Event slides and references :

Using Social Media In Social Research

Social Media TCB Ethics

Social Media DFID Practice Note

This event is delivered in collaboration by the Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research Data & Methods (WISERD) and the Social Data Science Lab at Cardiff University. The full-day workshop will combine seminar and practical workshop aspects, offering participants the opportunity to gain insight and experience into using social media data in social research. It will enable participants to acquire working knowledge of some of the cutting-edge tools available for collecting and analysing social media data.

Workshop leaders will introduce some of the key issues surrounding social media data (such as the broad range of uses of social media data and ethical considerations) and current research based around social media. Participants will be shown techniques for collecting and analysing social media data – using tools such as NodeXL and COSMOS – and have the opportunity to put these into practice.

Speakers/presenters:

  • Dr Matthew Williams (Director, Social Data Science Lab)
  • Dr Luke Sloan (Deputy Director, Social Data Science Lab)
  • Wil Chivers (Social Media Research Associate, WISERD)

The aims of the event are:

  1. To introduce and outline the use of social media data in social research
  2. To demonstrate a selection of tools available for collecting and analysing social media data, and how they are being used at WISERD and the SDSL
  3. To enable participants to develop basic skills in social media data collection and analysis

By attending the event participants should be able to:

  1. Identify needs for using social media data in a range of contexts
  2. Collect social media data using NodeXL and COSMOS
  3. Conduct and interpret basic forms of analysis of social media data
  4. Understand the ethical considerations of using social media data
  5. Understand how social media data can be used to augment ‘traditional’ social research techniques

Participants do not require prior knowledge or experience of using social media in social research.

This event will be of interest to any researchers interested in online interaction and engagement. The event will also appeal to researchers from variety of disciplines with an interest in any of the following:

  • Using and developing innovative methodologies
  • Digital society
  • Digital/computational social science
  • Social Network Analysis and visualisation of data
  • Sentiment analysis