Submission

Recent trends show social media as a key platform for discussing sensitive topics like substance use disorder, maternal health, mental health, and sexual abuse, transforming private or stigmatized issues into open discussions. This shift aids destigmatization and support, particularly for sexual abuse, fostering understanding and community among affected individuals. However, challenges arise from cyberbullying, misinformation, and inadequate moderation, highlighting the need for comprehensive strategies combining computational and domain expertise. Our workshop aims to examine digital narratives on social media, focusing on recovery and healing processes. By uniting psychology, health, social sciences, and artificial intelligence, we seek to understand and redefine engagement with these narratives, addressing recovery, healing, and harm reduction.

Workshop Themes:

• Digital Recovery Narratives: Digital platforms weave recovery stories, shaping individual journeys and public perceptions. This theme explores how social media platforms amplify recovery narratives, dissect how language shapes stigma and fosters empathy, and delves into the interplay between platforms, identities, and societal impact on recovery journeys.

• Harm Reduction & Healing in the Digital Age: This theme will delve into the dual role of digital media in causing and alleviating harm, examining the use of AI and digital tools for harm reduction and healing, and discussing the complexities and ethical concerns involved.

• Shame & Intersectional Stigma: Individuals recovering from traditionally stigmatized afflictions often report stigma as a major barrier to receiving the support they need to overcome it. We will explore the crucial issues of shame and stigma, particularly in their intersectional manifestations, and how these factors affect recovery narratives and the efficacy of digital interventions in these spaces.

Interests and Call for Contributions:

We invite researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and anyone interested in the intersection of digital media, recovery narratives, and technological interventions to contribute to our workshop. We are seeking a diverse range of submissions including, but not limited to, the following topics:

• Analysis of Recovery Narratives on Social Media: Studies and insights into how narratives around sensitive topics are shared on social media, including qualitative and quantitative analyses.

• AI and Machine Learning Approaches: Exploration of AI in identifying, interpreting, and managing recovery narratives, including sentiment analysis, content moderation, and automated support systems.

• Ethical Considerations in Digital Recovery: Discussion on the ethical challenges in using AI and social media for sensitive recovery narratives, addressing privacy, consent, and AI bias.

• Integrating Classical Theories and Methods: Insights on how traditional theories from psychology, sociology, and health sciences can enhance understanding of digital recovery narratives.

• Policy and Governance in Digital Spaces: Contributions addressing policy implications, governance, and regulation in managing and supporting recovery narratives on social media.

• Innovative Datasets, Tools, and Technologies: Showcasing new datasets, tools, and technologies for understanding and managing digital recovery narratives.

• Impact Assessment and Evaluation Methods: Focus on assessing the impact of AI and social media interventions in the context of recovery narratives.

• Interdisciplinary and Collaborative Approaches: Showcasing interdisciplinary collaborations or novel approaches in studying and managing digital recovery narratives.

Submission Types and Instructions:

We invite submissions of abstracts (2 pages), as well as Long (8 pages) and Short (4 pages) papers, excluding references and appendices. All submissions must be in English. The Long and Short papers will be included in the ICWSM Workshop proceedings, published by AAAI Press. 

Submissions should follow the AAAI formatting guidelines. All papers must be submitted as PDF files, formatted in AAAI two-column. Please reference the ICWSM 2024 Submission Guidelines for all information. Authors are not required to compile the ethics checklist required for submissions to the main research track of ICWSM. 

Anonymity: The review process will be double-blind; therefore, authors should ensure their submissions are anonymized.

Submission Page:

EasyChair portal: https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=narrate2024