Deeply Superficial Digital Media Engagement? The Case of Twitter and Movember 2013

Jean Burgess @jeanburgessElija CassidyBen Light @doggyb

Digital Media and Health

Benefits:•exploit the resources of patients themselves (Hejlesen et al. 2001);

•afford improved accessibility because they are said to be available 24 hours a day access and offer the pacing of treatment to suit individuals’ needs and lifestyles (Strecher 2007; Rice et al. 2012);

•offer increased levels of interactivity and therefore, much more scope for public engagement than with the mass media (Turner-McGrievy et al. 2009; Ito and Brown 2010). !

Problems:•problems associated with such approaches particularly in terms of the perceived credibility of Internet sources (Eysenbach 2008)

Irrefutable Links Between Engagement, Behaviour Change and Clinical Outcomes

!!

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in Australian

men !

In 2012, in Australia, approximately 75% of people who died by suicide were men

!

Superficiality

affecting only the outer part or surface of something: not deep or

serious

!

used to describe a quality, characteristic, etc., that can be seen in the outward appearance

or manner of something or someone but that is not deep or

genuine

Keen (2007) The Cult of the Amateur - p.16

2003 - Melbourne: ‘Bring Back the Mo’

2004 - 480 Mobros and Mosistas (PCFA $54,000)

2006 - Official Charity Status in Australia, New Zealand, Beyond Blue, ($10m)

2007 - US, Canada and UK (73 projects funded)

2008 - Spain and Ireland

2009 - $106M, 630K Mobros and Mosistas

2010 - South Africa, Finland, Czech Republic, the Netherlands (352 projects funded)

2011 - Belgium, Denmark and Norway

2012 - Austria, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sweden and Switzerland

2012 - Google Chrome advert

2013 - $580M, >4M Mobros and Mosistas

Methods

• In-house installation of YourTwapperkeeper

• Keyword ‘movember’

• Data collection 01/10-4/12

• 1,313,426 tweets from 759,345 unique users

• Standard ‘hashtag studies’ analytics:• activity over time• most visible/active users• language & location• themes, URLs etc

Activity over time

tweets & unique users over time

#movember starts

#movember ends

tweet types

tweet types over time

themes (EN only)

most active accounts (tweets)

most active accounts (tweet type)

most visible account?

most visible accounts (in-degree)

most visible accounts (activity)

top tweets

geolocation

languages

most-tweeted URLsURL CATEGORY DESCRIPTION

h"ps://vine.co/v/hFQ2iArFHLQ selfie Joe  Jonas  Vine  Video  text:  Support  #Movember

h"ps://twi"er.com/9GAG/status/398088029426163712/photo/1

meme  pic photo  montage  of  guy  shaving  his  beard,  in  homage  to  a  comic  strip  thingo  that  does  the  same  thing  posted  by  meme  site  h"p://instagram.com/p/hCWcNhj8OE/ selfie instagram  sXll  of  @joejonas  pre-­‐beard  shaving

h"p://uk.movember.com/mospace/8019173 movember  official  website James  Arthur  page  UK  movember  site  

n/a broken n/a

h"ps://twi"er.com/RealMrClean/status/398188267448696832/photo/1

promo  Xe-­‐in   promo  cartoon  'selfie'  of  Mr  Clean

h"ps://twi"er.com/JVReemer21/status/406140633737203712/photo/1

promo  Xe-­‐in James  van  Riemsdyk  pic  -­‐  player  trading  card  

h"ps://twi"er.com/bluthquotes/status/396505293980307456/photo/1

promo  Xe-­‐in George  Michael  Bluth  with  a  moustache  -­‐  AD  Xe-­‐in

h"ps://twi"er.com/NHLBruins/status/407249889593393152/photo/1

promo  Xe-­‐in Boston  Bruins  team  mugshots  with  mos

h"ps://twi"er.com/9GAG/status/398903255692242944/photo/1

meme  pic Hobbit  Dwarf  cheat  sheet  beards  infographic  posted  by  meme  site  9GAGh"ps://twi"er.com/TheLadBible/status/397113402797330433/

photo/1meme  pic Funny  meme  pic  posted  by  ladmag  site  The  Lad  Bible

h"p://ie.movember.com/mospace/8279381 movember  official  website BARTOSZ  BAK  page  at  US  movember  site

h"ps://twi"er.com/TreatRepublic/status/397651224851677184/photo/1

promo  Xe-­‐in promo  Xe-­‐in  from  @treatrepublic

h"ps://twi"er.com/TheLadBible/status/398074137622495233/photo/1

meme  pic cute  cat  pic  from  @theladbible

h"ps://twi"er.com/TheHobbitMovie/status/403670367941570560/photo/1

promo  Xe-­‐in LOTR  promo  Xe-­‐in  using  hobbit  dward  beard  infographic  meme

h"ps://twi"er.com/spinozzi24/status/396643441049735169 meme  pic Kevin  Spinozzi  promises  to  make  it  look  like  he  has  a  moustache  on  his  head  if  he  gets  500  RTsh"ps://www.movember.com/uk/register/ movember  official  website registraXon  page  at  movember  UK  

h"ps://twi"er.com/stephenfry/status/396761607348301824/photo/1

selfie Stephen  Fry  moustache  selfie

h"ps://twi"er.com/TheRealStanLee/status/403961551788339200/photo/1

selfie Stan  Lee  selfie

h"ps://ca.movember.com/mobile/#profile/6928801 movember  official  website George  Parros  page  at  movember  Canada

h"ps://twi"er.com/GeorgeParros/status/395949227022356480/photo/1

selfie George  Parros  selfie

n/a broken n/a

h"ps://twi"er.com/HistoricalPics/status/401754082568044544/photo/1

meme  pic from  @historicalpics  The  greatest  mustache  in  the  world  in  1977,  157  cm  longn/a broken n/a

h"p://us.movember.com/mospace/6246461 movember  official  website James  Chofay  page  at  US  movember  site

Awareness

Clinical Outcomes

Grooming and self care

Next Steps

• Socioeconomic value of superficiality in a context that ‘matters’

• Boring data

• Movember 2014

• Cross platform data