Data collection, content analysis and trend detection for the social web

Description:

Course content overview

This course will give participants an introduction to analysing data taken from the social web. It will discuss the broader debates around social web data and provide hands-on sessions in several tools, such as Webmetrix and Mozdeh, which allow us to collect and analyse such data.

Course timetable

Monday afternoon

Introduction to online research
This session will take the form of a lecture outlining how online data sources are becoming increasingly common in a number of different areas of research. The session will also include an overview of the debates that surround online research

Tuesday

Session 1) Introduction to content analysis
Session 2) Content analysis of emails sent by electoral candidates during the 2015 General Election Campaign
Session 3) Introduction to Webometric Analyst 2.0 and workshop on collection of tweets using Webometric Analyst; more on content analysis of tweets
Session 4) Content analysis of Tweets collected in session 3.

Wednesday

Session 1) Predicting a General Election outcome using Twitter data. A case study methodology and brief introduction to sentiment analysis
Session 2) Adapting traditional research methods using online tools
Session 3) Introduction to Mozdeh and workshop on automated collection, filtering and text analysis of tweets using Mozdeh
Session 4) Collection and automated text analysis with Mozdeh.

Thursday

Session 1) Automated co-word and gender analyses of tweets with Mozdeh
Session 2) Automated sentiment analysis of social media text with SentiStrength and within Mozdeh
Session 3) Gathering comments and other information about YouTube videos with Webometric Analyst
Session 4) Collection of YouTube data and manual content analysis of YouTube comments

Friday morning

Session 1) Final work on individual projects; preparation of initial results for presentation to the group
Session 2) Presentation of results by participants to the group; final discussion and questions 

Course tutors

The course will be presented by:

Professor Mike Thelwall - University of Wolverhampton

Mike Thelwall is Professor of Information Science and leader of the Statistical Cybermetrics Research Group at the University of Wolverhampton, which he joined in 1989. He is also Docent at the Department of Information Studies at Åbo Akademi University, and a research associate at the Oxford Internet Institute.

Rosalynd Southern - University of Manchester

Rosalynd Southern is a Research Associate at the University of Manchester. Her research focusses on online electoral campaigning and she has conducted studies on the 2010 and 2015 UK General Elections assessing how online tools were used by both voters and elites. 

Prior knowledge

No prior knowledge or reading is needed and no materials are needed.

Cost:

Students £600 | University of Manchester staff £600 | other attendees £900

Website and registration:

http://www.methods.manchester.ac.uk/events/summer-school-2016/

Region:

North West

Keywords:

Frameworks for Research and Research Designs, Digital Social Research, Online qualitative fieldwork, Analysis of social media, Online Data Collection , Big data, Mobile digital data, Social media data

Related publications and presentations:

Frameworks for Research and Research Designs
Digital Social Research
Online qualitative fieldwork
Analysis of social media
Online Data Collection
Big data
Mobile digital data
Social media data

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