Twitter Studies (Social Media Studies)

[adel9216]

Hello,

does anyone know of any software, trainings and books that talk about how to analyse Twitter data? I'm looking to conduct a critical content analysis of Twitter data in relation to my thesis topic, and I have zero idea where to begin or where to look on how to do this.



Thanks!

[archaeo42]

So, what I'm suggesting is rather broad but have you looked at any work related to online communities (either network analysis or community design) or the digital humanities?

You mention content analysis so are you planning on looking at specific hashtags? Maybe also take a look at work that's been done on the anthropology of social media. It sounds like ethnographic related analysis could be helpful.

[adel9216]

Yes, that's exactly what you are describing. :) Thanks!

[mamselle]

You could go backwards to the start of online communities more broadly, and look at books about fan fiction as it appeared in the work of Sharon Cumberland , who was at Seattle U. awhile back.

There was also a group doing summer workshops at MIT as well...these were all in the late 1990s/early 2000s, but I think the theoretical groundwork was being laid then so it might give you a starting point to work forward from.

I think lit-crit was involved....

M.

[traductio]

The tools you use should really be a function of the questions you're asking, and the questions themselves should come from the gaps you identify in the literature. Your project will be stronger, though, if you identify the questions first, rather than (as you seem to be doing here -- my apologies if I'm misreading your post) using the methods to generate your questions. (That approach can work, too, but in my experience reading theses, working backward from the methods to the questions almost always makes the "so what?" question harder to answer.)

[adel9216]

Hello, I have my research questions, but just did not want to share them here :)

Thanks everyone for the advice!