The latest controversy to plague the social media giant Facebook is the data breach by a third party company, Cambridge Analytica. A media studies professor at the University of Virginia mentioned how the best way to combat this is to “..use the instruments of regulation to curb its (Facebook’s) power. So if we act as citizens, we have a chance. If we act as Facebook users, we have no chance.” (NPR, March 2018). This sentiment should perhaps extend to all forms of social media.
Given this, it’s both interesting and important to note the trends in media literacy research. Greenhow et al (2009) mention that “Research should continue examining learners’ online inquiry practices.. (media literacy)… especially how they navigate, understand, trust, and critically evaluate multiple types and sources of data.” (p 249). Researchers like Koltay (2011) made further arguments to incorporate media literacy in primary and secondary education. Now, organizations like ISTE and UNESCO have created media literacy standards for K-12. Research and practice in this area is important, as Crook (2011) had noted the lack of multimodal literacies in school contexts.
While social scholarship is important, I am not sure when it will become widespread. Applications like Twitter seem discipline specific and are used primarily during conferences (Mahrt et al, 2014, Holmberg et al, 2014). A funny comic strip by ‘PhD comics’ lamented academia not being up to date in digital spaces. Greenhow et al. do address this “Such tools would transform research”…. “only if scholars choose to build serious academic lives online(….and becoming..) connected to the work of their peers and students” (p 253)
URL vs IRL https://t.co/FHYATIazgd pic.twitter.com/RZ7A5Z1SVB
— PHD Comics (@PHDcomics) March 21, 2017
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P.S. I feel slightly weird about posting this pic because it’s so exaggerated, but I know this is a safe space 🙂 This talks about pictures being old, but I think more than that it points to the problem of websites often not being updated. If it weren’t for google scholar, I know I would struggle to follow the latest works of some people I look up to, as many don’t update the research paper. I know there are time constraints, but I DEFINITELY wish things were different and there was more academic presence online.
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Will Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica Scandal Actually Cause Users To Delete The App? All things considered. Retrieved March 22, 2018, from https://www.npr.org/2018/03/21/595791340/will-facebooks-cambridge-analytica-scandal-actually-cause-users-to-delete-the-ap
Koltay, T. (2011). The media and the literacies: Media literacy, information literacy, digital literacy. Media, Culture & Society, 33(2), 211-221.
https://www.iste.org/explore/categorylist?id=23
Mahrt, M., Weller, K., & Peters, I. (2014). Twitter in scholarly communication. Twitter and society, 399-410.
Holmberg, K., & Thelwall, M. (2014). Disciplinary differences in Twitter scholarly communication. Scientometrics, 101(2), 1027-1042.
I love PhD comics! While point out some flaws in the current adoption of social media use by the academic community, I am curious as to your thoughts on which areas to focus research. K-12 learning environments have been slow to start using social media. Do you think this is because a lack of research has led to an absence of knowledge among teachers on best practices for web 2.0 use in the classroom? Or do you think the problem lies in the adoption of social media use, similar to your example of professors updating websites. That is, teaches understand the affordances of social media, but either are not willing to invest the effort or time to integrate these activities into their classroom.
Hi, Sukanya. I love the reference to the Cambridge Analytica story. In my opinion, research is much more powerful when it adds some perspective on an issue that’s of immediate and urgent concern, such as the Facebook scandal. Linking the news to the scholarly calls for more attention to digital literacy is powerful. The quote about regulating Facebook feels a little less directly connected to the research on social media in education, and to this class discussion.
The prompt asks you for four things: what you found persuasive in Greenhow et al (and why), what you found persuasive in Crook, plus what you found less convincing in Greenhow et al and what you found less convincing in Crook. I wonder if you could say a bit more about what you found less convincing in those two articles.
I also like the comic. I’m for a little levity in academic discussions, especially when you can link it to research, as you do. Your statement that Twitter is mainly used at conferences is a little confusing, however. Celebrities, politicians and journalists are all over Twitter. If you mean that academics use Twitter mainly at conferences, then be sure to clearly state that.
Overall, a very thought-provoking post! Nice work.
Hi Sukanya – this comic is great! This also reminded me about the conversation we had in our face-to-face class session about older generations of faculty not using technologies for learning and instruction. I was surprised when one of my graduate school applications was still a paper application that needed to be mailed in. The reality is not everyone has shifted to digital literacies. As you mentioned this is especially true for social media. In Greenhow et al (2009), she states benefits for social media as fostering identity development. Specifically she states “describing how youth use online authorship to work out their personal beliefs, challenge cultural assumptions, and navigate complex relationships.” This is definitely an important research area as we are seeing more of the intersections between learning and social medias.
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