Facebook and the News

People don't use Facebook for news.

Yes, shocking, but a recent study describes an online survey of 1,050 respondents, a mix of college students, faculty, and staff, from a "large Midwestern university" (The Ohio State University?) to find this heady mix of folks don't really use FB for news.

There's some interesting stuff here, once you get beyond the odd sample, especially the use of variables called Facebook Intensity (frequency of use, along with how much it's a part of your life) and Presence (number of friends and how often you post).  We can quibble for hours with what these mean conceptually and whether methodologically the measures make sense together, but by using these variables in analysis some interesting results are produced. 

Table A4, near the bottom, provides a multivariate analysis with the dependent variable being FB news use.  The authors run the model in three steps.  First, they entered sex and age.  Both significantly predict FB news use (younger and female respondents were more likely to use it for news).  Second, they entered FB Intensity and Presence.  When that happens, the statistical contribution of age is no longer significant.  The variables Intensity and Presence steal all the variance that was explained by age.  Third, they enter some Life Satisfaction and Introversion into the model.  The former is statistically significant, the latter not, and neither affect the other variables.

What can we make of this?  It's tempting to say that it isn't so much age as it is your relationship with Facebook that explains your likelihood to use the social networking site to keep up with news.  But if you look at the correlations, younger respondents report significantly higher Intensity and Presence scores.   Those variables just do a better job of explaining news use than mere age, which is important to know, because it suggests our relationship with a social networking site is better predictor of how we use it than simply age.

What People Know -- about Energy (social media angle)

When it comes to energy knowledge, says one study, consumers can be a bit dim.

Sorry, I shamelessly swiped that bad pun from this story.  It continues:

IBM surveyed 10,000 people across 15 countries on consumers’ energy wants and needs. The survey found a sizable gap between what consumers know and what they should in order to benefit from smart grid energy initiatives designed to boost efficiency, cut waste and save money.

Some of the findings, easily available from the story itself, include that nearly a third of those surveyed had never heard of "dollar per kilowatt hour" and more than half didn't know if their utilities had a green energy program.

Here's a less-than-shocking finding -- money motivates people.  But it's not the motivator it used to be.  As the story notes (and this is important for you advertising and public relations folks):

The No. 1 single influence on the consumer was an insert in their energy bill. However, the combination of traditional media, social media  and the opinions of friends and family outweighed the influence of a bill insert.

Yes, this is a rather specialized topic, but it easily falls in my territory of media and knowledge.  I think that italicized graph above is rather important -- energy, or not.  Social media matters now, especially when friends are making suggestions and recommendations because, let's face it, we often trust our family and friends first.

Health and Social Media

There are a lot of ways to get health information -- from family, from friends, from the news media, from an actual living breathing doctor or nurse.  And, of course, there's that Internet thing.

Social media in particular are a growing source of health information, but ethical issues come up when doctors and patients use such avenues to connect, at least according to this story.  If you scroll to the story bottom you'll see an interesting bit of info on how much social media influence health care decisions. On a 1-to-5 scale, with "5" being high, 12 percent said it influences such decisions.  Twenty-one percent said a "1" meaning it never really has any influence.

I can see this.  In terms of what people know, especially about their own health, we often appeal to a "wisdom of the crowd," especially if in that crowd is our doctor, or any doctor, and others with some expertise, along with people who have the same shared problems.  It's the brave new health world.

Fun Friday

It's the first Friday of Lent -- no meat, sure, but also that means it's time to toss together a bunch of stuff this week that modestly touches on what people learn from the media.  Okay, in some cases it's a stretch, especially the first one.

• Exercise, according to a study, curbs the cravings for pot.  I repeat this study for no other reason than (1) I find it humorous with lots of potential for jokes and (2) it's based on an N of 12.  Twelve?  Sheesh.
• To keep a health theme, this story says a diet with olive oil can reduce heart risks.  I think we knew this one already, but this is based on a meta-analysis of 50 earlier studies.  I did a meta-analysis once.  Once.
• In a case of the startlingly obvious, giving students quizzes before a test makes them do better on the test.  In fairness, an earlier piece of research I blogged about suggested that practice tests are better than studying at improving learning.  So I don't want to be too snarky here.  Only a little.
• Gotta touch on social networking and here's my favorite study of the day, that use of social networking by homeless kids leads to risky sexual behavior.  But it can increase or decrease these behaviors, depending on use, the study points out.  Yes, can I have a duh from the choir?

Briefs

Below you'll find a graph or two on some of the stuff I'm reading this week, none of it (unfortunately) directly tied to what people know, but all of it kinda interesting.


A Theory of Public Attention

While I've not read this as deeply as I should, at first glance this discussion of a theory of public attention is ripe with potential for those interested in our wild new media marketplace and the competition for public attention.  The more I think about this, the more important it seems, though the piece here doesn't really help me in terms of theoretical predictions.  I probably need to read it again.

 The Jena Six

Many of us remember this Louisiana case, and this study attempts to gauge the roles of race and ideology in how people responded to protests about the case.  News coverage plays a significant role as well.  It's hardly surprising, as the paper notes, that politics and race are vital to how people structured their responses.

Social Networking and Cross-Cutting Information

Cross-cutting information is academicspeak for exposure to information that disagrees with your particular point of view.  This study looks at SNS (social networking sites) and finds they lead to more exposure to "challenging viewpoints."  That's a good thing, particularly in a fragmenting media that often leads to people attending to news that confirms their own predispositions.  Strongly encouraged for those with an interest in either cross-cutting info or SNS.

Foursquare -- Two Takes on yet another cutting edge social networking site (yawn)

Okay, so we have two takes on this Foursquare thing, the latest hip cutting edge, deeply important, vital to your life, social networking site.  Pick your poison below:

NYTimes Version |  The Onion Version

I'm going with the Onion.

What's this to do with how people learn from the media?  Nothing at all.  I just like linking to The Onion whenever possible.

MyFaceTube Politics

Perhaps I blogged about this study before, but it deserves mention again as we see new orgs move more and more to integrating Facebook and other social networking sites into their content.

This study (abstract here, pdf here) is based on a survey of 3,500 young adults (ages 18 to 24) and finds little or no influence by social networking sites on political knowledge (see especially Table 4).  Now this controls for a bunch of other media exposure items, so I'm not terribly surprised there was little variance left for social networking to explain.  Still, it tells us a little something about what social networking does not do.

I also found the factor analysis interesting.  For the uninitiated, a factor analysis lumps together similar responses to a variety of survey questions.  Here, the two social media items fall together nicely and are distinctly separate from other media (see Table 2), from late-night comedy shows to traditional news shows, sites, and publications.  And, separate from mobile media like smart phones.  

Oh yeah, and it's a great study because it cites me.

Business Use of Social Media

Nearly eight out of ten Global 100 companies are using some kind of social media, according to a new study (which I'm afraid is in annoying pdf format and not an easy read).  For the companies that actually use Twitter -- and it's the most popular social networking site for businesses -- they're very active.  Facebook is second, followed by YouTube and blogs. 

In terms of what people know, the corporate shift to social networking means they're reaching out directly to people with their message.  Whether this outreach matters is, to me, unclear.  Not much data out there to answer that one.