[Air-L] Seeking assistance on a social media research project

[Jaigris Hodson]

Hi Shannon,

Given the topic, I would actually recommend survey or interview data. I do not think scraping social sites will actually deliver answers to the broad research question you describe. If your colleague wants to understand impact, they really need to speak to the communities involved, rather than looking at social media content. Content doesn’t tell us anything about impact to these activist communities.

Happy research!




> On Jun 1, 2023, at 6:57 PM, Oltmann, Shannon M. via Air-L <air-l at listserv.aoir.org> wrote:
> 
> Hello colleagues! I'm mentoring a junior faculty member, located at an undergraduate, teaching-focused institution. As such, my mentee doesn't have extensive research experience (or access), but they are trying to complete a project looking at the intersections of social media, social movements, and motivations for activism (a bit far afield from my own work). Originally, they were thinking of looking into Twitter posts, responses, and engagement in social movements like Black Lives Matter, but with the Twitter API lockdown, this is likely out of reach.
> 
> I'm writing to see if anyone has suggestions about how to study the use of social media and how it could influence/shape engagement in (online or offline) social movements. I believe my mentee is open to studying various social media platforms—right now, we're focused on finding something that they can gain access to! Any suggestions would be most appreciated. Happy to elaborate more off-list if interested.
> 
> 
> -Shannon Oltmann
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Shannon M. Oltmann, Ph.D.
> Pronouns: she/her/hers
> 
> Associate Professor
> School of Information Science
> College of Communication & Information
> University of Kentucky
> 
> shannon.oltmann at uky.edu<mailto:shannon.oltmann at uky.edu>
> 
> Associate Editor, Library Quarterly
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