Methodological challenges of experiments in social media
Bäck, Emma ; Gustafsson, Nils LU
and Bäck, Hanna
LU
(2015)
NordMedia 2015
- Abstract
- Experiments in social media have rapidly become an important method in social science. However, there are a number of methodological problems connected to this method. One of these is the fact that social media are dominated by a small number of information oligopolists such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Since the service provider has control over the information and the algorithms that structure the information, manipulation in a controlled environment is impossible without cooperation. This presents the researcher with a choice: either you try to cooperate with the service providers or you try to emulate the services in a lab setting. Either choice presents the researcher with a number of challenges. This paper outlines a typology... (More)
- Experiments in social media have rapidly become an important method in social science. However, there are a number of methodological problems connected to this method. One of these is the fact that social media are dominated by a small number of information oligopolists such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Since the service provider has control over the information and the algorithms that structure the information, manipulation in a controlled environment is impossible without cooperation. This presents the researcher with a choice: either you try to cooperate with the service providers or you try to emulate the services in a lab setting. Either choice presents the researcher with a number of challenges. This paper outlines a typology of the methodological problems associated with either choice. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/7762851
- author
- Bäck, Emma
; Gustafsson, Nils
LU
and Bäck, Hanna
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2015
- type
- Contribution to conference
- publication status
- unpublished
- subject
- keywords
- political communication, experiments, social media, methodology, methods
- conference name
- NordMedia 2015
- conference location
- Denmark
- conference dates
- 2015-08-13 - 2015-08-15
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 84a276e6-4a4f-4c09-9733-c6f868b9ceea (old id 7762851)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-04 13:01:57
- date last changed
- 2018-11-21 21:11:53
@misc{84a276e6-4a4f-4c09-9733-c6f868b9ceea,
abstract = {{Experiments in social media have rapidly become an important method in social science. However, there are a number of methodological problems connected to this method. One of these is the fact that social media are dominated by a small number of information oligopolists such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Since the service provider has control over the information and the algorithms that structure the information, manipulation in a controlled environment is impossible without cooperation. This presents the researcher with a choice: either you try to cooperate with the service providers or you try to emulate the services in a lab setting. Either choice presents the researcher with a number of challenges. This paper outlines a typology of the methodological problems associated with either choice.}},
author = {{Bäck, Emma and Gustafsson, Nils and Bäck, Hanna}},
keywords = {{political communication; experiments; social media; methodology; methods}},
language = {{eng}},
title = {{Methodological challenges of experiments in social media}},
year = {{2015}},
}