How the World Changed Social Media

How the World Changed Social Media is the first book in Why We Post, a book series that investigates the findings of nine anthropologists who each spent 15 months living in communities across the world. This book offers a comparative analysis summarising the results of the research and exploring the impact of social media on politics and gender, education and commerce. What is the result of the increased emphasis on visual communication? Are we becoming more individual or more social? Why is public social media so conservative? Why does equality online fail to shift inequality offline? How did memes become the moral police of the internet? Supported by an introduction to the project’s academic framework and theoretical terms that help to account for the findings, the book argues that the only way to appreciate and understand something as intimate and ubiquitous as social media is to be immersed in the lives of the people who post. Only then can we discover how people all around the world have already transformed social media in such unexpected ways and assess the consequences.published_or_final_versio

Elections in digital times: a guide for electoral practitioners

Strengthening democracy and electoral processes in the era of social media and Artificial Intelligence Democracy requires free, periodic, transparent, and inclusive elections. Freedom of expression, freedom of the press, and the right to political participation are also critical to societies ruled by the respect of human rights. In today’s rapidly evolving digital environment, opportunities for communication between citizens, politicians and political parties are unprecedented –– with information related to elections flowing faster and easier than ever, coupled with expanded opportunities for its verification and correction by a growing number of stakeholders. However, with billions of human beings connected, and disinformation and misinformation circulating unhinged around the networks, democratic processes and access to reliable information are at risk. With an estimated 56.8% of the world’s population active on social media and an estimate of 4 billion eligible voters, the ubiquity of social networks and the impact of Artificial Intelligence can intentionally or unintentionally undermine electoral processes, thereby delegitimizing democracies worldwide. In this context, all actors involved in electoral processes have an essential role to play. Electoral management bodies, electoral practitioners, the media, voters, political parties, and civil society organizations must understand the scope and impact of social media and Artificial Intelligence in the electoral cycle. They also need to have access to the tools to identify who instigates and spreads disinformation and misinformation, and the tools and strategies to combat it. This handbook aims to be a toolbox that helps better understand the current scenario and share experiences of good practices in different electoral settings and equip electoral practitioners and other key actors from all over the world to ensure the credibility of the democratic system in times of profound transformations

TB STIGMA – MEASUREMENT GUIDANCE

TB is the most deadly infectious disease in the world, and stigma continues to play a significant role in worsening the epidemic. Stigma and discrimination not only stop people from seeking care but also make it more difficult for those on treatment to continue, both of which make the disease more difficult to treat in the long-term and mean those infected are more likely to transmit the disease to those around them. TB Stigma – Measurement Guidance is a manual to help generate enough information about stigma issues to design and monitor and evaluate efforts to reduce TB stigma. It can help in planning TB stigma baseline measurements and monitoring trends to capture the outcomes of TB stigma reduction efforts. This manual is designed for health workers, professional or management staff, people who advocate for those with TB, and all who need to understand and respond to TB stigma

Bringing Down the Bedroom Walls: Emphasizing Substance over Form in Personalized Abuse

This article explores what makes domestic violence special and whether privileging certain abusive relationships, and thus certain victims, over others is justified. It argues that abuse in familial, romantic, or cohabitating relationships is not necessarily any more harmful than abuse in other personal relationships; that harm from abuse should be identified through substantive criteria, for which marriage or cohabitation should not be proxies; and that heightened protections should be extended accordingly. The article pinpoints the criteria that justify distinguishing domestic violence from other forms of violence and examines how federal and state domestic violence laws define protected victims and relationships. An analysis of these statutes uncovers their problematic underinclusiveness on one hand, and their overinclusiveness on the other. In analyzing relationships and victims excluded from protection, the article challenges the exclusion of these relationships and victims by proposing a personalized abuse framework, which abandons the use of categories for identifying victims, and instead creates a substantive formula that focuses on the relationship itself to identify victims in need of legal recourse. The personalized abuse framework targets relationships in which abuse is likely to be cyclical, repetitive, and most psychologically harmful to the victim. The article then examines how, by eliminating categories, the personalized abuse framework is more inclusive than existing domestic violence laws

Remote self-testing for sexually transmitted infections, within online care pathways: how could this intervention deliver public health benefit? Formative research using chlamydia as an exemplar

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) remain a public health challenge in England, despite free, confidential testing/treatment services. The eSTI² Research Consortium is developing a diagnostic self-test for STIs, to be deployed within online care-pathways. Should this intervention lead to increased STI detection and prompt effective treatment, it could reduce transmission and morbidity. Through a scoping review and three studies I explored its potential to benefit public health, thus informing the intervention’s ongoing development. The review (2013) found diverse uses of internet/electronic communications in STI care-pathways, but little research was transferable to remote self-testing or management. Current internet-use for sexual health may predict use of the proposed intervention, so I estimated its prevalence, and identified associated factors, using British probability survey data (2010-12). Among sexually-experienced 16-44-year-olds (n=8926), internet-use for STI testing/treatment was rare (<0.5%), but available services were limited. 4.5% women and 4.6% men reported internet-use for information/support with their sex-lives, elevated among the better-educated and some STI risk-groups including young people. In qualitative interviews, 25 young people at risk of STI expressed enthusiasm for a (hypothetical) STI self-test within online care-pathways. Findings informed colleagues’ development of eSTI²’s Online Chlamydia Pathway (OCP). For people requiring chlamydia treatment, this included: online automated medical assessment, a helpline, and community pharmacy treatment collection or facilitated clinic access. I undertook and thematically-analysed 40 qualitative interviews with OCP users, within pilot studies. Participants valued the rapid, convenient and discreet treatment access, increased control over their healthcare, and optional professional support by telephone, enabled by the OCP. Offline parts of the pathway (pharmacy/clinic attendance) risked compromising its perceived advantages, and require further development. Recommendations derived from an iteratively-developed understanding of this complex intervention’s use and appeal, can enhance its potential to enable STI detection and treatment, promptly, effectively and acceptably. Future evaluation must consider impacts on health inequalities