In the last decade, social media platforms have grown in popularity, and now Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are readily available on mobile devices, continuously connecting users to a stream of information.

This workshop aims to:

1) highlight current social media research opportunities and challenges,
2) identify and connect social media researchers,
3) introduce dis/misinformation issues in social media, and
4) provide practical guides to investigators, enhancing their understanding of the grant development process and their abilities to write a successful external grant proposal.

The workshop includes the following parts:

Part I: Social Media Research Competition (SMRC) (9-10:30 Mountain Time Zone)

a. Hashtags for gatekeeping of information on social media
Devendra Potnis, Iman Tahamtan

b. Promoting users' intention to share online health articles on social media: The role of confirmation bias
Haiping Zhao, Shaoxiong Fu, Xiaoyu Chen

c. COVID-19 in the Twitterverse, from epidemic to pandemic: information-sharing behavior and Twitter as an information carrier
Miyoung Chong, Han Woo Park

Break (10:30 -11 Mountain Time Zone)

Break (3 - 3:30 Mountain Time Zone)

Part IV: Best Practices for Grant Proposal Development Panel, including (3:30 - 5 Mountain Time Zone)

a. Dr. Jana Diesner (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
b. Dr. Javed Mostafa (UNC-Chapel Hill)
c. Dr. Chirag Shah (University of Washington)
d. Dr. Vivek Singh (Rutgers University)

The Social Media Research Competition:

Nominate your papers by September 22nd of 2021 using the application form. SMRC recognizes three high-quality long and short papers in a peer reviewed journal or conference (e.g., ASIST, iConference, CSCW, CHI) on a topic informed by social media during the current and previous year (e.g. 2020 and 2021 for the 2021 award). This process includes two steps. First, authors nominate their paper for the competition by the due date via the application form. These papers will be evaluated by a committee of social media experts. Second, top-5 authors will be invited to present their paper at the SIG Social Media (SM) Workshop. Out of the top-5 authors, the committee of social media experts select three authors for the Winner ($200), Runner Up ($150), and Honorable Mention ($100) places. At least one author must register and be present at the SIG SM workshop to receive the award. The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Social Media and Health
• Social Media and Politics
• Ethics in Social Media 
• Marketing in Social media 
• Information Behavior in Social Media
• Minorities and Social Media
• Tourism and Social Media
• Dis/Misinformation
• Fake News
• Data Science for Social Media
• Social Goods in Social Media
• Social Media for Policy Making
• Social Media and GIS
• Big data techniques for social media data processing and analysis
• Privacy and Security in Social Media
• Social Movements in Social Media

Important Dates:

[EXTENDED DEADLINE:]
Nomination for the SM research competition: September 22, 2021 via the application form

[EXTENDED DEADLINE:]
Notification of top-5 authors: October 8, 2021

Workshop: October 29, 2021, 9 am – 5 pm

Registration (includes lunch and two breaks): https://www.asist.org/am21/registration/

Organizers:

Amir Karami, University of South Carolina

Loni Hagen, University of South Florida

Catherine Dumas, Simmons University

Aylin Imeri (Ilhan), Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Mohammad Hossein Jarrahi, UNC-Chapel Hill

Tara Zimmerman, University of Texas at Austin