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Anna O’Connor Researcher Country Research Branch, Immigration New Zealand

SOCIAL MEDIA AS AN INFORMATION RESOURCE : Findings of a project by MBIE’s Country Research Branch: 2013. Anna O’Connor Researcher Country Research Branch, Immigration New Zealand. Contents. The Country Research Branch The social media project What we did What we learned

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Anna O’Connor Researcher Country Research Branch, Immigration New Zealand

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  1. SOCIAL MEDIA AS AN INFORMATION RESOURCE: Findings of a project by MBIE’s Country Research Branch: 2013. Anna O’ConnorResearcher Country Research Branch, Immigration New Zealand The comments made and slides presented do not form the official position of Immigration New Zealand, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, or the New Zealand government

  2. Contents • The Country Research Branch • The social media project • What we did • What we learned • What did we decide • Outputs • Sharing our findings

  3. The Country Research Branch • Researchers in Auckland and Wellington. • 10 people, 3 full-time. • Mostly qualified information professionals • Supporting New Zealand’s refugee and asylum claims processes since 1996 and immigration risk processes since 2005 • Provides Country of Origin Information (COI). • In NZ COI is drawn from open source information i.e. available in the public domain. • Traditionally drawn content from major human rights bodies, international government and non-government organisations, and credible news and political reporting.

  4. The Social Media Project Citizens, activists, and parties to conflict are not just the subject of media, they are part of the media.” (Sigal,2009) What was the business need? • Social media as a source of country of origin information (COI) • CRB researchers were finding relevant content from social media in the course of researching COI online. • Researchers in CRB were making personal judgements about when to provide COI from a social media source. A quality service demands a transparent decision-making process, in this case, specific to social media. • Requests for comment on or 'verification' of social media sources • CRB did not have a policy or guidelines around how to respond to such requests. Clear guidelines were needed to spell out how/if CRB would assist with these requests.

  5. What did we do? GATHERED INFORMATION: • Explored in-house resources (CRB & MBIE) • Contacted counterparts overseas • Conducted a [limited] literature review APPLIED WHAT WE LEARNT: • Decided a position • Developed researcher guidelines to support decision • Shared findings with offshore peers

  6. From in-house resources • CRB • Already skilled in source evaluation • Already applying international COI standards • Limited technical (ICT forensic) skills • Limited scope for extra work • MBIE – policies and guidance focused on social media broadcasting, driven by Communications Group • MBIE ICT – access and usage policy From offshore • NZ ahead of peers - ACCORD requested input to and review of their draft guide. (Final version Researching Country of Origin Information – Training Manual, Oct 2013,see Chpt.6) • Invitation to Geneva extended What did we learn?

  7. From the literature review • COI and other sectors’ evaluation models were an excellent base but there were gaps when applying these to social media • Best practice evaluation of social media for COI was still emerging • Validation (content, author) was a key problem area • Other industries evaluating social media content can offer tips • News media • Case law (as evidence) • Intelligence ‘tradecraft’ directives • See literature review executive summary as circulated with tonight’s invite. "The tension is clear: Social networks encourage fast, constant, brief communications; journalism calls for communication preceded by fact-finding and thoughtful consideration." (Reuters, 2012, Handbook of Journalism)

  8. What did we decide?

  9. Key decisions CRB do not: • Evaluate authenticity of video and audio content • Interrogate or evaluate social media account activity • Log in to any social media accounts • Review comments

  10. Guidelines • Standard evaluation criteria spelt out + extra vigilance about: • AUTHOR/PUBLISHER (Transparency, Balance/Imbalance) • CONTENT (Balance/Imbalance, Accuracy, Currency, Relevance) • USABILITY (Reliability) • Practical steps: • Summarise any inconsistencies, uncertainties or limitations • Develop and apply disclaimers. • Save in a stable format • Develop or adapt citation styles to accurately reflect these resources • User name (Author), Year of posting, Title of the posting (if applicable), Title of the site/Name of Weblog [Blog] day and month of posting, (hyperlink) [accessed XX\XX\XXXX]

  11. Suggested disclaimers "This response utilises content from the social media site [insert name of the social media used]. Please be aware of the transient, unverified nature of this sort of material when considering this content in your decision-making. Please read this item in conjunction with all sources provided. This content was supplied to [illustrate XXX or was the only example of XXXX]“ "CRB does not provide advice on whether content has been altered or deleted by the creator or other persons. Please note that information on social media is often easily manipulated and frequently unverifiable.” "This content was retrieved from a blog. Please note that information on blogs may be easily manipulated and frequently unverifiable. This blog is hosted by the [enter publisher eg New York Times/The Guardian/The BBC/Time magazine] which [is/are] considered [a] reputable media company applying their own quality standards. The author of this blog is/is not officially affiliated with said publisher…"

  12. Sharing our findings: Geneva • Inter-governmental working group • 26 people from 12 countries • Interest in project but also in information processes and skills can be applied to the COI discipline.

  13. Conclusions • A clear position helps manage expectations of clients • More confident decision-making • Generated interest within business • Evolving area that will need revisiting • Raised our profile within organisation and internationally • Highlighted importance of supplying information with context and clear description of sources

  14. COI and social media – a literature review by New Zealand’s Country Research Branch • Posted on 3 October 2013 by ACCORD on ecoi.net https://www.ecoi.net/blog/2013/10/coi-and-social-media-a-literature-review-by-new-zealands-country-research-branch • Austrian Red Cross/ACCORD, 2013, Researching Country of Origin Information – Training Manual, http://www.coi-training.net/handbook/Researching-Country-of-Origin-Information-2013-edition-ACCORD-COI-Training-manual.pdf • Reuters, 2012, Reporting from the internet and using social media, Handbook of Journalism http://handbook.reuters.com/index.php?title=Reporting_From_the_Internet_And_Using_Social_Media • Research Information Network, 2011,Social media: A guide for researchers • http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/communicating-and-disseminating-research/social-media-guide-researchers

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