Introduction to Digital Methods for Social Media Research

This workshop will consist of two taught sessions, combining conceptual discussions and practical tasks.

Session 1: Why study social media? Rationales, theories and ethics

We will introduce the basics you need to know when considering whether to use social media data in your research project:

• What can social media analysis contribute to your research project?
• What are “digital methods” (Rogers, 2019), a critical social science approach to social media research, and how do these relate to longer-established modes of qualitative and quantitative research? What kinds of analyses are possible? (e.g. hashtag analysis, network mapping, visual methods)
• What are the key ethical issues to consider when conducting social media research? (e.g. Do we need ethical approval to use material found on public websites?)

Session 2: Social media research in a post-API world: Introducing WDRA

In this session, we will introduce Web Data Research Assistant (WDRA), a simple tool for collecting social media data that works from the browser. The theoretical approach underpinning the tool will be discussed, including the current political economy of digital platforms, which is increasingly unfavourable for researchers, as well as measures for checking data quality.

There will be a ‘walkthrough’ of how the tool works in the session, with structured time for attendees to experiment collecting their own data, and share their work with the session leader for feedback.

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of the workshop, students will be able to:

• Position digital methods within social science research;
• Discuss the implications of studying social media to investigate social science problems;
• Discuss strengths and limitations of digital methods for social media data collection;
• Use WDRA to collect social media data.