Pam McKinney here, live-blogging from the first day of the Lilac Conference in Sheffield. Laura Williams is a PhD in our home department, the School of Information, Journalism and Communication. Laura started her PhD research in 2020 and is undertaking it part-time while working as a librarian. The theme of Laura's doctoral research is ultra-running, essentially very long-distance running. If you search for ultra-running on social media, you get lots of content of very healthy and fit-looking people. "Breaking through the noise" is a verbatim quote from one of Laura's participants, as they experience social media as "noisy". The PhD research brings together Laura's interest in sports and fitness with questions about how social media shapes information practices. The research questions were formed out of her own experiences of using social media as a runner, and bring in Laura's professional experiences with IL and IB. Ultrarunning requires the use of a lot of in-depth information in order to cope with the psychological and physiological challenges e.g. pain, digestion, sleep deprivation etc.
Information from bodies is incredibly important for ultrarunners, but they are also taking i information from the landscape and watching the bodies of others. Epistemic, formal information is used, as well as social information, and of course a lot of social media information. The presentation focuses on the problems encountered on social media and how ultrarunners and their coaches navigate these. Takes Lloy'd's research as a framework for the study: Information literacy as a socially enacted practice. It isn't a skills checklist but is relational, situated, embodied and power-laden.
Social media research has focused on social media fitness influencers and content creators, who can be characterised as non-expert and unprofessional, who use social media to market themselves and products produced by partner brands. The information isn't tailored, and can be problematic. However, social media can play an important role in helping people understand their bodies, and can teach people about how to have a healthy body.
Laura observed social media activity on Instagram, and then interviewed people, and will combine these two sets of data together. The observation was ethnographic in data, where Laura engaged with social media and diarised her experiences, including her emotional state. A second stage of 19 interviews with ultrarunners including coaches and influencers, was analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Laura identified 6 aspects of information sharing on Instagram: documenting running practices, sharing opinions and critiquing, talking about problems & challenges, giving advice, promoting products and events and advocacy campaigning. She found 3 ways that information was shared: photographs such as selfies on the run, watches, and running kit "flatlays" where all equipment is laid out on a surface in preparation for a run. They shared video content such as videos of runs, routines, training diary highlights, and finally composite media, which might be things like running data.
Social media noise is created by a combination of information problems (e.g. low-quality information, personal experiences rather than evidence), platform affordance (e.g. addictive nature, echo chamber, impact of algorithms) and social media culture (w.g. running to create content, influencers). Laura had to do a lot of very active searching to find running content from more diverse groups e.g. runners of colour, or muslim runners, or the algorithm would just throw up lots of white, conventionally attractive, young and thin runners.
The consequences of the noise are mental health problems and becoming burnt out or injured. So what strategies do people adopt to break through the noise?
Laura identified five strategies and tactics for breaking through the social media noise. People liked to create their communities, acknowledge that every body is different, resisting against platform affordances, being authentic and supporting information literacy: amplifying good quality information, challenging and critiquing poor quality information, advocating for expertise and authenticity. Influencers and content creators can play an important role in supporting information literacy. Participants spoke about a tension between competing for attention but also trying to remain authentic. Content creators could reduce the impact of social media noise through activities such as teaching runners to understand their bodies, calling out poor-quality information, and sharing transparent training rationales. Laura asserted IL is important in this space, but it is complex on social media. IL is contextual, community-specific and socially constructed.
