New Methods in a New Era: Using Blogs/Social Media/Twitter as Primary Source Data

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Posted by Naomi Bartz, community karma 211

I think Gordon Douglas recently brought up issue of the ever bothersome lagtime between scholarship and the real world out there. I am thinking about this issue as well these days but in relation to a methodological framework for using all of the new media technologies as primary source data.


My dissertation is by no means ABOUT social media/blogs, etc. - but there are some amazing dialogues going on via twitter, facebook event pages/comments, etc that resonate with my research question. Some of this is richer and more complex than anything I've accessed through interview or observation, particularly the dialogue between opposing groups that are using social media as a facilitator.


I am curious if anyone else is using these mediums as data and if so, what kind of framework for collection, filtering, and analysis they are using (one of the things that is overwhelming about using this material is there is just so much of it floating around cyberspace). Also -- does anyone know of any great articles/etc. out there that address this new source and the implications of using it (e.g. ethically, in terms of validity, etc)?

Finally a pragmatic question - what are the best programs (for a PC) for getting snapshots of this material that holds up as citation worthy (and that said, how does one cite this stuff to begin with)?!

almost 13 years ago
Tags: sociology

3 Comments

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Brian Cody, community karma 171092

Below are some sources on "digital ethnography" and "online ethnography" that might be helpful for your questions, especially the work done in political science. As you get into the literature, note that there is a ton written on "netnography," which seems to be a more marketing-oriented term and practice, but well worth looking into (see the Quinton article and the Kozinets article in the list below for more information).

Androutsopoulos, Jannis. "Potentials and Limitations of Discourse-Centred Online Ethnography." Language@Internet, Vol 5, article 9, 2008.
http://www.languageatinternet.org/articles/2008/1610/androutsopoulos.pdf

Domînquex, Daniel, et al. "Virtual Ethnography." Forum: Qualitative Social Research, Vol. 8, No. 3, 2007.
http://socantcafe.org/uploads/2009/10/dominguez-etal-2007-virtual-ethno.pdf

Kozinets, Robert K. "The Field Behind the Screen: Using the Method of Netnography To Research Market-Oriented Virtual Communities."
http://kozinets.net/__oneclick_uploads/2009/07/field_behind_round3.pdf

Lawrence, Eric, John Sides, and Henry Farrell. "Self-Segregation or Deliberation? Blog Readership, Participation, and Polarization in American Politics." Perspectives on Politics, Vol 8, 2010. pp 141-157.
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=7323316

Leander, Kevin and Kelly K. McKim. "Tracing the Everyday 'Sitings' of Adolescents on the Internet: a strategic adaptation of ethnography across online and offline spaces." Education, Communication & Information, Vol. 3, No. 2, 2003. pp. 211-240.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14636310303140

Murthy, Dhiraj. "Digital Ethnography: An Examination of the Use of New Technologies for Social Research." Sociology, Vol. 42, No. 5, 2008. pp. 837-855.
http://soc.sagepub.com/content/42/5/837.short

Mann, Chris; Steward, Fiona. Internet Communication and Qualitative Research: A Handbook for Researching Online. London: Sage Publications. 2000.

Quinton, Sarah and Sally Harridge-March. "  Relationships in online communities: the potential for marketers." Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2010. pp. 59-73.
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1847092&show=abstract

Reed, Adam. "‘Blog This’: surfing the metropolis and the method of London." Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol 14, No. 2, 2008. pp. 391-406.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9655.2008.00508.x/abstract

almost 13 years ago
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Naomi Bartz, community karma 211

thanks for the great citations Brian! In the world of perfect timing an announcement about this new blog floated through one of my internet listserves: http://mobilizingideas.wordpress.com/ --- which is stand-alone interesting, but also their first essay is on this book http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=12566 --- which looks like it might be somewhat helpful (although, sadly, it is still somewhat dated, as their research is from 2006 - or in other words, pre-facebook/twitter).

almost 13 years ago
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Gordon Douglas, community karma 549

This is a really interesting question, and a super helpful answer too Brian! I will definitely be checking these articles out.

I'm doing some of this in my research as well: on one hand just informally tracking online discussion, blogs, comments, and tweets around my subjects of research, but also more concertedly following a couple of facebook groups or dedicated online communities. The former I mostly just find useful for vaguely further feeling out the scope of the phenomena in general and how they are being perceived, as well as often learning about new instances/individuals I may wish to investigate/interview directly; I don't see myself referencing these fora themselves though, other than possibly in the vaguest terms ("xxx provoked a lively discussion on twitter for several days after occuring" etc.)  The latter, however, seems to me a super informative and perfectly valid source of primary data for understanding the members of these groups and their interactions with each other so long as one makes clear where quotes or info are coming from.

Come to think of it, I guess I've actually quoted from comment boards in two  unrelated papers that I've had published, where social media/online communication was of no interest to the study and "netnography" or what have you was beside the point methodologically; I simply added here and there, as relevant, quotes from people online as just another important angle for demonstrating how some community members felt about an issue. Just made total sense to me to do so. But I'm lookin forward to having a better justification for doing so even more in the future!

almost 13 years ago
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