Read original article…

Harold acknowledges the decline of religion.  One must remember that THE SHINING STRANGER was first published in 1967 when the free love/anti war/ hippie movement really began to take off and question everything concerning institutional authority, especially government and religion.  The situation is just as relevant today as ever, as numbers of “The Nones,” those who don’t affiliate themselves with any religion, continue to rise.  Here is a Gallop Poll chart:

In October, 2012, the Pew Research Center released a study, ‘Nones on the Rise.’ According to Pew, one fifth (46 million) of American adults have no religious affiliation.

Harold says…

Whenever one searches the religious question he finds that among the educated element traditional faiths are declining and as yet there is no stated doctrine to take their place.

George Bernard Shaw wrote that civilizations invariably collapse when man’s power outruns his religion – as man’s power appears to be doing today.  It is not the decline of a particular religion, but of all religions that presages catastrophe – for despite the evil that has been done in the name of religion, so much that gives meaning and purpose to life rests upon it that sanity itself may rest upon it.

(J.B.) Priestly suggests the answer as to what life would be without religion – man is dehumanized.  When this happens, ethics follow suit.  The universal collapsing of religions poses this threat that is glacial and moves at glacial pace.  Who can stop this inching chill?  What ideology can lead man out of its grinding path?

Very important questions concerning a very real situation.  Anyone who has really thought about the state of the world and the challenges that confront humanity should be asking themselves these sort of monumental questions.  Economic instability, lack of clean water, energy crises, new strains of super-viruses, natural disasters, hunger, cyber-espionage, terrorism, GMOs, climate issues, human trafficking; the list goes on and on.  So where do we begin?  Harold continues…

(Russell) Davenport sees that the question goes far beyond any particular religion: ‘it is a question of our concept of man.’ Western man cannot answer the question – who and what am I? – without first answering another – who and what was Jesus? – for upon this man the whole culture leans so heavily one merely begs the question if he will not face it.

The crucial question to be settled is the nature and meaning of Jesus’ Messianic role – upon this all else depends.  His own words settle this question, and from them may be enunciated a concept of man that restores meaning and purpose in life whatever the path he treads.  But Jesus’ revelation is by no means unprecedented.  As Radhakrishnan points out:

“There is no development in religious truth, though there is a development in the expression of truth.”

This study approaches the works and words of Jesus in this light: they are a development in the expression of truth, and insofar as men with a Western background are concerned, His message, held apart from the theologies clustering around it, offers still the greatest hope of true religion.  Why?  Because Jesus’ message can be grasped more readily – His words are familiar.  He is familiar as a symbol representing more of paradoxal truth than man can as yet express, and when men appear to be losing their humanity, his image appears out of the darkness to begin again to lead them onward toward light…

Just as we always joke in church that the answer to every question is “Jesus,” so it is with Preston Harold.  But this Jesus will take us far beyond the walls and theologies of our churches, and attempt to answer the Psalmists question, “What are humans that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower than the angels, and crowned them with glory and honor.” We will head into this territory in my next post as we explore the objective of THE SHINING STRANGER.  Until then, peace…

Read original article…

Among those working in social media in some form, it would probably be a rather conservative estimate to state that at least half of all content shared informs others how wonderful social media is in one way or another.

And yet, I wonder how many people would continue to read a newspaper if half of it was dedicated to how important newspapers are and how everyone should read one.

Which is why I draw your attention to a recent study by Pew Research. It suggests, on the surface at least, that social media research may offer less value than we and our competitors claim.

The year-long study concluded that “the reaction on Twitter to major political events and policy decisions often differs a great deal from public opinion as measured by surveys”.

The report stated that “the overall negativity on Twitter over the course of the [US presidential] campaign stood out”, adding: “For both candidates, negative comments exceeded positive comments by a wide margin throughout the fall campaign season.”

Which appears to be a rather damning indictment on social media research’s ability to capture public opinion.

Twitter isn’t a representative sample

Firstly, I think it’s important to acknowledge that those of us who use Twitter aren’t a representative sample of the population and it does skew towards a narrow (but expanding) demographic.

As far as the wider population goes, Twitter is still quite new and the relatively recent media infatuation with it is testament to that.

Its early adopters are more likely to be those interested in being part of and shaping the public sphere.

