scholarly journals Youth Exposure to Hate in the Online Space: An Exploratory Analysis

Author(s):  
Nigel Harriman ◽  
Neil Shortland ◽  
Max Su ◽  
Tyler Cote ◽  
Marcia A. Testa ◽  
...  

Today’s youth have extensive access to the internet and frequently engage in social networking activities using various social media platforms and devices. This is a phenomenon that hate groups are exploiting when disseminating their propaganda. This study seeks to better understand youth exposure to hateful material in the online space by exploring predictors of such exposure including demographic characteristics (age, gender, and race), academic performance, online behaviors, online disinhibition, risk perception, and parents/guardians’ supervision of online activities. We implemented a cross-sectional study design, using a paper questionnaire, in two high schools in Massachusetts (USA), focusing on students 14 to 19 years old. Logistic regression models were used to study the association between independent variables (demographics, online behaviors, risk perception, parental supervision) and exposure to hate online. Results revealed an association between exposure to hate messages in the online space and time spent online, academic performance, communicating with a stranger on social media, and benign online disinhibition. In our sample, benign online disinhibition was also associated with students’ risk of encountering someone online that tried to convince them of racist views. This study represents an important contribution to understanding youth’s risk factors of exposure to hateful material online.

Author(s):  
Nigel Harriman ◽  
Neil Shortland ◽  
Max Su ◽  
Tyler Cote ◽  
Marcia A. Testa ◽  
...  

Today’s youth have almost universal access to the internet and frequently engage in social networking activities using various social media platforms and devices. This is a phenomenon that hate groups are exploiting when disseminating their propaganda. This study seeks to better understand youth exposure to hateful material in the online space by exploring predictors of such exposure including demographic characteristics (age, gender and race), academic performance, online behaviours, online disinhibition, risk perception, and parents/guardians’ supervision of online activities. We implemented a cross-sectional study design, using a paper questionnaire, in two high schools in Massachusetts (USA), focusing on students 14 to 19 years old. Logistic regression models were used to study the association between independent variables (demographics, online behaviours, risk perception, parental supervision) and exposure to hate online. Results revealed an association between exposure to hate messages in the online space and time spent online, academic performance, communicating with a stranger on social media, and benign online disinhibition. In our sample, benign online disinhibition was also associated with students’ risk of encountering someone online that tried to convince them of racist views. This study represents an important first step in understanding youth’s risk factors of exposure to hateful material online.


2020 ◽  
Vol 105 (8) ◽  
pp. 744-748 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura De Nardi ◽  
Andrea Trombetta ◽  
Sergio Ghirardo ◽  
Maria Rita Lucia Genovese ◽  
Egidio Barbi ◽  
...  

ObjectiveThis study aims to explore the attitude of adolescents with chronic diseases toward social media exposure, focusing in particular on Facebook.DesignCross-sectional study.SettingAn anonymous semistructured survey was distributed to an Italian hospital-based cohort of adolescents with chronic disease to explore the role of Facebook in their daily life.PatientsWe recruited 212 adolescents (aged between 13 and 24 years) with a diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease, coeliac disease, diabetes mellitus type 1 and cystic fibrosis.ResultsTwo hundred and seven of the 212 (97.6%) expressed the need of sharing their illness experience with friends, 201 out of 212 (94.8%) usually searched information on the internet to find new therapies and to discover their prognosis. One hundred and forty-nine out of 212 adolescents (70.3%) perceived dependence on their parents as the most negative aspect of having a chronic disease, and 200 out of 212 (94.3%) were looking for friends with the same disease on Facebook. Two hundred and ten out of 212 (99.1%) did not want their doctors or nurse on their social media platforms. During the active disease periods, the time spent with social media increased from an average of 5 to 11 hours.ConclusionsThis descriptive analysis focused on the Facebook impact on chronic disease perception among affected adolescents. It showed that they used to spend an increased amount of time on this platform during disease flare-up and highlighted their wish of keeping doctors and nurses away from their social dimension.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 169-175
Author(s):  
Ukamaka G. Okafor ◽  
Abubakar Ibrahim Jatau ◽  
Olukemi Alabi ◽  
Elijah N.A. Mohammed

