RAPID: Social Media during Rapid Transition

这项研究将研究在线社交媒体的影响，当一个国家首次对这种基于技术的新沟通形式开放时。 世界上缺乏社交媒体渗透的国家相对较少，但不时有其他国家为其公民提供全球连接。 古巴公民很快将获得更多的互联网接入。他们越来越多地接触到全球网络，将如何改变他们对世界的看法？关于社交媒体对发展中国家的影响，这能告诉我们什么？关于社交媒体对社会的影响，它能教给我们什么？ 这种变化形成了一种独特的自然实验，可以揭示社会中社交媒体的基本特征。在这项工作中，研究人员将对新连接社会的公民进行深入的半结构化定性访谈，了解他们使用社交媒体的情况。 访谈将尽可能通过文本聊天和音频（Skype和电话）以他们的语言进行。经许可，受试者的在线帖子也将被分析。将通过扎根理论方法分析数据。这项研究将集中在一个变化尚未开始影响普通公民的国家。因此，研究团队将能够深入了解先前存在的态度和对未来的希望。在即将到来的关键一年里，他们将能够跟踪这些态度的变化。 这项定性工作本身就很有价值，也将成为机器学习研究的基础，该研究旨在自动跟踪通过社交媒体表达的民意变化。

This research will examine the impact of online social media, when a nation first becomes open to this new technology-based form of communication. Relatively few countries in the world lack social media penetration, but from time to time additional nations offer global connectivity to their citizens. Cuban citizens will soon get dramatically more access to the Internet. How will their increased access to the global network change their view of the world? What can this teach us about the impact of social media on the developing world? What can it teach us about the impact of social media on society more generally? This kind of change forms a unique natural experiment that can reveal fundamental characteristics of social media in society.In this work, researchers will perform in-depth, semi-structured qualitative interviews with citizens of a newly connected society about their use of social media. Interviews will be conducted in their language via text-based chat and audio (Skype and phone) wherever possible. With permission, subjects' online postings will also be analyzed. Data will be analyzed via a grounded theory approach. The research will focus on a nation where changes have not yet begun to affect ordinary citizens. As a result, the research team will be able to gain insights into pre-existing attitudes and hopes for the future. Over this critical coming year, they will be able to track how those attitudes change. This qualitative work is valuable in itself and will also form the basis for a machine learning study designed to automatically track changes in public opinion as expressed via social media.