I’m not sure anyone would be particularly surprised to discover that Twitter’s character limit (in addition to the fact more extreme opinions are frequently rewarded with more attention) lends itself to more polarised views.

So the fact that the study found “the overall negativity… stands out” isn’t especially illuminating. It demonstrates we’re generally capturing the opinions of people who feel strongly about issues.

In other words, probably the kind of non-apathetic people you’d want to listen to.

Social media research doesn’t work in a traditional quantitative sense

Of course this means it doesn’t work as a quantitative methodology in a traditional sense and (as we’ve said time and time again) does not, and cannot (at least in the immediate future), replace surveys.

It also doesn’t make for a particularly effective brand tracking service if you’re comparing it to that same traditional approach either.

I don’t think it too presumptuous to state that few of us use our social media accounts to maintain positive sentiment towards a brand we like each month, as BrainJuicer’s Tom Ewing recently alluded to in a tweet: “Question for social media researchers: does your SECRET KNOWLEDGE mean you personally tweet more or less about brands?“

Of course, people are probably more likely to use Twitter to complain to companies, particularly when they have a presence there.

Which isn’t to undermine the importance of understanding what’s being said about a brand in social media. Numerous departments within an organisation would want and need to know what their customers have to say. Ignoring one of the channels they’re using to express these opinions simply because you can’t be sure who they are and what their motivation to share is seems somewhat foolish.

It just means it’s not a service that can replace, or is directly comparable to, what the likes of YouGov’s BrandIndex do in a more representative and repeatable way. However, a brand tracker is usually always a starting point, allowing us to hypothesise about the direction public perception is moving in. Analysing discussions about the brand within social media is one way of helping to understand why opinion may have changed.

Tracking the size of discussion around a particular brand or issue also provides an important context, but only in the context in which those conversations take place.

What are the opportunities?

None of the above caveats mean the insight gained from social media research is useless. We just need to start thinking about it in a different way to other types of research.

In my opinion, its main value comes from the fact the comments we’re capturing are spontaneous and not defined by questions as such.

As well as helping to identify those ‘known/unknown unknowns’ about a brand (which can then be built into a more traditional quantitative approach by, for example, ensuring you’re asking better questions in your survey), I believe it’s best used to feed into the creative process; to investigative a particular issue; or to answer a question that’s difficult to answer by other means. Not to predict voting behaviour or to claim it can “accurately gauge public opinion”.

In a research context, social media effectively acts as a giant, disorganised focus group where anyone is free to share their opinion about anything. Its potential lies in offering the chance to do qualitative research at scale. Again, it’s not an opportunity to necessarily do it better than other types of qualitative research, it’s just another methodology and different approach at our disposal.

We shouldn’t dismiss it simply because the results aren’t always representative of the population at large.

And finally…

I would like to also point out that a Twitter analysis isn’t the same thing as research conducted across all forms of social media. The former is a lot quicker and easier to do but it’s far more powerful if you include other sites too.

People tend to underestimate their audience on forums and blogs so their opinions tend to be more balanced (which also means we need to look at each type of site in context). Too many analyses focus on Twitter alone for no other reason than it’s quicker and easier to categorise what’s being said because of its character limit. In our experience, most of the interesting and genuine conversation takes place on forums anyway.

Finally, it is worth noting that the conclusion drawn by Pew is based on two important premises:

i)   Pew’s survey is an accurate reflection of true public opinion; and

ii)   Pew did the Twitter analysis effectively.

Sentiment is a rather subjective thing and what we write may be interpreted differently to what we have to say. Our opinion may also be more nuanced than the box we’re required to tick in a survey allows too and, as one PhD student highlighted on Twitter, we need to be particularly careful with the conclusions we draw from quantitative research: “wonder if Twitter liking Obama’s State of the Union less than Public Opinion is more “conservative”? maybe Twitter was to the left of Obama?“

As the Roman Catholic Church prepares for a conclave to elect a new pope, Catholics in the United States tend to view the scandal over sex abuse by clergy as the most important problem facing their church today. Asked to say in their own words what they think is the Catholic Church’s most important problem, 34% of U.S. Catholics mention sex abuse, pedophilia or some other reference to the scandal. No other problem garners more than 10% of responses. When asked about the main way the church helps society today, U.S. Catholics most commonly refer to charitable efforts to aid the poor, feed the hungry and heal the sick.” By The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

Unfortunately, the only type of debt to increase in recent years has been from student loans. Pew found that

Student debt was the only major type of debt to increase in prevalence among young households during the recession. In 2007, 34% of young households had outstanding student debt. By 2010, 40% of younger households had student debt. However, the median amount owed by households with student debt fell from $14,102 in 2007 to $13,410 in 2010.

