[Air-L] IR 16 conference workshop: Digital Methods in Internet Research

[Patrik Wikstrom]

Hi all,

We'd like to give you some more details about the full-day preconference workshop "Digital Methods in Internet Research" at IR16. The workshop is organised by Axel Bruns, Jean Burgess, Tim Highfield, Ben Light, Patrik Wikstrom (all at QUT Digital Media Research Centre) and Tama Leaver (Curtin University). It offers the participants hands-on experience of a number of cutting-edge data-driven research methods and their applications in media, cultural and internet studies. The workshop is structured into the following four sessions:

1 Data visualisation: Especially when working with large social media datasets, data visualisation is now an indispensable part of the scholarly research and publication process. This data visualisation session will focus on a number of emerging standard tools for large-scale analysis, including Tableau for processing and visualising large datasets.

2 Agent Based Modelling: Many phenomena in our field are inherently complex and dynamic: They change over time; everything is connected to everything else; they have "tipping points" or  "virtuous" (or "vicious") circles; and so on. Our traditional methods are often lacking in the analysis of such systems. This session introduces agent-based modelling (ABM), which is a method that has proven to be a useful approach for unpacking dynamic complexity.

3 Software and app studies: In order to study the social media platforms and software applications that populate the digital media environment, we need to take into account not only content and user practices, but also socio-technical features, interface design elements, and business models - but doing this empirically is a challenge. In this session, you will be introduced to a novel approach to critical and qualitative digital methods: the App Walkthrough, which borrows from vernacular digital media culture, User Experience research and STS to undertake an 'ethnography of affordances', as part of a broader software and app studies approach to mobile dating and hook-up applications.

4 Instagrammatics - analysing visual social media: This session's exploration of visual social media uses Instagram as a focus but with applications beyond this specific platform. The session provides a hands-on means for approaching visual social media, giving participants the opportunity to interrogate what they might do with such data and what visual media and methods might contribute to research.

You can sign up for this workshop when you register for the conference. Hope to see you there, and let us know if you have any questions about format or content!

Axel, Ben, Jean, Patrik, Peta, Tama & Tim
(patrik.wikstrom at qut.edu.au<mailto:patrik.wikstrom at qut.edu.au>)

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Associate Professor Patrik Wikström  |  Principal Research Fellow & Chief Investigator  |  Digital Media Research Centre  |  Creative Industries Faculty  |  Queensland University of Technology  |  Z1-515  |  Musk Ave  |  Kelvin Grove QLD 4059  |  Australia  |  e: patrik.wikstrom at qut.edu.au<mailto:patrik.wikstrom at qut.edu.au>  |  w: http://www.qut.edu.au/research/dmrc  |  CRICOS 00213J