Responsible use of social media data is needed: A reply to Maya-Jariego et al. “Plenty of black money: Netnography of illegal recreational underwater fishing in southern Spain”

Black Lives Matter, like many modern movements in the age of information, makes significant use of social media as well as public space to demand justice. In this article, we study the protests in response to the shooting of Keith Lamont Scott by police in Charlotte, North Carolina, on September 2016. Our goal is to measure the significance of urban space within the virtual and physical network of protesters. Using a mixed-methods approach, we identify and study urban space and social media generated by these protests. We conducted interviews with protesters who were among the first to join the Keith Lamont Scott shooting demonstrations. From the interviews, we identify places that were significant in our interviewees’ narratives. Using a combination of natural language processing and social network analysis, we analyze social media data related to the Charlotte protests retrieved from Twitter. We found that social media, local community, and public space work together to organize and motivate protests and that public events such as protests cause a discernible increase in social media activity. Finally, we find that there are two distinct communities who engage social media in different ways; one group involved with social media, local community and urban space, and a second group connected almost exclusively through social media.

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Inferring Activities from Social Media Data

Transportation Research Record Journal of the Transportation Research Board ◽

10.3141/2666-04 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 2666 (1) ◽

pp. 29-37 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Emmanouil Chaniotakis ◽

Constantinos Antoniou ◽

Georgia Aifadopoulou ◽

Loukas Dimitriou

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Classification Performance ◽

Classification Algorithms ◽

Social Media Data ◽

Use Of Social Media ◽

Definition Of ◽

The Individual ◽

Transportation Research ◽

Direct Use ◽

Media Data

Social media produce an unprecedented amount of information that can be extracted and used in transportation research, with one of the most promising areas being the inference of individuals’ activities. Whereas most studies in the literature focus on the direct use of social media data, this study presents an efficient framework that follows a user-centric approach for the inference of users’ activities from social media data. The framework was applied to data from Twitter, combined with inferred data from Foursquare that contains information about the type of location visited. The users’ data were then classified with a density-based spatial classification algorithm that allows for the definition of commonly visited locations, and the individual-based data were augmented with the known activity definition from Foursquare. On the basis of the known activities and the Twitter text, a set of classification algorithms was applied for the inference of activities. The results are discussed according to the types of activities recognized and the classification performance. The classification results allow for a wide application of the framework in the exploration of the activity space of individuals.

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Journalists’ Use of Social Media to Infer Public Opinion: The citizens’ perspective

10.32920/14637978.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Elizabeth Dubois ◽

Anatoliy Gruzd ◽

Jenna Jacobson

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Public Opinion ◽

Online Survey ◽

Social Media Analytics ◽

Social Media Data ◽

Social Media Platforms ◽

Use Of Social Media ◽

Traditional Approaches ◽

Journalistic Practice ◽

Media Data

Journalists increasingly use social media data to infer and report public opinion by quoting social media posts, identifying trending topics, and reporting general sentiment. In contrast to traditional approaches of inferring public opinion, citizens are often unaware of how their publicly available social media data is being used and how public opinion is constructed using social media analytics. In this exploratory study based on a census-weighted online survey of Canadian adults (N=1,500), we examine citizens’ perceptions of journalistic use of social media data. We demonstrate that: (1) people find it more appropriate for journalists to use aggregate social media data rather than personally identifiable data; (2) people who use more social media are more likely to positively perceive journalistic use of social media data to infer public opinion; and (3) the frequency of political posting is positively related to acceptance of this emerging journalistic practice, which suggests some citizens want to be heard publicly on social media while others do not. We provide recommendations for journalists on the ethical use of social media data and social media platforms on opt-in functionality.

