年轻人社交媒体上的社会活动.pdf

0 1 Acknowledgements My thanks go first and foremost for the dozens of hardworking and inspiring campaigners who gave up their time, expertise and advice in writing this report. It is reassuring to know there are people out there fighting to make the world a better place, and where this paper speaks in admiration at what can be achieved online it is in no small part a reflection of their efforts. My thanks to my Demos colleagues and co-authors Matilda, Agns and Ben whose work and creative insight during the project has been invaluable, and to Jamie, Carl, Josh, Polly and Alan for their feedback throughout. Thanks also goes to Facebook for the financial support necessary to carry out this research. All errors and omissions are entirely my own. Alex Krasodomski-Jones September 2018 2 3 This report presents the results of a study examining the ways in which social action is organised, influenced and encouraged on social media. 2018 finds us squarely in the centre of a storm of digitally-driven action. Some is political, some non-partisan. Some is impactful, and makes the front pages of newspapers around the world. Some remains below the radar. We set out to explore how campaigners, campaign groups and social media users themselves felt about the ways in which social action had been impacted by its increasing digitisation: for better and for worse. Social action on social media is a picture of contrasts. For those for whom the online world feels like home, they see these tools as powerful tools for changing the world. Young people were optimistic about the power of social media to change society in ways they wanted. It was seen as a tool that could play a part in reshaping the political and social spaces they occupied. Although slightly more cynical, older Britons broadly agreed. As a medium for change, these digital platforms were felt to be powerful forces, whether that was changing politics, changing society or simply changing the conversation. But not everybody feels at home online, and the power of social platforms can be misused, or not used at all. As part of this research, we interviewed a diverse group of campaigners and campaign groups pursuing different - and often opposing - aims. Our focus has been on the means by which they sought to achieve their goals and the mediums through which they campaigned, and have not judged the relative social value of each. Nevertheless, we cannot ignore that these tools are not available to everybody. Where platforms have been used to cause harm and to spread hate, they have excluded or suppressed voices in this country and abroad. Causes online live and die by their ability to navigate these spaces: not everyone is able or willing to do it. We fear th a world where only the digitally-included are represented and whose visions for society are articulated, and those who are not represented or whose voices are not heard are left powerless. We hope this report serves as a further reminder that platforms must ensure their tools for all their potential power - are put to good use. The research begins with a review of literature examining the strengths and weaknesses of social action as carried out on social media. A survey of 2,000 Britons was commissioned: we looked at attitudes to, experiences of and 4 behaviours in relation to social action and social media. We follow this up with the results of 30 interviews and discussions carried out with campaigners and campaign groups, through which we examined their work through the ways it joined up with social platforms. Finally, we include a small piece of data analysis aimed at encouraging future attempts to measure the scale and impact of social action using data, and as a call to social media platforms to ensure their data is available to researchers and activists who share their aims for a better society. 5 6 The report presents new evidence for the power of social platforms to mobilise young people into social action. Nearly two-thirds of young people (64%) see social media platforms as an essential part of achieving social change, and over half of 35-50 year olds agree (55%). Young women are nearly twice as likely to use social media to campaign on issues important to them (19%) than young men (10%). Approximately half (55%) of young people in the UK believe social media makes positive offline change more likely to happen. Half of young people who report using social media to communicate with community groups, charities and campaign groups do so on a daily basis. The report reaffirms the centrality of social media platforms in the organisation and experience of our lives. 91% felt social media had a net positive impact on them and their community. 7% of young people reported using social media to communicate directly with politicians or political groups in the past twelve months. Extrapolated to the UK population, this equates to approximately half a million young people communicating with political groups online. Of these people, half are in direct contact every week. Young men were twice as likely to report using social media to communicate with politicians or political groups than young women (10% vs 5%). The power of social media is a force multiplier: through a review of the academic literature on social action as organised or coordinated online, through 15 interviews with campaign groups and with input from a half-day forum, we conclude that when used for good, social media platforms can be a powerful tool for positive social change, and when used for ill, they can cause considerable damage. 7 Interviewees: Identified the power of social platforms to reach new audiences and provide platforms for new voices, particularly those traditionally excluded from a platform. Credited social media with providing new routes into social action for previously excluded or under-informed groups, and of new ways of organising and raising money outside of traditional organisational structures. However, interviewees also: Were highly critical of their vulnerability to abuse through social platforms and the ability of platforms to police their spaces. Raised concerns about the extent to which social media allowed sustained and long-lasing social action. Social action can be encouraged, strengthened and measured through social media and other digital platforms. The affordability and accessibility of social platforms have created new civic organisations that are able to successfully operate outside of traditional organisational structures. Attitudinal, fundraising and offline meetup data all have potential in providing social campaigners with metrics by which to measure their success. However, there remain significant concerns about: The misuse and abuse of social media by actors attempting to disrupt positive social change through social media platforms, including the spreading of misinformation and hate, and in particular in regions where platform oversight is weaker. The impact of algorithmic content curation on the types of messaging and, consequently, the types of groups that find their voices. whom social media platforms are hostile or unusable, 8 In light of these findings, Demos recommends: Measure Digital Community Health The DCMS should incorporate a measure of digital community health into the yearly Community Life survey, measuring the extent and impact of social action and the quality of community interactions and cohesion as they appear online. Research and modelling could be supported through co-working with social media platforms (though would not be contingent on this), and would likely take the form of a pilot study in towns and cities in the UK. Ensure digital literacy is a core component of statutory PSHE The government should adopt the recommendations made in the 2017 report by the Select Committee on Communications and ensure digital literacy is a core component of the PSHE syllabus in schools; modules tackling citizenship, democracy and human rights ought to include the notion of digital culture and citizenship. Improve Platform transparency We recommend social media platforms improve transparency of their platforms in two ways. Alongside GDPR compliance, platforms might consider extending the levels of data immediately accessible to their users. Currently, we believe data provided by social platforms is difficult to interpret to an average user. Abreakdown of how and why content and advertising is being shown to them on the platform. Where possible, this should be standardised across platforms: GDPR requests provide a likely framework for this. Transparency at an individual level should be complemented by platform-level transparency. Recent attempts to get an overall view of what is happening on a platform have been patchy: frustrated by platform reluctance and reduction in API access. At a minimum, we recommend a simple heuristic: that which is public on a platform ought to be accessible through an API. 9