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This rise of utilization provides opportunities for researchers. First, we must answer the question, how can social workers utilize new media to expand or enhance their research? Currently, limited social work literature is available that addresses methods for utilizing these new medias in a research capacity. Other fields, such as journalism, marketing, and education use various techniques to analyze digital media. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate how new media can be used as a component of social work research, by discussing the data collection strategies used to study schools of social work (SSW) websites comparatively for international content and engagement.
Methods: Researchers will present their experiences of data collection design and implementation through gathering data from SSW websites and social media accounts.
Stratified sampling incorporating CSWE regions was used to randomly select websites in proportion to each region’s population of accredited SSW.
A thirteen item content analysis rubric was constructed using concepts from Healy’s continuum of internationalization and an initial review of SSW websites with high international content.
To ensure validity, each website was analyzed by two reviewers.
Data were analyzed via Pearson’s correlation, compare means, crosstabs, frequencies, and descriptive statistics, using SPSS 22.
Results: The following results are a brief example of collected data. Expanded results will be used to discuss potential types of data found in new media.
35.8% of SSW included international context in their mission statements. Full time faculty count was strongly positively correlated with number of international course offerings (r(174) = .37, p < .01). SSW in the Western (M = 1.67, SD = 2.8) region had the highest number of international courses. 27.6% of SSW utilized social media (Facebook/ Twitter), however in that group, international content was present (86.4%Twitter, 66.6% Facebook).
Limitations and challenges of collecting data from new media will be discussed.
Implications: Data collection from new media resources opens new doors to social work researchers. A grand challenge for today is incorporating new technology into conventional research in a beneficial way. The populations we serve and organizations we work with have a presence in new media sources that has been understudied by social workers. Including new media in social work research will provide insights into the needs of clients as well as how these needs are served by different stakeholders in public new media domains.
References
Internet World Stats. (2015, February). World Internet Users Statistics and 2014 World Population Stats. Retrieved from http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
Lenhart, A. (2015), Teens, social media & technology: Overview 2015. Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/04/09/teens-social-media-technology-2015/
Smith, A. (2011). Why Americans use social media. Pew Internet & American Life Project, 1–11. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2011/11/15/why-americans-use-social-media/