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Self-Comparison in the Digital World

Recent Advances in Digital Media Impacts on Identity, Sexuality, and Relationships - Advances in Human and Social Aspects of Technology ◽

10.4018/978-1-7998-1063-6.ch012 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 231-240

Author(s):

Clara Moningka

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Emerging Adults ◽

Self Esteem ◽

Psychological Effects ◽

Internet Service ◽

Social Media Data ◽

Digital World ◽

The World ◽

Use Of Social Media ◽

Media Data

In this chapter, the author is interested in studying self-comparison in social media and its effect to the self-esteem in emerging adults. In Indonesia, social media are widely used by various groups. Jakarta is even referred as the capital of a text-based social media. Data in 2016 indicated that social media users in Indonesia have reached high ranking. Indonesia ranked fourth in the world for social media users and ranked first with Facebook with 111 million users, followed by Twitter. Indonesian Internet Service Provider Association explained that the biggest users were dominated by adolescents, amounting to 75.50% of the total users. The use of social media can be influenced by collective culture. This culture can influence how individuals evaluate themselves, including their self-esteem. The topic of the psychological effects of social media has been much discussed. A lot of research conducted on the effect of social on development of self-esteem. Social media becoming a place for comparing oneself to others and it turn out it has a great effect.

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Social media usage in business decision-making: the case of Malaysian small hospitality organisations

Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Administration ◽

10.1108/apjba-08-2020-0276 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

A.K. Siti-Nabiha ◽

Norfarah Nordin ◽

Boon Kar Poh

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Data Gathering ◽

Customer Relationship ◽

Business Decisions ◽

Business Decision ◽

Social Media Data ◽

Content Type ◽

Analysis Process ◽

Use Of Social Media ◽

Media Data

PurposeThe purpose of this paper was to examine how small- and medium-sized hospitality organisations engage with social media and how social media data are used by their managers to inform business decisions.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative approach was used in this research in which interviews were conducted with top management, comprising the owners/directors and other key managers from small- and medium-sized organisations based in Penang, Malaysia. Fan and Gordon's (2014) categorisation of the social media data analysis process and Simon's (1995) concept of the interactive and diagnostic usage of data were used in the analysis of data.FindingsThe managers of small- and medium-sized hospitality organisations engage with social media for customer relationship management and the understanding of key main competitors. Social media is used to understand, build and manage relationships with current and potential customers; these activities are also linked to actions taken to protect a company's reputation. Even though, for the companies concerned, data gathering is still at the capture stage with no formal procedures and processes in place, the data are utilised in an interactive way to inform two areas’ major business decisions-making, i.e. those related to pricing and promotion and the strategic formulation and reorientation of the business.Research limitations/implicationsThe respondents of this study were mainly from smaller hospitality organisations. Hence, the insights gained are limited to the context of smaller hotels.Originality/valueA significant number of social media studies within the hospitality sector have focussed on marketing aspects. This study explored the wider use of social media in the case of smaller hospitality organisations and how they compete and position themselves in the competitive hospitality industry.

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Social Media Relationships

10.1093/acrefore/9780190854584.013.114 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Umoloyouvwe Ejiro Onomake

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Participant Observation ◽

Multiple Relationships ◽

Social Media Data ◽

For Profit ◽

Social Media Platforms ◽

Media Research ◽

Use Of Social Media ◽

The Relationship ◽

Media Data

Ethnography has been used to research various people and topics online, primarily using netnography and digital ethnography. Researchers and businesses employ digital ethnographic methods to access an assortment of social media platforms in order to learn about social media users. Researchers seek to understand relationships between social media users and organizations from both academic and practitioner perspectives. These organizations run the gamut from for-profit businesses, to nonprofits, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and government agencies. The specific focus here is on social media research as it relates to businesses. Organizations make use of social media in a variety of ways, but chiefly to market to clients and to gather information on followers; the latter of which, in turn, helps them understand their target markets. While this social media data is both quantitative and qualitative in nature, the emphasis here centers on qualitative data, particularly the ways businesses interact with social media users. While some firms mainly use older forms of one-way marketing that solely focus on disseminating information, other firms increasingly seek ways to interact with customers and co-create products with clients. Additionally, social media users are creating their own communities, formed due to a shared interest in a brand. Companies strive to learn more about their customers through these groups. Influencers also play a role in the relationship between organizations and social media users by linking their own followerships to products and brands. In turn, influencers develop their own relationships with organizations through sponsorships, thus becoming brands themselves. Influencers risk losing their followerships when followers perceive them as no longer accessible or authentic. This change in perception can occur for a variety of reasons, including when followers believe that an influencer has prioritized brand alignment over building connections with followers. Due to multiple relationships with different brands and their followers, influencers must negotiate the ambiguity and evolving nature of their role. As social media and digital spaces develop, so must the tools used by anthropologists. Anthropologists should remain open to incorporating hallmarks of ethnographic research such as fieldnotes, participant observation, and focus groups in new ways and alongside tools from other disciplines, including market and UX (user experience) research. The divide between practitioners and academics is blurring. Anthropologists can solve client issues while contributing their voices to larger anthropological and societal discussions.

