A data-driven analysis of how different people share information about health through social media.
Using social media and peer-to-peer networks to teach people about science and health may seem like an obvious strategy. Yet recent research suggests that systematic reliance on social networks may be a recipe for inequity. People are not consistently inclined to share information with others around them, and many people are constrained by factors outside of their immediate control. Ironically, the highly social nature of humankind complicates the extent to which we can live in a society united solely by electronic media.
Stretching well beyond social media, this book documents disparate tendencies in the ways people learn and share information about health and science. By reviewing a wide array of existing research―ranging from a survey of New Orleans residents in the weeks after Hurricane Katrina to analysis of Twitter posts related to H1N1 to a physician-led communication campaign explaining the benefits of vaginal birth―Brian G. Southwell explains why some types of information are more likely to be shared than others and how some people never get exposed to seemingly widely available information.
This book will appeal to social science students and citizens interested in the role of social networks in information diffusion and yet it also serves as a cautionary tale for communication practitioners and policymakers interested in leveraging social ties as an inexpensive method to spread information.

Social Networks and Popular Understanding of Science and Health: Sharing Disparities

Computers & Technology

Southwell, Brian G.

Computer Science

Johns Hopkins University Press

This collection highlights innovations to encourage reduction in homeowner energy use. The ideas described grew out of a summit at Duke University that brought together people from research institutions, county sustainability offices, government agencies, consultant organizations, architecture firms, building contractors, and real estate agencies—sectors of professionals and practitioners who do not often converse. The resulting book provides a foundation for new dialog about ways in which homeowners can be engaged as partners in the quest to reduce our collective energy use. It focuses on how to change individual behavior, which is a function of not only general attitudes, but also perceptions of social norms, specific skill knowledge, and available technology and tools. The essays in this book will appeal to a range of people charged with curbing residential energy use through communication-based intervention.

Innovations in Home Energy Use: A Sourcebook for Behavior Change (RTI Press Books)

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

RTI International/RTI Press

Why do people act as they do? How can we improve our health and wellbeing? What can the past tell us about our future? Research can help us address such questions but the journey to finding answers can be challenging and full of adventure. Curated from interviews featured on the public radio show, The Measure of Everyday Life, this collection reveals ways that we can ask useful questions. The book also offers insights from behind the scenes of social science research, communication campaigns and interventions, and community engagement projects. A wide range of audiences—including anyone interested in applying academic research to practical projects, new graduate students, and undergraduate students learning about research—should find useful material in the collection. Praise for Measuring Everyday Life:\n“Asking questions, good questions asked the right way, is the basis for so much of the work I do. This book is a timely look at why those questions and the research that propels them matter. We are at precisely the moment when there are so many players in our public discourse that need to take lessons from inside these pages.” 
Soledad O'Brien, CEO of SO'B Productions, host of Matter of Fact, and correspondent for HBO and Al Jazeera America\n“The Measure of Everyday Life is a wonderful resource that communicates public health topics and issues in a digestible and conversational way. As an adjunct professor, I have used the podcast episodes for homework and in-class exercises with graduate public health students. Not only do I get positive reviews from the students, but the episodes are a catalyst for a thought-provoking discussion among the class. During a time when misinformation is rampant, it is so great to have this resource (both the podcast episodes and this book) to show the breadth and depth of social science research and practice.” 
Dr. Rachel Powell, CDC Foundation and Georgia State University\n“This book invites you into truly wide-ranging—and highly accessible—conversations about how researchers work, how they sometimes surprise themselves as they dig into a topic, and what their work tells us about a whole host of pressing issues, ranging from artificial intelligence to end of life, to the language we use to talk to our kids about obesity, to the role of ‘back roads’ in rural Black communities in the south. Fascinating and thought-provoking.” 
Joanne Kenen, Commonwealth Fund Journalist in Residence, Johns Hopkins University, and contributing editor for Politico About the Editors Brian G. Southwell, PhD, directs the Science in the Public Sphere program in the Center for Communication Science at RTI International and holds faculty appointments at Duke University and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also hosts The Measure of Everyday Life, the public radio show that inspired this book, on WNCU.\nKaren Keaton Jackson, PhD, is a professor of English and director of the University Honors Program at North Carolina Central University.\nBridget Pittman-Blackwell is a psychology graduate student at North Carolina Central University and soldier in the Army National Guard.

Measuring Everyday Life: Talking About Research and Why It Matters (RTI Press Books)

Rti Press

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Books by Southwell, Brian G.