Generational Knowledge Transfer through Social Media
I’m embarking on PhD with the Swinburne Institute for Social Research. I have some serious work to do on updating this site but in the meantime here is the short version of my thesis proposal:
New forms of social media allow participants to define their networks based on personal relevancy criteria. Users can tap into informal knowledge sources with unprecedented access and speed, often across organisational and social boundaries. The fluidity of these context-agnostic platforms affords the user a dynamic and unique world view. While there are many benefits for the user in gaining this new form of information ‘currency’, some media commentators have recognised the dangers surrounding information authentication and integrity. This is part of a wider problem of editorial control in citizen media and its dissemination.
This project instead aims to tackle the impact of social media on the root learning and analytical ability of the user. Does the increasing fragmentation of information (e.g. ‘status updates’) help or hinder the user to accurately synthesise information and gain a fair representation of the world? Moreover, what are the effects of social media on long-term knowledge transfer with the ascending value of real-time information?
This study will assist educators and media organisations to:
• respond to the rapidly changing value placed on information sources by users
• enhance the learning and analytical ability of ‘digital natives’
• find a scalable solution to editorial control and trust in online content
• develop accessible online tools to structure and authenticate information
…This brief will undoubtedly change as I conduct my literature review over the next three months.