Study Designs for Quantitative Social Science Research Using Social Media

Abstract

<p>Social media provides a rich amount of data on the everyday lives, opinions, thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors of individuals and organizations in near real-time. Leveraging these data effectively and responsibly should therefore improve our ability to understand political, psychological, economic, and sociological behaviors and opinions across time. This article is the first in a series of white papers that will provide a summary of the discussions derived from meetings of social scientists and computer scientists with the goal of creating consensus for how social and computer science could converge to answer important questions about complex human behaviors and dynamics using social media data. We present three basic research designs that are commonly used in social science and are applicable to research using social media data: qualitative observation, experiments, and surveys. We also discuss a fourth design that is primarily informed by computer science, non-designed data, but that can inform social science research. After a brief discussion of the general approach of these designs and their applicability for use with social media data, we discuss the challenges associated with their use with social media data and potential solutions for “convergence” of these methods for future quantitative research in the social sciences.</p>

An Analysis of Digital Media Data to Understand Parents’ Concerns During the COVID-19 Pandemic to Enhance Effective Science Communication

“…The present study aims to explore whether and how digital media data can be used to help tailor messaging to address parents' concerns, misconceptions, and needs amid an ongoing crisis. Researchers are increasingly using digital media data, specifically web searches and social media shares and posts, to better understand and assess public opinion (Singh et al, 2020). Our primary research question is: Can digital media data inform the development of relevant content to meet the informational needs of parents during the COVID-19 pandemic?…”

Untitled

“…As researchers increasingly turn to using social media to both retrieve available data and recruit participants, there is an ongoing need to keep pace with the ethical implications of both the institution's research expectations and the social media channel utilised (Bode et al, 2020). In Bode et al's discussion of study designs in social science research using social media, the authors clearly outline potential areas of compromised data:…”

Data Acquisition, Sampling, and Data Preparation Considerations for Quantitative Social Science Research Using Social Media Data

“…Moreover, in many instances, the characteristics of the users generating the data, who they represent, and how to model their probability of generating the data are also unknown. Although some features of such observed organic data resemble observed qualitative data or data used in ethnographic studies (see Study Design white paper - Bode et al, 2020), social media data still lack essential information about the characteristics of the users (especially for researchers who are not part of the social media industry), and the full set of contextual factors that lead to their generated data.…”