Social Media Publics Research: Methods, Data and Analysis Report

This report delves into the realm of researching social media platforms, practices, and publics, emphasizing the use of data mining and analysis techniques. It explores how social media platforms shape our understanding of "the social" and how users adopt it. The report examines the ethical and normative implications of social/media language, the development of an effective ethics of social life via media, and identifies gaps where alternative perspectives of "the social" can be established. The report highlights the methodologies of the Pew Research Centre, including sample surveys, quantitative web content analysis, and online natural experiments, as well as the research conducted by the Social Media Collective, which utilizes both quantitative and qualitative research methods, including online lab experiments and web content analysis. The report references key scholarly works to provide a comprehensive overview of the field.

Researching Social Media Publics
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Researching Social Media Publics
The Researching of social media platforms, practices and publics is the use of tools and
techniques for mining and examining data from social media networks and the internet. This
entails the research on how the social media platforms (and the diverse cultures that
generated them) come to a point where they propose the aspect of “the social” and the way
users proceed to adopt it (Gillespie, 2010). Furthermore, it implies researching the way the
language of social/media is creating ethical or normative apprehensions, how an effective
ethics of social life via media can be fostered, and capturing the gaps from where the other
suggestions of “the social” might be established (Dijck, 2014).
Pew Research Centre
Pew Research Centre is a website that is dedicated to informing the public on facts about the
issues, attitudes, and developments that are influencing the United States and the world as a
whole. It carries out polling opinions from the public, demographic research, analysis of
media content and other experimental research in social science. This site makes use of
online research methods such as quantitative methods namely: sample surveys, quantitative
web content analysis, online natural experiments (Ackland, 2013). For instance, the report on
“The Fate of Online Trust in the Next Decade” (Pew Research Centre, 2016) employed the
use of online natural experiments on various experts about the level of people’s trust on
online interactions. The site also conducts public opinion polls by use of sample surveys,
whereby a subset of a population is selected, and data is collected and analyzed to represent
the entire population. Media content analysis is conducted by use of quantitative web content
analysis where texts are read, observed and labels assigned so that statistical estimates are
derived, for example, the report by Aleksandra Sandstrom, “God or the divine is referenced
in every state constitution.” Also, the site conducts empirical social science research by

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making use of the combination of both qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis. For
instance, the use of literature review and experimental studies in the report “The Future of the
Internet III.”
Social Media Collective Research Blog
The Social Media Collective is a network of researchers drawn from the fields of social
science and humanistic scholars some of whom are interns, post doctorate, and guests. Some
of these researchers are full-time and part time-based. The Microsoft research lab in both
England and New York helps in the research as well. This blog aims to provide an in-depth
understanding of the dynamics of social-cultural that strengthen the social media tools
through the use of various methodologies across different areas of study. The blog uses both
quantitative and qualitative methods of research. For instance, the Microsoft research
laboratory in New York and New England uses online lab experiments (Ackland, 2013, p.40)
to conduct research; quantitative web content analysis is also evident in the analysis of the
publication of Meryl Alper “Giving Voice”(Microsoft Research, 2016). Qualitative web
content analysis methods are also employed in the blog by Jessa Lingel on “Information
wants to be free-but do we want it to be leaky?” in the report, many web texts are analyzed in
the discussion of the topic.

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References
Van Dijck, J., 2013. The culture of connectivity: A critical history of social media.
Oxford:Oxford University Press.pp. 24-44.
Gillespie, T., 2010. The politics of ‘platforms’. New Media & Society, 12(3), pp.347-364.
Ackland, R., 2013. Web social science: Concepts, data and tools for social scientists in the
digital age. London: Sage Publications. Pp. 21-47
Pew Research Centre 2016, Pew Research Centre [home], Pew Research Centre, viewed 22
August 2017, http://www.pewinternet.org/
Microsoft Research 2016, Social Media Collective [home], Social Media Collective, viewed
22 August 2017, http://socialmediacollective.org/about/