Author: Gavin Goodwin
School of Information Studies, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

Title: Social Media, Grindr, and PrEP: Sexual Health Literacy for Men Who Have Sex with Men in the Internet Age
Abstract:
Despite continued improvements to HIV/AIDS treatment and awareness, HIV transmission rates remain high among men who have sex with men (MSM). Online consumer health information targeting high-risk MSM through social media and geosocial networking (GSN) apps have shown to be successful HIV intervention strategies. This review article addresses the efficacy and acceptance of delivering consumer health information about pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and HIV prevention through GSN apps, the impact of online and social media communities in the discussion and delivery of information about PrEP and HIV interventions, and ongoing and possible future research and the role of information professionals.

Journal: Journal of Consumer Health on the Internet
Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/15398285.2021.1902227

Karami, A., Kadari, R. R., Panati, L., Nooli, S. P., Bheemreddy, H., & Bozorgi, P. (2021). Analysis of Geotagging Behavior: Do Geotagged Users Represent the Twitter Population?. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 10(6), 373.

Abstract:
Twitter’s APIs are now the main data source for social media researchers. A large number of studies have utilized Twitter data for diverse research interests. Twitter users can share their precise real-time location, and Twitter APIs can provide this information as longitude and latitude. These geotagged Twitter data can help to study human activities and movements for different applications. Compared to the mostly small-scale data samples in different domains, such as social science, collecting geotagged data offers large samples. There is a fundamental question whether geotagged users can represent non-geotagged users. While some studies have investigated the question from different perspectives, they did not investigate profile information and the contents of tweets of geotagged and non-geotagged users. This empirical study addresses this limitation by applying text mining, statistical analysis, and machine learning techniques on Twitter data comprising more than 88,000 users and over 170 million tweets. Our findings show that there is a significant difference (p-value < 0.001) between geotagged and non-geotagged users based on 73% of the features obtained from the users’ profiles and tweets. The features can also help to distinguish between geotagged and non-geotagged users with around 80% accuracy. This research illustrates that geotagged users do not represent the Twitter population.

Journal: MDPI International Journal of Geo-Information
Doi: https://doi.org/ 10.3390/ijgi10060373

Karami, A., Dahl, A. A., Shaw, G., Valappil, S. P., Turner-McGrievy, G., Kharrazi, H., & Bozorgi, P. (2021, May). Analysis of Social Media Discussions on (#) Diet by Blue, Red, and Swing States in the US. In Healthcare(Vol. 9, No. 5, p. 518). Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute.

Abstract:
The relationship between political affiliations and diet-related discussions on social media has not been studied on a population level. This study used a cost- and -time effective framework to leverage, aggregate, and analyze data from social media. This paper enhances our understanding of diet-related discussions with respect to political orientations in U.S. states. This mixed methods study used computational methods to collect tweets containing “diet” or “#diet” shared in a year, identified tweets posted by U.S. Twitter users, disclosed topics of tweets, and compared democratic, republican, and swing states based on the weight of topics. A qualitative method was employed to code topics. We found 32 unique topics extracted from more than 800,000 tweets, including a wide range of themes, such as diet types and chronic conditions. Based on the comparative analysis of the topic weights, our results revealed a significant difference between democratic, republican, and swing states. The largest difference was detected between swing and democratic states, and the smallest difference was identified between swing and republican states. Our study provides initial insight on the association of potential political leanings with health (e.g., dietary behaviors). Our results show diet discussions differ depending on the political orientation of the state in which Twitter users reside. Understanding the correlation of dietary preferences based on political orientation can help develop targeted and effective health promotion, communication, and policymaking strategies.

Journal: MDPI Healthcare
Doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9050518

Karami, A., Lundy, M., Webb, F., Turner-McGrievy, G., McKeever, B. W., & McKeever, R. (2021). Identifying and analyzing health-related themes in disinformation shared by conservative and liberal Russian trolls on twitter. International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(4), 2159.

Abstract:
To combat health disinformation shared online, there is a need to identify and characterize the prevalence of topics shared by trolls managed by individuals to promote discord. The current literature is limited to a few health topics and dominated by vaccination. The goal of this study is to identify and analyze the breadth of health topics discussed by left (liberal) and right (conservative) Russian trolls on Twitter. We introduce an automated framework based on mixed methods including both computational and qualitative techniques. Results suggest that Russian trolls discussed 48 health-related topics, ranging from diet to abortion. Out of the 48 topics, there was a significant difference (p-value ≤ 0.004) between left and right trolls based on 17 topics. Hillary Clinton's health during the 2016 election was the most popular topic for right trolls, who discussed this topic significantly more than left trolls. Mental health was the most popular topic for left trolls, who discussed this topic significantly more than right trolls. This study shows that health disinformation is a global public health threat on social media for a considerable number of health topics. This study can be beneficial for researchers who are interested in political disinformation and health monitoring, communication, and promotion on social media by showing health information shared by Russian trolls.