This number is up substantially from 2001 when only 26% of younger households had outstanding student loan debt. Debt from student loans has also increased as a proportion of outstanding debt: from 7% in 2001 to 15% in 2010.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/pew-twitter-lies/article/2523268

—————————————————————————————————-
One-Third of Physicians Miss Electronic Test Results
In a new survey, nearly 30 percent of primary care practitioners said they missed test results sent via an electronic health record notification system.

http://www.everydayhealth.com/healthy-living/one-third-of-physicians-miss-electronic-test-results-8052.aspx

—————————————————————————————————–
Web-connected cars bring privacy concerns

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/web-connected-cars-bring-privacy-concerns/2013/03/05/d935d990-80ea-11e2-a350-49866afab584_story.html

—————————————————————————————————–
Councilman Reprimanded For Calling Friend Gay In Emergency Alert

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2013/03/05/councilman-reprimanded-for-calling-friend-gay-in-emergency-alert/

Information from Pew Research Center’s 2011 report “Hispanics Account for More than Half of Nation’s Growth in Past Decade” and its 2013 report “Statistical Portrait of Hispanics in the United States, 2011.”

Pew Research took a long look at what Twitterati say about major social and political issues and compared it to what opinion polls say. The differences are significant.

“At times the Twitter conversation is more liberal than survey responses, while at other times it is more conservative,” the research firm said when announcing the results. “Often it is the overall negativity that stands out.”

For example, Twitter users were 46 percent positive about California’s February 2012 same-sex marriage ruling, and only 8 percent negative. Public opinion polls, however, which are both anonymous and run with at least some attempt at scientific sampling, were only 33 percent positive — and 44 percent negative. And while Twitter Nation was 77 percent happy that President Barack Obama was re-elected, America was only 52 percent unhappy, and 45 percent unhappy.

In addition, during the October presidential debates 66 percent of Americans polled thought GOP candidate Mitt Romney had done a better job, but 59 percent of Twitter users thought Obama had won.

Why the difference?

Pew says that Twitter users are only a small slice of the overall population. Only about three percent of U.S. adults tweet or retweet news, and only 13 percent say they read Twitter updates. This small slice, according to Pew, skews young and skews Democrat … and skews the overall reaction to public events.

The upshot on Twitter polls?

“While this provides an interesting look into how communities of interest respond to different circumstances, it does not reliably correlate with the overall reaction of adults nationwide,” the Pew report says.

photo credit: woodleywonderworks via photopin cc

Read original article…

Data from Pew Research Center’s June 2012 report, “The Rise of Asian Americans.”

From data on the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life’s “‘Nones’ on the Rise” report from October 2012.

This graphic was updated to correct an inconsistency between graphic and percentages on 3/12 at 10 p.m.

http://www.pewstates.org/research/data-visualizations/the-impact-of-the-fiscal-cliff-on-the-states-sequestration-85899435504

Read original article…

Pope Benedict XVI is scheduled to appear one final time in front of a general audience on February 27^th. As the final days of his reign come to a close, Catholics all over the globe, totaling around 1,078,790,000, are eager to meet the new leader of the church.  With a changing world and shifting population, it is no surprise that many of the devout are hoping that the newly elected Pope will be one that takes the church into new directions.

 According to pewresearch.org, 46 percent of Catholics hope that the next Pope will move the church into new directions.  Truly divided, another 51 percent hopes that this pope will maintain a more traditional stance on current issues. However, a majority of Catholics agree that a new law, allowing priests to marry, would be more beneficial than not.

There is still some confusion regarding when exactly the Papal Conclave will meet to elect the next pope, but cardinals all around the globe are currently flying into the Vatican City to prepare for the  two week long election process.

Read original article…

Read original article…