The story of Eliot Higgins, a blogger who exploits publicly accessible material to piece together important facts about the Syrian conflict, offers a unique insight into the enormous potential of open-source intelligence. Matthew Moran describes how the networked society has spawned new analytical approaches and opportunities. In November 2013, the New Yorker published a profile of Eliot Higgins – or Brown Moses as he is known to almost 17,000 Twitter followers. […]
Category: Social Media
Book Review: Digital Dilemmas: Power, Resistance and the Internet by M. I. Franklin
How are digital landscapes being incorporated into public space and what does this mean for civic engagement? In Digital Dilemmas, M.I. Franklin considers how publics, nation-states, and multilateral institutions are being continually reinvented in local and global decision-making domains that are accessed and controlled by a relative few. This well-researched tome of contemporary digital dilemmas positions itself well among other works that have been published […]
Video abstracts are a low-barrier means for publishers to extend the shelf life of research.
Similar to a standard article abstract, video abstracts typically cover key information on the background of the article’s study, methods used, results and discussion of impact. However, Scott Spicer finds video abstracts extend the possible reach of research by providing the author a platform to communicate their research through a low-barrier, personalized, media-rich medium, in ways that would have been impossible […]
Embracing our (non-scholarly) identities: The benefits of combining engagement with moral activism.
The characteristics and lack of boundaries in social media present clear opportunities for scholars to engage communities in analytical dialogue. Many scholars feel pressed to remain morally neutral, so it can feel risky to engage in such commentary. But Brent E. Sasley and Mira Sucharov find there may actually be intellectual and social justice benefits to exploring insider identities and […]
Five ways libraries are using Instagram to share collections and draw public interest.
Alongside universities, libraries and librarians are now using social media platforms to connect with users in a range of exciting and innovating ways. The latest platform that libraries are experimenting with is Instagram, which allows users to take photos on their smart phones, apply exciting filters and add hashtags, and then share these images online with their followers. Amy Mollett and Anthony McDonnell investigate how libraries […]
‘Big data’ from online market interactions offer a rich opportunity to study human nature and economic behaviour.
Data on the interactions between individuals on the Internet are often viewed as a potential threat to privacy or freedom of expression. As Wojtek Przepiorka writes, however, the ‘big data’ produced by online transactions and feedback processes on websites such as eBay can also be an invaluable resource for academics and policy-makers. He argues that subjecting this data to formal study has […]
Five ways universities are using Instagram
Be it through regular Facebook updates or tweets about campus news, universities are now turning to social media to connect with the public on a much wider scale. The latest platform that universities are experimenting with is Instagram, which allows users to take photos on their smart phones, apply exciting filters and add hashtags, and then share these images online […]
Impact Round-Up 29th March: Citation types, commercialised knowledge, and boundary workers.
Managing Editor Sierra Williams presents a round-up of popular stories from around the web on higher education, academic impact, and trends in scholarly communication. We need different types of citation: Replicates, Falsifies, DependsOn, Acknowledges … by Mike Taylor at SV-POW argues for further metadata on citation type to be pulled in, which would add a richer and more useful layer to citation metrics. Over […]
Social media is a ticking time bomb for universities with an outdated web presence.
There are pressing questions academic institutions will need to address over the next couple of years regarding their expanding participation in social media streams. Andy Tattersall argues that with such blurred boundaries of ownership, access and support, what is needed is wide-scale demystification to help academics dovetail a few choice tools to bring how they work into a modern setting. Social Media, […]
Impact Round-Up 15th March: The Cosmos of science communication, rallying for the humanities, and #itooamoxford.
Managing Editor Sierra Williams presents a round-up of popular stories from around the web on higher education, academic impact, and trends in scholarly communication. Inspired by the ‘I, too, am Harvard’ initiative, students organised an ‘I, too, am Oxford’ project tumblr collating together thoughts this week seeking to raise awareness about how students of colour are made to feel different in the wider […]