These are the slides to a workshop I presented on September 23, 2014 to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Digital Humanities Research Network (http://dhresearchnetwork.wordpress.com/). The workshop covered an overview of my research using DiscoverText, steps to collect data in the cloud-based big data analytics software DiscoverText (https://discovertext.com/), and coding data, as well as limitations, challenges and other resources for social media data collection and analysis.

1. Collec4ng
and
Coding
TwiJer
Data
in
DiscoverText
Jill
Hopke
@jillhopke
Digital
Humani4es
Research
Network
UW-­‐Madison
September
23,
2014

2. Workshop
Overview
My
Research
on
Global
Frackdown
Steps
to
collect
Twi9er
data
in
DiscoverText
Coding
data
in
DiscoverText
LimitaAons
and
Challenges
Other
Tools/Resources

3. Theory-­‐Driven
Research
is
Key!
CollecAve
AcAon

4. The
Changing
Nature
of
Ac4vism
CollecAve
AcAon
Connec&ve
AcAon

5. The
Changing
Nature
of
Ac4vism
CollecAve
AcAon
Connec&ve
AcAon
CollecAve
AcAon
Frames
Personal
AcAon
Frames

6. Transna4onal
An4-­‐Fracking
Ac4vism
DistribuAon
of
Global
Frackdown
2013
Events
Source:
Global
Frackdown.
(n.d.).
Events.

7. Research
Ques4ons
RQ1:
What
TwiJer
strategies
do
Global
Frackdown
ac4vists
use
to
mobilize
for
the
October
19,
2013
day
of
ac4on?
RQ2:
How
do
Global
Frackdown
tweeters
frame
protest
against
hydraulic
fracturing?

8. Project
Data
• Dataset
of
9,449
tweets
for
the
hashtag
#globalfrackdown.
• Data
collected
from
October
13
to
October
27,
2013
using
DiscoverText.
• Textual
analysis
of
English
(n=7,678)
and
Spanish
(n=1,314)
tweets.
• Unit
of
analysis
is
the
individual
tweet.
• Also
conducted
in-­‐depth
interviews
with
transna4onal
ac4vists.

9. Twee4ng
the
#GlobalFrackdown

10. Tweet
Frequency
(October
13-­‐27,
2013)
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
10/13/13
10/14/13
10/15/13
10/16/13
10/17/13
10/18/13
10/19/13
10/20/13
10/21/13
10/22/13
10/23/13
10/24/13
10/25/13
10/26/13
10/27/13
English
Spanish
Total

11. Tweet
Language
79%
14%
3%
2%
1%
1%
0%
English
Spanish
French
Catalan
Basque
German
Other

12. Propor4on
of
Tweets
by
Device
Source
0
20
40
60
80
100
Spanish
English
Mobile
Desktop
Applica4on

13. Propor4on
of
Tweets
with
Photos
9%
91%
Spanish
Photo
No
Photo
21%
79%
English
Photo
No
Photo

14. Tweet
Content
Type
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
%
of
Tweets
English
Spanish

15. Most
Frequently
Used
Hashtags
English
Spanish
Fracking
Fracking
Elsipogtog
FrackingNo
Banfracking
StopFracking
IdleNoMore
FrackingEZ
PowerShil
BanFracking
ElsipogtogSolidarity
19O
BanFrackingNow
SiSePuede19O
Mikmaqblockade
Castelló
Cdnpoli
GlobalFrackdo
NYC
Chervon
Excluding
#GlobalFrackdown

16. Collec4ng
Data
in
DiscoverText

17. DiscoverText
Dashboard
–
Login
and
Try
Out!

18. Start
a
New
Project

19. Name
Your
Project

20. Impor4ng
Data

21. TwiJer
Data
Types
(API,
GNIP,
Historical)

22. Name
Your
Data
Feed
(Archive)

23. Enter
Your
Search
Term

24. Schedule
Feed
Data
Collec4on

25. Archive
Management

26. List
of
Tweets

27. Viewing
Tweets

28. Meta
Data

29. Keeping
Track
of
Feed
Schedules

30. Coding
in
DiscoverText

31. (Part
of)
What
I
Did
(Theory-­‐Driven)
• First
round,
code
for
language.
• Second
round,
read
sub-­‐sec4on
of
data
and
developed
set
of
“working
themes.”
• Code
for
themes.
Memo/annotate
interes4ng
examples.
• Refine
codebook
(themes)
and
con4nue
coding.
• Intercoder
reliability
(you
might
want
to
do
this…
Depends
on
your
methodological
approach).
• I
also
used
the
machine-­‐learning
func4ons
for
a
separate
chapter
to
“classify”
data
for
valence
and
certainty.

32. Coding
Tweets
DiscoverText
Coding
Example

33. Limita4ons
and
Challenges

34. Limita4ons
and
Challenges
PRO:
Doesn’t
require
programming
knowledge.
User-­‐
friendly
interface.
Powerful
tool.
CON:
Solware’s
advanced
machine-­‐learning
func4ons
are
expensive!
DiscoverText
is
one
of
the
“affordable”
plaworms.
Also,
human
subjects
research/IRB
considera4ons.
=
Need
for
collabora4ons
and
grant
funding.

35. Other
Tools/Resources

36. Other
Tools
and
Resources
• “Social
Media
Data
Collec4on
Tools”
(see
here):
Running
list
of
tools
curated
by
Deen
Freelon,
Ph.D.,
freelon@american.edu,
hJp://dfreelon.org,
@dfreelon.
• Digital
Methods
Ini4a4ve
at
University
of
Amsterdam
(see
here).
• Digital
Methods
(2013)
by
Richard
Rogers
(see
here).
• Join
Associa4on
of
Internet
Researchers
AIR-­‐L
mailing
list
(see
here)!

37. Ques4ons?
Thank
you!
Jill
Hopke
jillhopke@gmail.com
@jillhopke
jillhopke.com