Online data sources: linking old and new, big and small
Channel: National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM)
Date: 17/01/2018

Susan Banducci and Iulia Cioroianu (EXPONet, University of Exeter) talks at the NCRM Autumn School 2017
https://www.ncrm.ac.uk/autumn/

Abstract: 
In this presentation we cover two areas: 1) tools to harvest online unstructured data (e.g. Twitter, comments, clickstream data) and 2) linking unstructured data to traditional data sources (e.g. surveys). The diversity of online media (mixed text/image/video content in heterogeneous formats) creates challenges in data collection and analysis. Using social media and online data also adds new challenges such as representativeness, measurement error and causal inference. We explore how to address some of these challenges by discussing tools to harvest data, data management and data linkage to traditional sources of social data. We illustrate some of these tools with examples from EXPONet -- a project designed to develop tools toward understanding information exposure in dynamic and dependent social networks.