Purpose: To assess the awareness and satisfaction of online renewal of practice licence among pharmacists in Nigeria.Methods: This was a cross-sectional study among pharmacists in Nigeria. Participants were recruited through; online (via social media platforms) or in person at Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) office during application for renewal of license.Results: A total of 878 participants completed the survey. Of this, 97.4 and 79.9 % were aware and satisfied with the online process, respectively. The respondents rated the process as excellent (19.1 %), fair (22.2 %), good (55.0 %) and poor (3.6 %). Most of the reported challenges included linking payment of association dues with license renewal, poor customer service and password retrieval.Conclusions: The level of awareness and satisfaction of the online renewal of annual licence among pharmacists in Nigeria is high. Measures are still needed to improve the online application process. Keywords: Pharmacists Council, Online, Licence, Pharmacist, Practice


10.2196/23724 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. e23724
Author(s):  
Chapman Wei ◽  
Aaron Fong ◽  
Theodore Quan ◽  
Puneet Gupta ◽  
Adam Friedman

Background Dermatologists are increasingly utilizing social media platforms to disseminate scientific information. New tools, such as altmetrics and PlumX metrics, have been made available to rapidly capture the level of scientific article dissemination across social media platforms. However, no studies have been performed to assess the level of scientific article dissemination across social media regarding hidradenitis suppurativa, a disease that is still currently not well understood. Objective The aim of our study was to evaluate the utility of altmetrics and PlumX metrics by characterizing the top 100 “trending” hidradenitis suppurativa articles in the altmetric database by the altmetric attention score and PlumX score. Methods Altmetric data components of the top 100 hidradenitis suppurativa articles were extracted from the altmetric database. Article citation count was found using Web of Science. PlumX field-weighted impact scores for each article were collected from the Scopus database. Journal title, open-access status, article type, and study design of original articles were assessed. Additionally, the altmetric attention score, PlumX score, and citation count were log transformed and adjusted by +1 for linear regression, and Spearman correlation coefficients were utilized to determine correlations. Results Most of the top 100 “trending” hidradenitis suppurativa articles were published in JAMA Dermatology (n=27, 27%). The median altmetric attention score, PlumX score, and citation count were 25.5, 3.7, and 10.5, respectively. The most mentions regarding social media platforms came from Twitter. Although no correlation was observed between the citation count and altmetric attention score (r2=0.019, P=.17), positive correlation was observed between the citation count and PlumX score (r2=0.469, P<.001). Conclusions Our research demonstrated that citation count is not correlated with the altmetric attention score, but is strongly correlated with the PlumX score regarding hidradenitis suppurativa articles at this point in time. With the continual increase of social media usage by medical professionals and researchers, this study can help investigators understand the best way to captivate their audience.


Author(s):  
Gajarishiyan Rasalingam ◽  
◽  
Arrosan Rajalingam ◽  

Background: Parental engagement is one of the key factors that can influence adolescents mentalhealth status, although these associations are not fully measured in the local context. This study willestimate the prevalence and association of parental engagement with adolescents and mental healthstatus in Sri Lanka. Method: This current study is a secondary analysis of nationally representativedata for Sri Lanka. The data was collected from 3262 school attending students in grades 8-12 inthe Sri Lankan Global School-based health survey (GSHS) 2016. A two-stage cluster sample designwas used to select the representation of samples. The binary variables i.e. loneliness, anxiety andsuicidal ideation, were modelled using multivariable logistic regression models with predictorsrepresenting gender, age, grade, parental supervision and parental understanding. Result: It isestimated that the prevalence of parental supervision and parental understanding is 85.3% and78.5%, respectively. The analysis of both good parental supervision and parenting understandinghas reduced the loneliness, anxiety and suicidal thoughts among the adolescents population,compared to those who don't have good parental engagement. Conclusion: It is seen that there isa higher prevalence of parental and children engagement in Sri Lanka compared to otherdemographical regions. However, the prevalence of mental health remains higher as compared tothe global average. The results suggest that national policies and programs should be integrated forboth parents and children. Parents need more knowledge on good parenting, while adolescents needsupport on coping with their mental health.


