Strategies for Managing Social Media Research Data

Description

A digital methods development workshop organised by Cambridge University Library and the Digital Humanities Network

Social media data is becoming important to scholarship across a large number of disciplines and is being analysed by researchers using a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods, ranging from ethnographies of online social movements, to social network analysis of images on Instagram and Flickr, to studies of how languages change using Twitter corpora. As communication via social media platforms has become part of everyday life for billions around the globe, researchers who want to understand society, culture and politics are increasingly likely to need to collect, analyse and cite social media data in their work. Yet while social media data can provide rich insights for research, it also poses specific challenges.

This workshop will focus on the challenges of managing social media data for research across the lifecycle of a research project and beyond. Participants will explore the following questions with our panel of experts:

• How can I plan the collection of social media data for my research?

• Is it possible to preserve and retain social media data?

• Who owns social media data and how will this affect my research?

• Are there ethical and legal challenges related to social media data preservation?

• Is social media data preservation important to the integrity and replicability of my research?

The workshop is an excellent opportunity to discuss these and any other questions you might have about managing social media. 

Please see the Eventbrite page here (http://www.eventbrite.com/e/strategies-for-managing-social-media-research-data-tickets-19993657568) to book for the workshop, and for details of the call for proposals for short talks by Cambridge researchers using social media data in their research.