Digital literacy

• Saudi Arabia's health tech market is experiencing a surge, fueled by government initiatives, rising smartphone penetration, and a growing demand for accessible and efficient healthcare solutions.
• Ken Research's " KSA Health Tech Market " report predicts a promising 12.2% CAGR, translating to a substantial $5.7 billion market size by 2027.
• Beyond simply offering digital solutions, the Saudi health tech market plays a crucial role in improving healthcare access, enhancing patient experience, and driving cost efficiencies within the healthcare system.
• In 2022, the market reached a size of $2.5 billion, and it's on track for remarkable growth, driven by:
  Government Vision: Vision 2030 prioritizes health tech adoption, promoting innovation and supporting startups in the sector.

• BRONX, N.Y., Jan. 29, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Board of Directors of the Ponce De Leon Foundation is pleased to announce it has awarded $622,000 to nonprofits that are making a difference in our communities.
• Since its inception in 2017, the Foundation has provided over $2.3 million in grants.
• Madeline V. Marquez, Executive Director of the Ponce De Leon Foundation, stated “each year the number of applications to our grant program grows by a lot.
• Act Now Foundation, Inc.: $16,000 for the Alzheimer’s Care Project.

• Graduate students are especially vulnerable to online hate, because cultivating a visible social media presence is considered essential for mobilizing their research, gaining credibility and finding opportunities as they prepare to compete in an over-saturated job market.
• Our research has examined the experiences of graduate students who have encountered online hate while conducting their research or disseminating it online, and a wider landscape of university protocol and policies.

New policies needed to support researchers

• Research by communications scholars George Veletsianos and Jaigris Hodson, who are part of the Public Scholarship and Online Abuse research group, finds that scholars online may be targeted for a range of reasons, but “women in particular are harassed partly because they happen to be women who dare to be public online.” Online hatred disproportionately affects women, Black, Indigenous, racialized, queer, trans and other marginalized scholars.
• New frameworks and policies are required that protect and care for increasingly diverse academic communities to foster equity and diversity.

Impacts and inadequate support

• Online harassment restricts which research projects are able to proceed and who is able to pursue them.
• It affects not only researchers’ well-being and career prospects, but by extention, their fields of study and members of the public served by it.

Lack of clear and accessible structures, procedures

• Ketchum addresses challenges related to public scholarship in her book Engage in Public Scholarship!
• Without clear structures and procedures for reporting harassment and supporting community members at an institutional level, harassment is treated by universities as isolated incidents without grasping the scale of the issue.

‘Bearing Witness’

• We have facilitated a number of workshops and events that foreground experiences of online harassment among graduate students.
• This work has been done with support from the Institute for Research on Digital Literacies, under the direction of Natalie Coulter.

Researcher experiences of harassment

• Participants also said research methods seminars, research ethics board certification courses and conversations with supervisory committees had not addressed the possibility of encountering online harassment.
• The online harassment students encountered also derailed or significantly curtailed their research projects.

Resources to help protect from harassment

• There are many online resources graduate students can consult to protect themselves from online harassment.
• Resources from PEN America and gaming communities provide cybersecurity tips to prevent doxxing, assess threats and report harassment to platforms and law enforcement.

Important work begins with witness

• This important work must begin with institutions bearing witness to graduate students’ experiences.
• University staff and faculty must listen to individual voices so that the issue of online harassment can be understood in its full scale and complexity.

Alex Borkowski receives funding from SSHRC. Natalie Coulter receives funding from SSHRC, as well as from internal grants at York University. Marion Tempest Grant does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• Through Goodwill Partnership, the Community Access Platform Will Offer a New Monthly Show, Educational Resources, and Workshops
  CHICAGO, Oct. 10, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- CAN TV , Chicago's premiere hub for community access news, hyperlocal stories and educational resources, today announced a groundbreaking partnership with Goodwill Industries of Southeastern Wisconsin and Metropolitan Chicago .
• "Brothers Talking is an incredibly moving experience that showcases impactful and much-needed conversations with, and for, our viewers."
• Goodwill's partnership will go beyond television programming to further educational access for community members and youth in Chicago.
• Working with CAN TV, we're looking forward to providing content and resources that help amplify Goodwill's mission: Connecting people to work.