Perspectives on social media in and as research: A synthetic review

Abstract

With the growth of social media use in both the private and public spheres, researchers are currently exploring the new opportunities and practices offered by these tools in the research lifecycle. This area is still in its infancy: As methodological approaches and methods are being tested - mainly through pragmatic and exploratory approaches - practices are being shaped and negotiated by the actors involved in research. A further element of complexity is added by the ambivalent status of social media within research activities. They can be both a tool - for recruitment, data collection, analysis - and data - as what constitutes the corpus to be analysed - both in an observational and interactive domain. This synthetic analysis of the literature is aimed at identifying how social media are currently being used in research and how they fit into the research lifecycle. We identify and discuss emerging evidence and trends in the adoption of social media in research, which can be used and applied by psychiatry research practitioners as a framework to inform the development of a personalized research network and social media strategy in research.

Social media as an open-learning resource in medical education: current perspectives

“…Indeed, there is huge potential for medical and health care professions educators to capitalize on these rich open data sets in a variety of contexts to support a range of outcomes expected to be achieved by medical graduates. The use of open data from social media channels in health care research and medical education is still in its infancy 25. For practice, we hope that this study will serve to stimulate and subsequently generate research and evaluation in the area of social media use in medical education.…”

Social media: Insights for medical education from instructor perceptions and usage

“…These figures include high levels of SoMe activity among undergraduate students for educational as well as social purposes (Ali, 2016;Guraya, 2016;Knight-McCord et al, 2016;Roblyer, McDaniel, Webb, Herman, & Witty, 2010;Tess, 2013) and such usage parallels the availability of remote SoMe access achieved through uptake in smart devices (Buchholz, Perry, Weiss, & Cooley, 2016;Evrim, 2014;Gökçearslan, Mumcu, Haşlaman, & Çevik, 2016;Ozdalga, Ozdalga, & Ahuja, 2012;Ponce, Méndez, & Peñalvo, 2014). In the early to mid2000s, SoMe and Web 2.0 arose as new, exciting and innovative technologies (Boyd & Ellison, 2007) that instructors began to incorporate into educational activities (Booth & Hultén, 2003;Mazer, Murphy, & Simonds, 2007) and the increasing interest in SoMe during this period is reflected in the volume of educational literature on this topic (Asiri & Househ, 2016;Aydin, 2012;Kakushi & Evora, 2016;Lafferty & Manca, 2015;McAndrew & Johnston, 2012;Pander, Pinilla, Dimitriadis, & Fischer, 2014;& Cochran, 2012), blurring of the staff-student boundary (Mazer et al, 2007); unprofessional usage (Kitsis et al, 2016); and impacts on lecturer credibility (Hutchens & Hayes, 2014). Barriers can also exist at the institutional level in terms of a culture in HE that has been described as resistant to the uptake of new technologies (Bonzo & Parchoma, 2010;Roblyer et al, 2010;Selwyn, 2007).…”

Retention Strategies in Working With Justice-Involved Women

“…This article brings together a variety of retention strategies, some of which have been previously reported. The use of phone calls, letters, and community outreach has been reported by Haley and colleagues (2014), and social media as a research tool has been outlined in a review by Lafferty and Manca (2015). The use of social media as a means to recruit participants and deliver interventions has been studied, but its use in follow-up is a less studied area with considerable potential for expansion, especially in longitudinal studies.…”