Studying the Flow of Information for the Alabama Water Institute
Earlier this year, Rebecca Britt, Ph.D., an associate professor in journalism and creative media (JCM) and associate dean for Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity, received a grant from the Alabama Water Institute (AWI) to fund a project that uses big data to assess water contamination threats. This is a large study that requires a small army of researchers and collaborators from a range of backgrounds.
Rebecca Britt, Ph.D., discussing the research with colleague Courtney Boman
Rebecca Britt, Ph.D., discussing the research with colleague Courtney Boman
“This research is important for the AWI,” Britt said. “While it does combine health and environmental research, at its core it is about communicating information about risks and making sense of it to the public. From there, it’s about being able to create interventions, health strategies, campaigns, targeted messages, and better rhetorical strategies and sensemaking. If we can understand why and how people are communicating online, then we can use those outlets and strategies to help people.”
Britt’s research team, which includes Matthew VanDyke, Ph.D., Courtney Boman, Ph.D and doctoral candidate Amy Ritchart from C&IS and Leigh Terry, Ph.D., from the College of Engineering, studies the role social media play in spreading information on environmental health risks. Collaborating with the AWI, they are building a database that tracks key online conversations related to air and water pollution, helping organizations like NOAA and WHO turn raw data into insights for public health planning.
“How can we do a good job communicating about safe drinking water to people in rural areas if we don’t understand who they’re listening to and how they talk to each other?” Britt said. “How can we promote health where it’s desperately needed if we don’t know where to reach people? We can't – not until we analyze that data.”
Right now, Britt’s team is creating a network analysis of social media to see who the opinion leaders are in various spaces. They want to understand which organizations or individuals are leading conversations on health and the environment.
“In other words,” Britt said, “I’m looking for influencers.”
To do this, the team studies how data come in and go out, including channels, platforms and real-world locations. They scour sites like X (formerly Twitter), Reddit and YouTube to find key conversations about water and learn how those conversations affect the public.
“My suspicion is that the most influential voices in environmental communication are coming from rural areas: people with low follower counts but high engagement.”
This aligns with a 2020 study Britt published on fashion and beauty influencers, which revealed that smaller but highly engaged accounts had a greater influence than their larger, sponsored counterparts. Britt said that major organizations like WHO and CDC typically miss this detail, focusing on follower numbers instead of likes, shares or comments.
“People get excited when someone responds to them,” Britt said. “People don’t follow Taylor Swift because she has a high follower count; they follow her because they like connecting with her. If someone gets a like or follow from Taylor, it makes their day.”
To find influencers, Britt’s team studied content and comments from 2019 to 2021. By understanding the connection between creators and consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic, Britt believes her team can better understand how information is spread across the internet – and if they can understand that, then they can trace how information moves during environmental crises.
While she invests herself fully in every project, Britt credits her team and reiterates that the group's combined skills drive the work.
“I can’t do it alone,” she said. “I have preconceptions, it’s unavoidable, so having collaborators helps me avoid bias. And not all my collaborators are professors, by the way. It’s important to have views from other fields, as well. Some of my favorite colleagues have been lawyers and independent researchers.”
Above all, Britt still sees herself as a constant learner.
“I'm still learning a lot,” she said. “Keeping an open mind and helping everyone is an important mindset to have. Maybe that's naïve, but that's how I approach everything.”
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