2021 ◽  
pp. 014556132110421
Author(s):  
Nilan G. Vaghjiani ◽  
Vatsal Lal ◽  
Nima Vahidi ◽  
Ali Ebadi ◽  
Matthew Carli ◽  
...  

Objective: Determine whether social media platforms can influence article impact as measured by citations. Methods: Cross-sectional study that analyzed articles published in the top 10 otolaryngology journals by Eigenfactor score in January 2015. Total accumulated Twitter mentions and citations were recorded in 2021. The main outcomes examined the difference in citations, tweets, article types, and author counts accumulated over a 5-year period for all articles that were either tweeted or nontweeted. Results: A total of 3094 articles were included for analysis. The average article was cited 11.2 ± 13.2 times and tweeted 2.10 ± 4.0 times. Sixty-four percent of the articles had at least one tweet. Over the study period, there was a statistically significant difference in mean number of citations between tweeted articles (12.1 ± 15.0) versus nontweeted articles (9.6 ± 10.5) citations, representing a 26% difference ( P < .001). Review articles had the highest mean citations (19.4 ± 23.4) while editorials had the lowest mean citations (2.8 ± 6.9). Tweets peaked in the year of publication, but citations continued to rise in the subsequent years. Tweeted articles’ peak citation rate change was +1.27 mean citations per year, compared to +0.99 mean citations per year in nontweeted articles. The mean author count in tweeted articles (5.40 ± 3.1) was not significantly different than the mean author count in nontweeted articles (5.19 ± 2.65, P = .0794). Conclusion: These data suggest a moderate correlation between tweets and article citations, but a clear difference in the number of citations in articles tweeted versus those with no tweets. Thus, dissemination of knowledge may be impacted by social medial platforms such as Twitter.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. e0261559
Author(s):  
Ali Ghaddar ◽  
Sanaa Khandaqji ◽  
Zeinab Awad ◽  
Rawad Kansoun

Background The massive, free and unrestricted exchange of information on the social media during the Covid-19 pandemic has set fertile grounds for fear, uncertainty and the rise of fake news related to the virus. This “viral” spread of fake news created an “infodemic” that threatened the compliance with public health guidelines and recommendations. Objective This study aims to describe the trust in social media platforms and the exposure to fake news about COVID-19 in Lebanon and to explore their association with vaccination intent. Methods In this cross-sectional study conducted in Lebanon during July–August, 2020, a random sample of 1052 participants selected from a mobile-phone database responded to an anonymous structured questionnaire after obtaining informed consent (response rate = 40%). The questionnaire was conducted by telephone and measured socio-demographics, sources and trust in sources of information and exposure to fake news, social media activity, perceived threat and vaccination intent. Results Results indicated that the majority of participants (82%) believed that COVID-19 is a threat and 52% had intention to vaccinate. Exposure to fake/ unverified news was high (19.7% were often and 63.8% were sometimes exposed, mainly to fake news shared through Watsapp and Facebook). Trust in certain information sources (WHO, MoPH and TV) increased while trust in others (Watsapp, Facebook) reduced vaccination intent against Covid-19. Believing in the man-made theory and the business control theory significantly reduced the likelihood of vaccination intent (Beta = 0.43; p = 0.01 and Beta = -0.29; p = 0.05) respectively. Conclusion In the context of the infodemic, understanding the role of exposure to fake news and of conspiracy believes in shaping healthy behavior is important for increasing vaccination intent and planning adequate response to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-69
Author(s):  
B URBAN ◽  
◽  
TL MAPHATHE ◽  

