scholarly journals EASY DATA, USUAL SUSPECTS, SAME OLD PLACES? A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES IN DIGITAL ACTIVISM RESEARCH BETWEEN 1995-2019

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suay Melisa Ozkula ◽  
Paul Reilly ◽  
Jennifer Hayes
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Digital Activism ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Online Platforms ◽  
Traditional Research ◽  
Digital Methods ◽  
Media Research ◽  
Social Media Research ◽  
Methodological Approaches ◽  
The Arab Spring

Burgess and Bruns (2015) have linked the computational turn in social media research to a rise in studies that focus exclusively on ‘easy’ data, such as the ‘low hanging fruit’ provided by Twitter hashtags. This paper set out to explore whether this preponderance of easy data and studies focused on the 2011-12 protests is evident in research between 1995 and 2019 through a systematic review of digital activism literature (N = 1444). A particular focus of the review was the extent to which digital activism research revolved around the use of computational digital methods, case studies based in Europe and North America and data gathered from single online platforms (e.g. Twitter). The review showed that most of these studies focused on social movements, campaigns, activists, and parties based in the United Kingdom and United States, and were conducted by researchers based in universities in these countries. In contrast, there were relatively few articles addressing activism, institutions and platforms in non-Western /Global South contexts with the exception of the Arab Spring in 2011. In terms of methodological approaches, traditional research methods and big data digital methods studies were prevalent. In response to the easy data hypothesis, the study found that Twitter was the most researched platform in the corpus, but that digital methods were not as commonly deployed in these articles as traditional methods. Thus, the paper concludes argues in favor of greater diversity in digital activism research in terms of its methods, participants, and countries of origin.

scholarly journals From digital positivism and administrative big data analytics towards critical digital and social media research!

2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Fuchs
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Big Data ◽  
Data Analytics ◽  
Big Data Analytics ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Digital Methods ◽  
Media Research ◽  
Social Media Research ◽  
Critical Social

This essay argues for a paradigm shift in the study of the Internet and digital/social media. Big data analytics is the dominant paradigm. It receives large amounts of funding, is administrative and a form of digital positivism. Critical social media research is an alternative approach that combines critical social media theory, critical digital methods and critical-realist social media research ethics. Strengthening the second approach is a material question of power in academia.

scholarly journals Digital Methods for Hashtag Engagement Research

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 205630512094069
Author(s):  
Janna Joceli Omena ◽  
Elaine Teixeira Rabello ◽  
André Goes Mintz
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Online Activity ◽  
Online Engagement ◽  
Digital Methods ◽  
Media Research ◽  
Social Media Research ◽  
Corpus Selection ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Digital Research

This article seeks to contribute to the field of digital research by critically accounting for the relationship between hashtags and their forms of grammatization—the platform techno-materialization process of online activity. We approach hashtags as sociotechnical formations that serve social media research not only as criteria in corpus selection but also displaying the complexity of the online engagement and its entanglement with the technicity of web platforms. Therefore, the study of hashtag engagement requires a grasping of the functioning of the platform itself (technicity) along with the platform grammatization. In this respect, we propose the three-layered (3L) perspective for addressing hashtag engagement. The first contemplates potential differences between high-visibility and ordinary hashtag usage culture, its related actors, and content. The second focuses on hashtagging activity and the repurposing of how hashtags can be differently embedded into social media databases. The last layer looks particularly into the images and texts to which hashtags are brought to relation. To operationalize the 3L framework, we draw on the case of the “impeachment-cum-coup” of Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff. When cross-read, the three layers add value to one another, providing also difference visions of the high-visibility and ordinary groups.

Opportunities and pitfalls of social media research in rare genetic diseases: a systematic review

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily G. Miller ◽  
Amanda L. Woodward ◽  
Grace Flinchum ◽  
Jennifer L. Young ◽  
Holly K. Tabor ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Genetic Diseases ◽  
Rare Genetic Diseases ◽  
Media Research ◽  
Social Media Research

scholarly journals MEDIATED DEATH AND DIGITAL MARTYRDOM: ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR VISUAL SOCIAL MEDIA RESEARCHERS

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly Marie Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Moral Dilemmas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Ethical Considerations ◽  
Digital Activism ◽  
Critical Thought ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Media Research ◽  
Social Media Research

The digital mediation of visual content depicting death and martyrdom as a trope of resistance and contestation is increasingly employed within social media platforms by transnational activist cultures and popular social movements. I refer to this phenomenon as ‘digital martyrdom’. The emergence of digital martyrdom, and its memetic circulation within visual social media platforms, points to the materialisation of a new, affective and ritualised protest dynamic. Through which posthumous visuals become diffused, reappropriated and politicised within global publics. This raises new ethical implications and moral dilemmas for digital and visual social media researchers, and requires more reflexive and critical thought beyond established ethical considerations. Necessarily, this paper raises ethical questions and provocations for digital and visual social media researchers in relation to the design, collection, presentation and publishing of academic work in the context of death and posthumous imagery online. The questions presented in this paper have emerged out of a systematic study of this phenomenon, with a particular focus on case studies drawn from the Middle East, the United States and Europe. This paper argues that digital and visual social media research in this field merits specific ethical considerations and amplified scholarly deliberation. This is of particular importance for visual social media research that extends beyond a Western context and considers the cross-cultural, transnational dimensions of digital activism.

scholarly journals ‘I feel the irritation and frustration all over the body’ Affective ambiguities in networked parenting culture

2021 ◽  
pp. 136787792110035
Author(s):  
Mari Lehto ◽  
Susanna Paasonen
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Research Data ◽  
The Body ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
Working Through ◽  
Media Research ◽  
Social Media Research ◽  
Study Participants

This article investigates the affective power of social media by analysing everyday encounters with parenting content among mothers. Drawing on data composed of diaries of social media use and follow-up interviews with six women, we ask how our study participants make sense of their experiences of parenting content and the affective intensities connected to it. Despite the negativity involved in reading and participating in parenting discussions, the participants find themselves wanting to maintain the very connections that irritate them, or even evoke a sense of failure, as these also yield pleasure, joy and recognition. We suggest that the ambiguities addressed in our research data speak of something broader than the specific experiences of the women in question. We argue that they point to the necessity of focusing on, and working through affective ambiguity in social media research in order to gain fuller understanding the complex appeal of platforms and exchanges.

Sentiment Analysis of Participant Comments in a User Centered Design Study for Degraded Visual Environment Sensor Visualization

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 2075-2078
Author(s):  
Bradley M. Davis ◽  
Samineh C. Gillmore ◽  
Derek Millard
Keyword(s):  
Sentiment Analysis ◽  
The Other ◽  
Visual Environment ◽  
User Centered Design ◽  
Design Study ◽  
Design Studies ◽  
Analysis Technique ◽  
Media Research ◽  
Social Media Research ◽  
User Centered

Several methodologies in user centered research lead to the collection of large amounts of comments about a product or system. The growth of social media research has led to the development of sentiment analysis algorithms that computationally analyze the meaning of text. This paper utilized the Valence Aware Dictionary for sEntiment Reasoning (VADER) sentiment analysis technique to assess comments from a user centered design study for a rotorcraft degraded visual environment mitigation system. The sentiment analysis findings mirror results from the other measures of the user centered design study. This paper supports the use of sentiment analysis for large volumes of comment data from user centered design studies.

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