Journal: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Doi: 10.3390/ijerph18042159

Worrall, A., Cappello, A., & Osolen, R. (in press). The importance of socio-emotional considerations in online communities, social informatics, and information science. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24489 [In the special issue on "Paradigm Shift in Information Science"]

Abstract: Alongside cognitive and social phenomena, many scholars have examined emotional and affective considerations in information science, but a potential emotional or affective paradigm has not coalesced to the extent of the social or cognitive paradigms. We argue information science research should integrate the social paradigm, as offered by social informatics, with affective and emotional considerations: a socio-emotional paradigm. A review of existing literature and findings from users’ motivations to participate on the Academia section of the Stack Exchange social questioning-and-answering site make our case. We uncovered tensions between the intended information-centric focus of the community and users who believed social, emotional, and affective considerations needed to be foregrounded, speaking to online communities acting as boundary objects, with the “fit” for one user or community not always the same as for another. An integrated socio-emotional paradigm shows much strength for social informatics and information science research, including uncovering hidden concerns and differences in values, as in our study. Affective and emotional research, often bubbling under in information science, should rise to the surface in not so much a paradigm shift but an integration of social, emotional, and affective considerations into a socio-emotional paradigm.

Journal: Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T)
Doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24489

Panel:
Porwal, L. & Dumas, C., (2021). VR-Dialogue - The AI-powered e-Participation  Research Expedition. International Conference on Digital Government Research. Omaha, Nebraska, June 9-11, 2021. Virtual Conference.

Abstract:
In our discussion panel, we are going to elaborate upon the novel research applying artificial intelligence and immersive virtual reality (VR) technologies to serious communication in the context of e-Participation behavioural research. We are going to present a research plan and preliminary results of specific EU-US research collaboration funded by the European Commission under The Next Generation Internet Explorers program on the topic of VR-Dialogue. The panel will gather researchers and experts directly involved in the research, approaching the problem from different perspectives.

Doi: https://doi.org/10.1145/3463677.3463747
Conference: DG.O'21

Workshop:
Porwol, L., & Dumas, C., (2021). From A desk to Lecture Hall: A Tutorial on Virtual e Gov and e-Part Event Delivery. International Conference on Digital Government Research. Omaha, Nebraska, June 9-11, 2021. Virtual  Conference.

Abstract:
In our Tutorial, we are going to explore the full socio-technical pipeline required to delivering an online, Immersive VR e-Government & E-Participation event using state of the art Immersive Virtual Reality Technologies. In particular, we are going to elaborate upon the use of specific mainstream software and hardware solutions for serious events in the context of e-Government. We are going to provide a practical step by step guidelines and explore options that organizers can choose from to deliver an efficient and desired VR experience whether for research purposes or simply for delivering a highly engaging, innovative e-Participation experience.

Doi: https://doi.org/10.1145/3463677.3463746
Conference: DG.O'21

Bashir, I., Malik, A., & Mahmood, K. (2021). Social media use and information-sharing behaviour of university students. IFLA Journal. https://doi.org/10.1177/0340035221991564

Abstract:
Social media has evolved over the last decade as a key driver for sharing and acquiring information in various domains of life. The increasing popularity of social media raises a number of questions regarding the extent of its use and the types of information shared. This study is designed to answer these questions by investigating university students’ use of social media in terms of commonly used social media platforms, frequency of use and the types of information shared. It also looks at differences of opinion based on gender, academic discipline and programme of study. The study is based on a cross-sectional survey; a structured questionnaire was developed and data was collected from 400 students at four universities in Faisalabad, Pakistan. The findings indicate that the majority of the students were frequent users of social media and visited platforms daily or several times a day. WhatsApp, Facebook and YouTube were the most widely used social media platforms. Male students tended to use social media more frequently than their female counterparts. This study will serve as a guideline for further research as it addresses an untouched area from a local perspective and reports original research.

Journal: https://doi.org/10.1177/0340035221991564
Doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0340035221991564

Graf, Ann M. (2021). Covid-19 and Graffiti Art on Instagram. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4902385 [Extended Abstract]

Conference/Event: Information Science Trends (IST 2021)
Doi: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4902385