, respond to tweets and tweet no more than x3 tweets of new content a day.
• Respond to all tweets within 5 days.
• Develop, promote and host x1 tweetchat
• Prepare a short handover report documenting your time as Twitter Manager, to support the next Twitter Manager.

Available Support

Detailed written guidance for the Blog Editor, PhD Bloggers and Twitter Manager will be provided, and NatCen Social Research will remain a point of contact for these individuals should they have any questions or require support.

The above role descriptions are a suggestion; we are happy to discuss ideas for different ways of working.

Thank you. We look forward to hearing from you!

'Tis the season...of Social Media Conferences

It's that season!

No, I don’t mean bathing suit season or in my case sunburn season. It is a time of many exciting conferences on the use, opportunities and challenges of using social media in research. NSMNSS co-ordinators have been doing their best to cover as many of these as possible and we’re finding that research and practitioners across disciplines are having the same conversations about ethics and quality in social media research.

Firstly, the  Social Research Association (SRA) hosted their third conference on social media, attracting over 80 delegates. The diversity in approaches to and views of social media in research made it clear these platforms provide a great opportunity to breakdown communication barriers between disciplines, fields and sectors. Technicians, programmers, social workers, civil servants, academics, market and applied researchers were all accounted for and kept up animated discussions throughout the day.

Some sessions that stood out for me included a case study about using social media to investigate young people’s drug use. Claire Meehan candidly explained that social media wasn’t part of the initial research design; young people brought it up so much that her study evolved to accommodate this emerging finding in its subsequent data collection. This sparked many questions around consent with young people. Indeed, the theme of ethics was a thread weaving throughout the day’s sessions (and tea breaks!)

Another was the session from social worker Jenny Simpson. Applying a socio-psychological approach to adopted and foster children using social media, she suggested children are simply testing societal boundaries the same way children have forever, just in a different environment. It raised many thoughts about assumed perceptions of vulnerability, contested power roles, and the changing world of social work.  

How could I talk about the conference with plugging my own team’s presentation? At NatCen a team of research trainees have developed and delivered qualitative research exploring perceptions of the public on the ethics of social media research. We presented on our emerging themes, among which included participants’ considerable scepticism about the credibility of research using social media. As researchers we accept the rich potential of social media but we have forgotten to explain its rationale and potential benefits to the very people whose data we are using- the users!

Similarly diverse attendees were discussing related issues at the AHRC-funded Social Media Knowledge Exchange (SMKE) conference, with historians, librarians and archivist, information specialists and others from the digital humanities all contributing to the discussions. My colleague Gareth Morrell spoke about our research on ethics at this conference and the striking thing was that researchers and practitioners in other disciplines are facing the same challenges. In a session on ethics, there’s clearly an appetite for us all to think ethically – or as Anne Alexander from the Digital Humanities Network described, use our ethical conscience – and not just rely on ethical guidelines. After all, our research shows that we can’t assume anything in relation to how users feel about us using their data.

More fieldwork to come on this project and more refined findings to be presented at Westminster Uni’s Social Media Conference in Sept. Save the date!