{"id":1871,"date":"2012-11-02T10:01:53","date_gmt":"2012-11-02T00:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mappingonlinepublics.net\/?p=1871"},"modified":"2012-11-02T13:06:43","modified_gmt":"2012-11-02T03:06:43","slug":"twitter-and-the-emergence-of-big-data-research-in-the-humanities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mappingonlinepublics.net\/dev\/2012\/11\/02\/twitter-and-the-emergence-of-big-data-research-in-the-humanities\/","title":{"rendered":"Twitter and the Emergence of ‘Big Data’ Research in the Humanities"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a previous post<\/a>, I mentioned the new M\/C Journal<\/em> article<\/a> on the impact which Twitter, Inc.’s tightening of its API rules has on research into the uses of Twitter<\/em>. The use of data from the Twitter<\/em> API is just one example of a broader development here, which is now frequently described as ‘big data’ research \u2013 new research approaches (or the adaptation of existing research methods) for dealing with increasingly large, digital datasets on social interactions in online spaces.<\/p>\n

In this context, here are two presentations from my recent conference tour of Europe. First, I was invited to consider our ability to use ‘big data’ on social network usage to shed new light on the transformation of the Habermasian ‘public sphere’ in an increasingly Internet-based media ecology, as part of an ICA-sponsored panel at the European Communication Conference (ECREA)<\/a> in Istanbul. My slides and audio are below; Maria Bakardjieva<\/a> and Peter Lunt<\/a> were the other two presenters of the panel.<\/p>\n