Social Media and the Spread of Hate (SMASH): Examining Youth and College Student Exposure and Impact of Hate Speech Online
Abstract
SMASH is composed of an interdisciplinary team of researchers, graduate and undergraduate students connected to the School of Education and Information Studies, UCLA’s Semel Healthy Campus Initiative (HCI) Center and our independent non-profit partner, the Organization for Social Media Safety (OFSMS). Our primary goal is to delve deeper into where and how young people encounter hate speech online, their reactions to it, and ideas for making social media safe for everyone. Our study incorporates a variety of methods including gathering survey data during school assemblies and engaging in more in-depth conversations with young people about their own experiences using social media. SMASH has amassed survey data from over 24,000 grade 5-12 students in 94 schools nationally since our inception in 2022 as part of as part of the Initiative to Study Hate’s first cohort. This past year, in collaboration with Semel HCI Center and the associate vice provost, we expanded our study to capture data related to undergraduate student perspectives on social media, hate speech, and campus climate. We are also creating a corps of young people to serve as advisors to help interpret study results and guide future efforts. Taken together, SMASH work is building a foundation for OFSMS programmatic improvements. Our research has also been shared by our OFSMS partners in legislative testimony related to potential harms on social media and broader advocacy efforts at the local, state and national level. SMASH results can also inform the development of resources and interventions designed for schools, informal settings (e.g., afterschool programs) and college campuses, such as digital literacy curricula as well as activities to enhance kindness, empathy, resiliency, and positive use of social media.
Field
School of Education and Information Studies, Semel Healthy Campus Initiative Center, OFSMS
Team
Dean Christina Christie, Dr. Anne Gilliland, Dr. Christine Ong, Dr. Dr. Wendy Slusser, Dr. Mark Hansen, Dr. Arif Amlani, Dr. Tyrone Howard, Mark Berkman, Dr. Sarah Krongard, Seul Lee, Zhaopeng Ding
Professor and Dean Christina (Tina) Christie (PI), SEIS
Dean Christie brings extensive skill and expertise in the area of program development and evaluation, focusing her research on understanding evaluation as a method for facilitating social change. She has served as a lead investigator on more than 30 grants and contracts totaling approximately $33 million to study education, child maltreatment, and health behavior programs.
Professor Anne Gilliland (co-PI), SEIS, Department of Information Studies
Professor Gilliland has extensive expertise in archival studies, digital media and working with K-12 students and teachers on the use of primary sources in the classroom. She has conducted and published several studies on digital archiving and analysis of Anti-Asian hate speech on Twitter during the COVID-19 pandemic and is the lead faculty member for the Ed&IS Minor in Information and Media Literacy.
Dr. Christine Ong, Research Scientist, UCLA Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, & Student Testing (project director, CRESST)
Dr. Ong has extensive experience working as a project director and researcher on a range of federal, state as well as community-based research efforts and evaluation studies exploring STEM education, early childhood education, teacher preparation and anti-bullying curricula.
Dr. Wendy Slusser
Dr. Wendelin Slusser is Associate Vice Provost for the Semel Healthy Campus Initiative Center at UCLA, Clinical Professor of Pediatrics in the UCLA Schools of Medicine and Public Health, and Co-Founder and Academic Director of the UCLA Fit for Healthy Weight Program.
Associate Adjunct Professor Mark Hansen (co-PI and in-kind contribution), SEIS, Department of Education
Dr. Hansen will provide methodological expertise and will supervise graduate researchers carrying out the quantitative data analyses.
Dr. Arif Amlani (co-PI), Director of New Initiatives, SEIS
Dr. Amlani is responsible for conceptualizing and launching programs such as SMASH. He has a background in philosophy of education and curriculum development and brings with him program development expertise.
Professor Tyrone Howard (advisor), SEIS, Department of Education
Professor Howards’ research centers on race, culture, access, and opportunity for minoritized student populations. He is the Pritzker Family Endowed Chair in the School of Education and Information Studies and director of the UCLA Pritzker Center for Strengthening Children and Families.
Marc Berkman (content advisor), Organization for Social Media Safety (OFSMS)
Mr. Berkman is CEO of OFSMS, a recognized global leader on social media safety issues, and also has significant experience on hate speech concerns from his prior work as a senior Congressional policy advisor.
Seul Lee: Graduate Student Researcher, Department of Information Studies
Ms. Lee is a doctoral candidate in Information Studies at UCLA. Her research focuses on developing thorough designs of interfaces and metadata with digital literacy education to help users comprehend the complex dynamics and elements that can cause biases, mis-/disinformation on social media platforms and search engines and be able to evaluate information sources to make informed decisions.