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Social media analytics: how they support company public relations

Journal of Business Strategy ◽

10.1108/jbs-06-2017-0078 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 40 (1) ◽

pp. 28-34 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Lisa Tam ◽

Jeong-Nam Kim

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Public Relations ◽

Design Methodology ◽

Social Media Analytics ◽

Social Media Data ◽

Content Type ◽

The Public ◽

The Public Sphere ◽

Use Of Social Media ◽

Media Data

Purpose In the midst of practitioners’ increasing use of social media analytics (SMA) in guiding public relations (PR) strategy, this paper aims to present the capabilities and limitations of these tools and offers suggestions on how to best use them to gain research-based insights. Design/methodology/approach This review assesses the capabilities and limitations of SMA tools based on industry reports and research articles on trends in PR and SMA. Findings The strengths of SMA tools lie in their capability to gather and aggregate a large quantity of real-time social media data, use algorithms to analyze the data and present the results in ways meaningful to organizations and understand networks of issues and publics. However, there are also challenges, including the increasing restricted access to social media data, the increased use of bots, skewing social conversations in the public sphere, the lack of capability to analyze certain types of data, such as visual data and the discrepancy between data collected on social media and through other methods. Originality/value This review suggests that PR professionals acknowledge the capabilities and limitations of SMA tools when using them to inform strategy.

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From FAIR data to fair data use: Methodological data fairness in health-related social media research

Big Data & Society ◽

10.1177/20539517211010310 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

pp. 205395172110103

Author(s):

Sabina Leonelli ◽

Rebecca Lovell ◽

Benedict W Wheeler ◽

Lora Fleming ◽

Hywel Williams

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Well Being ◽

Research Process ◽

Future Research ◽

Social Media Data ◽

Data Practices ◽

Health Related Research ◽

Health Related ◽

Use Of Social Media ◽

Media Data

The paper problematises the reliability and ethics of using social media data, such as sourced from Twitter or Instagram, to carry out health-related research. As in many other domains, the opportunity to mine social media for information has been hailed as transformative for research on well-being and disease. Considerations around the fairness, responsibilities and accountabilities relating to using such data have often been set aside, on the understanding that as long as data were anonymised, no real ethical or scientific issue would arise. We first counter this perception by emphasising that the use of social media data in health research can yield problematic and unethical results. We then provide a conceptualisation of methodological data fairness that can complement data management principles such as FAIR by enhancing the actionability of social media data for future research. We highlight the forms that methodological data fairness can take at different stages of the research process and identify practical steps through which researchers can ensure that their practices and outcomes are scientifically sound as well as fair to society at large. We conclude that making research data fair as well as FAIR is inextricably linked to concerns around the adequacy of data practices. The failure to act on those concerns raises serious ethical, methodological and epistemic issues with the knowledge and evidence that are being produced.

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Citizen Engagement and Social Media

International Journal of E-Politics ◽

10.4018/ijep.2019070103 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 24-43

Author(s):

Rodrigo Sandoval-Almazan ◽

Juan Carlos Montes de Oca Lopez

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Political Campaigns ◽

Election Campaigns ◽

Weekly Basis ◽

Social Media Data ◽

Social Media Platforms ◽

Use Of Social Media ◽

High Level ◽

Media Data

Social media has transformed election campaigns around the world. While it is difficult to determine to what extent social media influence voters' decisions, there is no doubt that social media platforms impact on candidate advertising and public debate during elections. This research, the methodological formulation of which is based on a case study, seeks to investigate the use of social media during political campaigns to collect signatures of support. In the elections of 2018, aspiring candidates for presidential election required a certain number of signatures of support in order to register as official candidates. We collected social media data on a weekly basis from the Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube accounts of seven candidates and contrasted this data with the number of signatures validated by the electoral authority. We found no relationship between the level of support received and the use of social media in the case of any of the candidates. However, we observed candidates who did achieve the required number of signatures and who did receive official presidential candidate status as a result of their high level of visibility. This research contributes methodologically to the current literature and provides empirical evidence regarding independent candidates in Mexico.

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