A Scheme for the Study of Discussions in the Social Media

Authors

  • Roel Popping Department of Sociology, University of Groningen, Groningen, NL, Netherlands

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6000/2371-1647.2016.02.10

Keywords:

discussion, deliberation, discourse, measurement, social media

Abstract

In case one wants to study discussions in the social media one needs a template for doing this. The discussions can range from comments on some event to developing a deliberative democracy. This template, or scoring system, should give insight in developments in the substance of the discussion, but it should also allow considering the development of the structure of the discussion. In this text a template is proposed that covers both questions. The information that is collected by using the template might be useful in the context of (new) policy making; it can also be used to study opinions.

References

Stieglitz S, Dang-Xuan L. Social media and political communication - A social media analytics framework. Soc Netw Anal Min 2014; 3 (4): 1277-91. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13278-012-0079-3 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13278-012-0079-3

Graham T, Witschge T. In search of online deliberation: Towards a new method for examining the quality of online discussions. Communications 2003; 28(2): 173-204. https://doi.org/10.1515/comm.2003.012 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/comm.2003.012

Steenbergen MA, Bächtinger A, Spörndli M, Steiner J. Measuring political deliberation: A discourse quality index. Comp Eur Polit 2003; 1(1): 21-48. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.cep.6110002 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.cep.6110002

Burkell J, Fortier A, Wong LYC, Simpson JL. Facebook: public space, or private space? Inform Comm Soc 2014; 17(8): 974-85. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2013.870591 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2013.870591

Chou CH, Sinha AP, Zhao H. A hybrid attribute selection approach for text classification. J Assoc Inf Syst 2010; 11(9): 491-518. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00236

Lee S, Song J, Kim Y. An empirical comparison of four text mining methods. J Comput Inform Syst 2010; 51 (1): 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1109/hicss.2010.48 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/HICSS.2010.48

Voth J, Sawatzky R, Ratner PA, Young ML, Repta R, Haines-Saah R, Johnson JL. A computer-assisted approach to filtering large numbers of documents for media analyses. Int J Soc Res Methodol 2013; 16(1): 13-30. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2011.645700 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2011.645700

Ridout TN, Fowler EF, Searles K. Exploring the validity of electronic newspaper databases. Int J Soc Res Methodol 2012; 15(6): 451-66. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2011.638221 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2011.638221

Popping R. Online tools for content analysis. In: Fielding NG, Lee RM, Blank G, Eds., Handbook of Online Research Methods. London: Sage 2016. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781473957992.n19

Habermas J. The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1989 [1962].

Heise DR. Event structure analysis: A qualitative model of quantitative research, in Fielding NG, Lee RM, Eds., Using Computers in Qualitative Research. London: Sage 1991; pp. 136-63.

Griffin LJ. Narrative, event–structure analysis, and causal interpretation of historical sociology. Am J Sociol 1993; 98(5): 1094-133. https://doi.org/10.1086/230140 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/230140

Lodge M, Taber M. Three steps toward a theory of motivated political reasoning. In: Lupia A, McCubbins MD, Popkin SL. Eds., Elements of Reason. New York: Cambridge University Press 2000; pp. 183-213. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511805813.009 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511805813.009

Sebastiani F. Machine learning in automated text categorization. Journal ACM Computing 2002; 34(1): 1-47. https://doi.org/10.1145/505282.505283 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/505282.505283

Popping R. Qualitative decisions in quantitative text analysis research. Sociol Methodol 2012; 42: 88-90. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081175012460854 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0081175012460854

Roberts CW, Popping R. Themes, syntax, and other necessary steps in the network analysis of texts. Soc Sci Inf 1996; 34(4): 657-65. https://doi.org/10.1177/053901896035004005 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/053901896035004005

Vissers S, Stolle D. The Internet and new modes of political participation: Online versus offline participation. Inform Comm Soc 2013; 17 (8): 937-55. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2013.867356 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2013.867356

Downloads

Published

2016-12-27

How to Cite

Popping, R. (2016). A Scheme for the Study of Discussions in the Social Media. Journal of Advances in Management Sciences & Information Systems, 2, 111–118. https://doi.org/10.6000/2371-1647.2016.02.10

Issue

Section

Articles