Social science in the era of big data

González‐Bailón, Sandra

doi:10.1002/1944-2866.poi328

Cited by 109 publications

(69 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…As González-Bailón (2013:158) suggested, “ … social scientists can no longer do research on their own: the scale of the data that we can now analyze, and the methods required to analyze them, can only be developed by pooling expertise with colleagues from other disciplines.” Using digital traces requires a strong and varied set of technical and computational skills, but these skills alone cannot effectively leverage these data for demographic research. A true collaborative effort requires the input of researchers who can develop creative and effective ways of using digital trace data to answer relevant and interesting social science questions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Following the burst of initial research advocating the possibilities of using digital trace data to study social phenomena, a recent body of literature has emerged outlining ways in which these data have been misused, cautioning researchers about the unique challenges that they present (Adams and Brueckner 2015; boyd and Crawford 2012; Couldry and Powell 2014; Felt 2016; Golder and Macy 2014; González-Bailón 2013; Kitchin 2014; Lazer et al 2014; Lewis 2015; Lohr 2012; Manovich 2011; Tufekci 2014; Zwitter 2014). We argue that these challenges are opportunities for researchers to advance the field of demography—and the social sciences in general—by finding ways to overcome them.…”

Section: Challenges and Opportunities For Digital Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Promises and Pitfalls of Using Digital Traces for Demographic Research

et al. 2018

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The digital traces that we leave online are increasingly fruitful sources of data for social scientists, including those interested in demographic research. The collection and use of digital data also presents numerous statistical, computational, and ethical challenges, motivating the development of new research approaches to address these burgeoning issues. In this article, we argue that researchers with formal training in demography—those who have a history of developing innovative approaches to using challenging data—are well positioned to contribute to this area of work. We discuss the benefits and challenges of using digital trace data for social and demographic research, and we review examples of current demographic literature that creatively use digital trace data to study processes related to fertility, mortality, and migration. Focusing on Facebook data for advertisers—a novel “digital census” that has largely been untapped by demographers—we provide illustrative and empirical examples of how demographic researchers can manage issues such as bias and representation when using digital trace data. We conclude by offering our perspective on the road ahead regarding demography and its role in the data revolution.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Challenges and Opportunities For Digital Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Promises and Pitfalls of Using Digital Traces for Demographic Research

et al. 2018

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“…As such, much like for previous, similar studies (e.g., Bruns & Burgess, 2011;Highfield, Bruns, & Harrington, 2012;Larsson, 2014;Larsson & Moe, 2013;Stieglitz and Dang-Xuan, 2012), hashtags dealing with the election at hand were utilized for the data collection undertaken. While such an approach risks excluding users below "a certain level of Twitter proficiency" (Jungherr, 2014a, p. 244), the selected approach was deemed suitable for practical (González-Bailón, 2013) as well as ethical (Larsson, 2015c) reasons. With this in mind, our focus was placed on the "short campaign" (Aardal, Krogstad, & Narud, 2004)-the final month of campaigning leading up to election day, which took place on 14 September 2015.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Top Users and Long Tails: Twitter and Instagram Use During the 2015 Norwegian Elections

Larsson

2017

Social Media + Society

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Uses of social media for purposes of political campaigning have become widespread across several electoral contexts. However, as much of the research focused on these issues have dealt primarily with Twitter, relatively little is known regarding how parties make use of other, similar platforms. This article analyzes Twitter and Instagram use during the 2015 Norwegian elections. By adopting a comparative approach, the article suggests a novel approach for applying the often-used normalization and equalization hypotheses. While the former of these hypotheses suggests that larger parties will dominate online, the latter proposes that comparably smaller actors will utilize comparably novel services—such as Instagram in this case—to comparably larger extents than their more sizeable competitors. Contrary to the hypotheses, however, messages primarily relating to smaller actors tended to dominate on Twitter, while larger actors were found to be successful in terms of gaining traction on Instagram.

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“…Esto permite acceder a los intereses de grandes sectores de la población e incorporarlos a la agenda política (González-Bailón, 2013).…”

Section: Tecnologías Para La Construcción Del Mensaje Políticounclassified