The document discusses innovative approaches to analyzing online social networks, focusing on audience research and the implications of social media. A panel at the IR13 conference explores various topics including mixed methods, historical network analysis, and a framework for studying social media use in everyday life. The findings highlight methodological challenges and the significance of social networks in shaping user experiences and behaviors.

1. Innovative approaches to analyses
of online social networks
Panel for IR13 – Salford October 18th-21st 2012
Jakob Linaa Jensen (chair)
Frauke Zeller
Andra Siibak
Niels Brügger

2. Background
 EU COST Action “Transforming audiences, transforming societies”
 Working group on social media and social networking – and it’s
consequences for audience research
 Europan task force on social media methods
 Mapping the research field within Europe and beyond
 Publishing (journals, edited books, panels)
 Outreach (new research projects, connections beyond Europe)

3. Comparative studies
 Klaus Bruhn Jensen in charge
 Survey in 13 countries
 Data collection January 2013
 IPSOS to carry out surveys in most countries

4. Twitter and the public sphere - The European elections
in 2014
 Joint Research proposal COST Action 'Transforming Audiences, Transforming
Societies’:
 Pieter Verdegem, Cédric Courtois and Peter Mechant (Ghent University,
Belgium), Jakob Linaa Jensen (Aarhus University, Denmark), Stine Lomborg
(University of Copenhagen)
 Call distributed, so far participants from 10+ countries (Pieter?)

5. This panel
Accessing use of online social networks in everyday life – a suggested framework
Jakob Linaa Jensen, University of Aarhus, Denmark
Mixed Methods in Online Social Network Analysis
Frauke Zeller, Technical University of Ilmenau, Germany
Historical Network Analysis: Methodological Challenges
Niels Brügger, University of Aarhus, Denmark
Making use of creative research methods for studying social media
Andra Siibak, University of Tartu, Estonia

6. Accessing use of online social networks in
everyday life – a suggested framework
Jakob Linaa Jensen, Ph.D.
Associate professor in media studies
Center for Internet Research
Aarhus University, Denmark
E-mail:linaa@imv.au.dk
Twitter: jakoblinaa
Web: www.linaa.net

7. 1. Online social networks and other online phenomena
2. Interesting aspects of Facebook and social network
sites
3. Example: a framework for studying Facebook use and
it’s significance in people’s everyday life
4. Issues raised for future concern

8. Social
media
Blogs, discussion
groups
Flickr, You Tube
etc.
Online
social
networks
MySpace,
Facebook,
LinkedIn etc.

9. MUDs Discussion groups WoW MySpace Facebook P2P
Online communities Online social networks
Technologically centralised Technologically dispersed
Everybody visible Connections visible
Privileged center No privileged center

10.  Accounting for different technologies
 Accounting for different user experiences
 Accounting for different methodological challenges

11.  After almost 20 years of WWW there has been certain methods, agreed standards for
analysing websites:
-Usability analyses (Jakob Nielsen etc.)
-Website analysis (Niels Brügger etc.)
-Web sphere analysis (Foot & Schneider)
 Even though websites are fluent, dynamic, unstable, they are still a relatively fixed
phenomenon, compared to social networks: the content is in principle available and
accessible for everyone, despite exceptions (personalisation, client based software etc.)

12.  Users (characteristics, performance, behaviour)
 Content (status updates, shared objects, profile
 Relations (networks, circles of friends, reciprocity)
 Context (design, policies, frames for action)
 Aesthetics (visual appearance, significance for use and
perception)

13.  Subjective
• Surveys (ask the users)
• Focus groups or individual intervies
 ”Technical"
• Networks analyses of relationships (Gephi, NodeXL etc.)
• Data mining of traffic in general
 Observations
• Aesthetics analyses of profiles
• Content analysis of profiles and dialogues (computer-based, semantic or a combination)

14. • 2009 project survey (N= 1710)
• General survey on the public sphere, media use, participation, citizenship
• Sponsored by Danish National Research Council

15. • How are social media used to perform political and cultural
citizenship?
• Which role do social media play in respondents’ everyday life?
• How do users perform online compared to their own
presentation and perception of their online presence?

16. • Quantitative survey among Danish Internet users (N=1710)
• Subsequent focus groups (4, N=20) among strategically selected
Facebook users
• Access to profiles and all information of the focus group
participants (N=17)

17.  Knowledge on respondents’ general media use and other variables
 Specific knowledge on use and attitudes towards social network sites
 Attitudes and experiences discussed and negotiated in a social context
 Observation of actual behaviour and practices versus norms and ideal conceptions

20.  Discrepancy between statements in social contexts (focus groups) and
practices while alone
 A well-known methodological problem
 Here the triangulation of focus groups and ”eaves-dropping” profiles
illustrates such discrepancies, otherwise hard to get
 This is good to cover aspects of daily practices and norms
 One could have added analyses of relations, meta-analyses of content