Social media platforms are increasingly used by SMEs who have fewer resources and need to rely on social media marketing to engage with their customers. This article investigates the extent to which social media platforms specifically Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter contribute to increased customer engagement. While past studies have concentrated on the adoption of social media in predominantly western contexts, this research is focused on SMEs in a relatively under-researched African market context, South Africa. The research design was a quantitative cross-sectional study relying on primary data collection, where hypotheses were tested using statistical analyses in terms of correlational and regression analyses. Results support the hypotheses where the use of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter platforms show a significant and positive relationship with increased customer engagement. The findings have management implications where owner-managers should make use of social media by maintaining and growing an extensive network of ties to both collect information and identify resources, as well as to build a reputation and engage with their customers.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 204062232110296
Author(s):  
Francesco Brigo ◽  
Marta Ponzano ◽  
Maria Pia Sormani ◽  
Marinella Clerico ◽  
Gianmarco Abbadessa ◽  
...  

Background: Digital health, including telemedicine, is increasingly recommended for the management of chronic neurological disorders, and it has changed the roles of patients and clinicians. Methods: In this cross-sectional study we aimed to investigate the digital work engagement of Italian neurologists through a survey collected between September 2020 and January 2021. Questionnaires were anonymous and collected demographic characteristics, attitudes towards digital devices and social media, and details about the clinician–patient relationship. We used logistic-regression models to identify characteristics associated with the propensity to communicate with patients using social media. Results: Among the 553 neurologists who participated to the study, smartphones and computers were widely preferred compared with tablets; wearable devices were not common, although some neurologists desired them. A total of 48% of participants reported communicating with patients using social media but only a few were in favor of social friendship with patients; WhatsApp was the social media most popular for professional (86%) and personal (98%) purposes. Propensity to communicate with social media was significantly higher among those who were older ( p < 0.001) and lived in regions outside northern Italy (center: p = 0.006; south and the islands: p < 0.001). For 58% of responders, social media improved their relationship with patients, but 72% usually warned patients about unreliable websites. Conclusions: The preferred social media were those which were rapid and which safeguard privacy more effectively; neurologists made many efforts to disprove fake news circulating online, providing help to patients in various ways. This analysis can help direct future interventions for the management of chronic neurological disorders.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. e0257410
Author(s):  
Md. Bakebillah ◽  
Md. Arif Billah ◽  
Befikadu L. Wubishet ◽  
Md. Nuruzzaman Khan

Introduction Misconception related to coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) have been spread out broadly and the the World Health Organization declared these as a major challenge to fight against the pandemic. This study aimed to assess COVID-19 related misconception among rural people in Bangladesh and associated socio-demographic and media related factors. Methods Multistage sampling method was used to collect data (n = 210) from three unions of Satkhira District, Bangladesh. The dependent variable was the presence of COVID-19 related misconception (Yes, No) which was generated based on respondents’ responses to a set of six questions on various types of misconception. Exposure variables were respondents’ socio-demographic characteristics, mass media and social media exposure. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the characteristics of the respondents. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to determine the factors associated with COVID-19 misconception. Results More than half of the study respondents had one or more COVID-19 related misconception. Over 50% of the total respondents considered this disease as a punishment from God. Besides, many of the respondents reported that they do not think the virus causing COVID-19 is dangerous (59%) and it is a disease (19%). Around 7% reported they believe the virus is the part of a virus war (7.2%). The bivariate analysis found the presence of socio-demographic factors of the respondents, as well as the factors related to social and mass media, were significantly associated with the COVID-19’s misconception. However, once all factors considered together in the multivariate model, misconception were found to be lower among secondary (AOR, 0.33, 95% CI: 0.13–0.84) and tertiary (AOR, 0.29, 95% CI: 0.09–0.92) educated respondents compared to the respondents with primary education. Conclusion This study obtained a very higher percentage of misconception about the COVID-19 among the respondents of Satkhira district in Bangladesh. This could be a potential challenge to fight against this pandemic which is now ongoing. Prioritizing mass and social media to disseminate evidence-based information as well as educate people about this disease are necessary.


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