Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, TikTok and other online platforms have created whole new avenues for research. "Social Media Analysis" can be seen as the intersection of text analysis and network analysis. The "text" is often in the form of discussions, and may include images, emoji, and other media. The "media" is often structured in the form of a network, where the relationships between people and ideas become the focus of study. Information presented here is geared towards helping you collect social media data, and includes tools tailored for analyzing and visualizing data from specific social media platforms. For a more in-depth look at data sources you may want to use for your research, see our Data Services guide.
Related techniques: Text Analysis, Qualitative Analysis, Web Scraping
This technique is part of the Analysis activity.
Text Analysis is a broad term for a wide variety of specific analytic methods including parts-of-speech analysis, topic modeling, word frequency and concordances, distant reading, network analysis, data visualizations of unstructured data, and more. Web-based tools like Voyant provide easy access to a range of these techniques. This page is intended to provide some accessible resources for people who are interested in these methods. A more in-depth directory of tools that can be used for specific techniques is available through TAPoR.
Related techniques: Social Media Analysis, Qualitative Analysis
This technique is part of the Analysis activity.
Qualitative Data Analysis (QDA) is a subjective form of text analysis where non-structured textual data, including interview transcripts, social media text, photographs, audio or video files, or almost any other information is closely examined to identify topics, narratives, structures, or themes. QDA can be done manually, on paper, but is typically performed with the help of software tools. If you are new to the technique, be sure to check out the theory guides on the left before diving into the software!
Related Techniques: Text Analysis, Social Media Analysis
This technique is part of the Analysis activity