How Social Media Helps Researchers Paint a Clear Picture
In this article, researchers gather public opinions in a different format than a traditional survey. By compiling posts and data from Facebook, they put together a very unfiltered picture of public opinion about treatment practices for invasive species. In this case specifically, Asian carp being eliminated via herpes virus.
“Stakeholders are an important aspect of environmental management. Increasingly governments and authorities are engaging with community stakeholders to determine their views regarding specific management practices, with the aim of improving support. Engagement with the community is progression toward digital channels, as the abundance of social media data is making it increasing tempting for authorities to explore online commentary. Utilizing digital channels, e.g., Facebook in order to assess community perspectives is emerging as a vital part of an extensive toolkit, which also includes surveys, public hearings and expert opinions” (Mehmet, 2018)
“A netnographic approach was employed to immerse the researcher in online carp herpes virus discussions and perspectives. This was done to identify where and how people were engaging with the topic. As a result, Facebook was noted as having a high concentration of community engagement with the topic. Facebook also represents the most popular social media site in Australia. Conversations in Facebook allowed for the use of singular posts, as well as a thread (a group of comments based on a single theme, sequentially presented). Threads allow for the deeper expression of attitudes, opinions, and justification, providing the researcher with a clear understanding of objections, concerns and support for the virus” (Mehmet, 2018)
"In total, 83 Facebook articles were identified with more than 6600 comments collected. This represents all articles and associated articles related to the carp herpes virus in Facebook. The data set was thematically filtered, which resulted in a total of 53 articles and 2672 sentiment items" (Mehmet, 2018)
"Regardless of the potential economic benefits and potential for fishing, stakeholders simultaneously recognized the negative effects of carp and understood that the species required almost immediate eradication. Hostility towards carp was consistent with previous research assessing public attitudes towards the invasive alien fish species. The attitude of hope for the virus was further justified by past successes of biological management practices, both specific to carp in international trials and domestic successes related to other pest species, e.g., rabbits. Interestingly, however, politicians and authorities were a specific target at a national level, many justifying a negative stance based on past experiences (e.g., cane toads) and overall poor management of the environment, especially in relation to the Great Barrier Reef. The justification for this position was often grounded in distrust and skepticism, with many rationalizing this stance based on past behaviors of conservative governments, which were often perceived to neglect/abuse the environment in favor of perceived economic benefit" (Mehmet, 2018)
Review
While much scientific research on public opinion is carried out through volunteer participants and surveys, this study took a raw and valuable approach by compiling publicly available sentiments via social media. What was found was an interesting mix of public opinion on the matter of controlling the invasive carp species with the herpes virus. While it was generally understood and accepted that this species needs to be culled for the sake of ecological prosperity, apprehensions existed due to historical failures to control species, such as the mishap with cane toads. What is important to take away from this is the fact that previous efforts and their results are a massive driver of public opinion, even if newly proposed and well supported efforts are objectively sound. Because of this, a strong understanding of past invasive control efforts is necessary to understand the public dynamic with new methods, and a good line of information and communication must be established in order to create better solutions all around.
References
Mehmet, M. I. (2018, March 12). The National, regional and city divide: Social media analysis of stakeholders views regarding biological controls. the public reaction to the carp control herpes virus in Australia - sciencedirect. Science Direct. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301479718309708
