Conducting Research on Twitter-Based Communication Phenomena: Why Not?

Presentation Outline

1. Why study social media?

2. The rise of a new research model;

3. Collecting and archiving the data;

4. Analyzing the data;

5. Making sense of the data;

6. Conclusion.

Why study social media?

Sources: Pew Research Center

Why study social media?

Sources: Pew Research Center

Why study social media?

Sources: Raynauld,2013; Khang, Ki et al. 2012; Kietzmann, Silvestre et al. 2012; Raynauld and Greenberg under eveluation

• Traditional media vs. Conventional media;• Impact of social media on individuals and society as a

whole:• Production, categorization, and mass circulation

of content;• Acquisition of information;• Structure of social interactions;• Community-building;• Self-presentation;• Etc.

Why study social media?

Source: Raynauld and Greenberg, under evaluation.

• Twitter as a research object:• Low-cost micro-blogging service:

• Time;• Technical resources and skills;• Financial resources;

• Posts of up to 140 characters;• Wide-ranging content;• Internal community-building

functions;• Few ethical considerations

(public data);• Flexibility for researchers.

Why study social media?

Ethical consideration

s

• Twitter as a research tool :• Active participant approach to research:

• Decentralized circulation of surveys and other questionnaires (snowball sampling):

The rise of a new research model

• A new way to do business:• Proactive vs. Reactive research:

• Constant monitoring of the social mediascape;

• Identifying research opportunities (e.g. “What’s trending,” events, etc.);

• Adaptivity and creativity.• Rapidly-evolving nature of social media research:

• Constant rise of new social media channels;• Social media in “perpetual beta”?• Evolution of data collection and analytical

tools;• Importance for researchers to remain

flexible.

Are higher education institutions ready?

Collecting and archiving the data

Sources: Raynauld, Giasson et al. 2011; Raynauld 2013; Raynauld, Lalancette et al. 2014

• Small data vs. Big data;• The importance of sampling:

• Hashtags;• Twitter accounts;• Etc.

• Type of data collected:• Name, picture, and other information

relating to tweeters;• Time and date of publication of tweets;• Content of tweets;• Social interactive functions:

• @replies;• Retweets.

• Etc.

Factors influencing the sampling:• Research question;• Objectives;• Access to resources;• Capabilities of archiving platform.

Collecting and archiving the data

Sources: Raynauld, Giasson et al. 2011; Raynauld, Lalancette et al. 2014 – Special thanks to Valérie Bélair-Gagnon.

• Data collection and archiving tools:• In-house options:

• Resource-intensive;• Less flexibility;• Challenges linked to the “perpetual

beta” nature of social media (e.g. API);• Require a programmer on staff.

• Open-source alternatives:• ScraperWiki;• Tweet Archivist;• SnapBird;• Twitonomy;• Etc.

Collecting and archiving the data

• Screenshot of ScraperWiki:

Analyzing the data

Sources: Raynauld, Giasson et al. 2011; Raynauld, Lalancette et al. 2014

• Conventional approaches:• Quantitative content analysis (mostly

descriptive):• Number of tweets;• Content of posts;• Etc.

• Qualitative content analysis:• Function of tweets;• Function of the content of tweets:

• Photos;• Videos;• Hyperlinks;• Geographic

locations.• Etc.

Little qualitative work on Twitter-

based communication

phenomena so far.

Analyzing the data

Sources: Raynauld 2013; Turcotte and Raynauld 2014

• Innovative approaches:• Network analysis (@replies):

Number of @replies

877

Number of nodes

654

Number of edges

648

Average degree

0.991

December 14, 2009 to

December 20, 2009

Node

Edge

Analyzing the data

• Innovative approaches:• Sentiment analysis:

Source: Raynauld and Greenberg under evaluation

Making sense of the data

• Factors influencing this process:• Research questions;• Research objectives;• Type of analysis;• Etc.

• Importance of interdisciplinary research• The decline of “silo” approaches to research;• The rise of new research models:

• Flexibility;• Collaboration across disciplines;• Teamwork.

Conclusion

• Challenges to social media research:• Investigative approaches tailored for the

study of traditional mass media need to be revisited;

• “Big data”;• Etc.

• New research model challenging traditional methods;• Teamwork;• Pooling of expertise;• Avoid “research in silo.”

• Many opportunities:• New research questions;• New methodologies;• Flexibility;• Etc.Sources: Raynauld and Greenberg under evaluationl Raynauld, Lalancette et al. 2014

Conclusion

• Potential social media-related research in public relations and other fields relating to communication studies:

• Crisis management;• Branding;• Political communication;• Advocacy;• Social marketing;• Etc.

Sources: Raynauld and Greenberg under evaluationl Raynauld, Lalancette et al. 2014

Any ideas?

Conclusion

• What am I thinking about?• Hyperlocal journalism;• Transformation of political campaigning:

• Hyperlocal information dispersion and organizing;

• New form of polling based on geolocation;• Concerns;• Opinions;• Etc.

• Redefinition of the relationship between elected officials and constituents;

• Etc.

Sources: Raynauld and Greenberg under evaluationl Raynauld, Lalancette et al. 2014

QUESTIONS

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