User engagement via social media with local history in the north east of Scotland

Caroline Hood and Peter ReidRobert Gordon University

Oor ain fowk. Oor ain toon.Oor ain story.

Aim of the studyto investigation into user engagement with local studies projects via social media in the North East of Scotland

• Objectives• To evaluate the benefit of digital ephemera vs.

physical ephemera;

• To analyse the role of social media in digital storytelling and documentation of local history;

• To evaluate social media as a form of user engagement; and,

• To analyse the relationship between social media and personal cultural memory in the context of local history.

“We need tae record oor stories afore we aa dee”

J. Addison 2016

“It wisna work….it wisfun…maistlynonsense…”

Aa aboot Buckie

• Buckie is a town with a rich fishing heritage located on the Moray Firth coast.

• Buckie and District Fishing Heritage Society was formed in 1986 by local history enthusiasts and today is governed by a board of eight directors and 25 member management committee. T

• The Heritage Centre itself is staffed by a rota of local volunteers, many of whom have extensive local and industry-based knowledge.

• The Heritage Centre over 8,000 photographs which are accessible in both printed format in folders in the Heritage Centre and also via computers located within the Heritage Centre.

Photo elicitation

• Although the process was first described by John Collier in 1957, it has been reported sparingly in academic literature since then (Baxter et al. 2015)

• Photo elicitation is based on the simple idea of inserting a photograph into a research interview” (Harper 2002)

• Aiding the rapport between interviewees and the researcher (Baxter et al. 2015)

• Evoking a “different kind of information (Harper 2002)

“even vague memories can be given the sharpness of focus, unleashing a flood of detail” (Banks 2001)

“mines deeper shafts into a different part of the human consciousness than do words-alone interviews” (Harper 2002)

Tangible photographic images produce a more

visceral reaction within the group context e.g.

the weel-kent face

Simon Flett: visceral | affective | emotional

When this happened….

we knew it

would work…

“Aye Buckie and District Fishing Heritage Centre, it’s a bonny photo of my lovely Dad. Thank you for sharing it. It’s 49 years ago since he passed away and I still miss

him.”

User 1 – A very hard life these women had. I looked after a lady who was one of them! She died aged 101!

User 2 - Onybody ken far that is? User 3 – LerwickUser 4 – Dinna see their fingers tied? User 5 – Wow. Fit a smashing fotie. User 6 – [tag redacted] User 7 – Wonderful photo, love the faces of these women. User 8 – Hard life but they could always have a good laugh together User 9 – Love this photo User 10 – I see Margaret Wiseman, 5th from the right User 11 – The reason fingers not tied they are not gutting. What they are

doing is filling up the barrels that were packed days before. After that time the level of the herring drop, some barrels were emptied into a big tub, the women then used that herring to fill the barrels to the required level before they were fitted with the lid and sent to the country that bought them.

Macrae Dougie MacPherson - Cos it was aye, MDMs in Buckie but in Lossie it wis, it wiseh, Waaker? No… - Waakers fae Lossie, richt enough - No, it wisna Waakers- MacCormack? - No, no, no, MDMs in Buckie but it wisna ca’ed… - It wis the same in Fitehills…it wis MDMs in Fitehills- And MDMs in Peterheid- But the Lossie wis ca’ed a different name - The biggest een in Lossie wis Duthies- Duthies, that wis it, that wis it - [inaudible] - The last, the last manager in MDMs wid hiv been Hugh - Hugh Patience - Aye yer richt

Captain Scottvisceral | affective | emotional

CaptainScott

visceral affective emotional

Little difference in levels of engagement whether people or place or thing.

Strong visceral reactions often evident linked to affection, memory or nostalgia.

Value of photo elicitation• The case study showed

• (i) Photo elicitation techniques using both physical and digital photographs are an appropriate medium for eliciting information on local history in both a formal focus group setting and through the informal setting of social media;

• (ii) Social media has the potential to act as an appropriate and successful vehicle for digital storytelling and the documentation of local history;

• (iii) study, social media is an appropriate format for engaging users with local history projects; and

• (iv) From the case study, social media has the capacity to act as an effective conduit for invoking autobiographical memories that form part of an individual’s personal cultural history and for exploring and reinforcing the concept of “place” as an influencing factor in the development of “personal cultural memory”.