Thompson’s research team receives $150,000 grant from Society of Family Planning
Associate professor Esi Thompson and her research team have been awarded a $150,000 grant from the Society for Family Planning to support their project, “Developing the ‘Triage of Reliable and Unreliable Social media Topics on Emergency Contraception’ (TRUST-EC) classifier: A mixed methods assessment of the EC social media ecosystem.” The society opened their call for proposals in April, and by July, Thompson’s team learned their proposal had been selected, recognizing months of dedicated work.
The project will tackle misinformation about emergency contraception circulating on social media. Using a three-phase, mixed-methods approach, the team will first analyze the quality and characteristics of emergency contraception-related posts. Then, they will develop a classifier, a system that can automatically sort social media content into categories such as reliable or misleading, which will serve to monitor and flag emergency contraception misinformation across platforms.
“We are very excited to have [American Society for Emergency Contraception] on board with us. It is an organization that provides information and resources and advocacy around emergency contraception for the U.S., and they’re involved in a lot of different initiatives related to sexual and reproductive health,” said Alyssa Lederer, associate professor at the IU School of Public Health.
The project is led by Lederer, who serves as the principal investigator of the project. She praised Thompson’s unique ability to communicate effectively in a healthcare contexts. Thompson will serve as co-investigator.
“This is a new area, but for me, it’s always an opportunity to learn using communication across different contexts,” Thompson. “You can do a good job, but if it doesn’t get out there, it doesn’t make much impact.”
Thompson and Lederer connected through academic networking in 2022. While Thompson teaches public relations, her research centers on healthcare risk and crisis communication. Her previous work includes studies on community responses to Ebola and early COVID-19 care knowledge in Ghana and the U.S.
“It was a lot of work and knowing that it has paid off is exciting,” Thompson said upon receiving the approval letter. “I’m looking forward to doing this thing and trusting that it will be a model across different health situations. It feels exciting and innovative.”
Danny Valdez, associate professor for the School of Public Health, joins the team as co-principal investigator. His focus is on analyzing social media traffic related to emergency contraception, helping the team understand how information spreads and which posts gain traction.
Currently in its early stages, the project’s goal for this year is to build the classifier, a system that can organize and evaluate emergency contraception-related content online. If successful, it could become a model for addressing misinformation in other social media platforms.