Using Social Media to Advance Community-Based Research

Abstract

Community-based research can improve validity and benefit its subjects, but building trust with communities and research subjects can be challenging. Social media is a powerful tool that can be used to build connections and share information. Yet, little research has been done on how social media can be used as a recruitment and communication tool for community-based research (CBR) projects. Our study used Facebook to advance the goals of a community-based social science research project in Little Rock, Arkansas. We compared participation and results distribution rates for this longitudinal research project in 2012, 2016, and 2018, and we found increases in 2018, the year we used social media. The results indicate that social media can aid CBR by helping to build trust, improve credibility, and facilitate communication.

Building Action Research Partnerships for Community Impact: Lessons From a National Community-Campus Engagement Project

“…The need for time to establish trust is often discussed in the literature on community-based research (Hyde and Meyer, 2004), but is difficult to create given pressured academic terms and pressure to do the work that reduces poverty. While many techniques for building trust in CBR have been discussed in the literature, like use of social media (Glazier and Topping, 2021) and shared experiences and ability to understand the community communication styles (Cidro et al, 2017), it was important that the academic co-lead spend time with staff at the VC at the headquarters -an imperative step in equalizing power and creating space for collaboration. The early lessons were that these partnerships take time to nurture and develop for the partners to grow their collective capacities to work together effectively and enable the development of a common vision of the Hub's goals.…”

Race and Faith: The Role of Congregations in Racial Justice

“…Helping congregations find that entry point for faith-based racial justice is one goal of our community-based research. We seek not only to learn as social scientists from the community we live in, but also to return findings of value to that community (Rogers 2009, Wilkins 2011, Glazier and Topping 2021.…”