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School of Sociology · ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences
The Internet is increasingly a source of data for social science research and this course provides students with training in online research methods for social research, with an emphasis on quantitative methods. The course focuses on unobtrusive/non-reactive methods involving socially-generated digital trace data (networks and text) from sources such as websites, social networking sites such as Facebook, microblogs such as Twitter and discussion environments such as Reddit. In this computer-lab based course, students will gain an introduction to coding and will undertake social network analysis and quantitative text analysis using the R statistical software. There is also an overview of obtrusive/reactive social research methods, including both quantitative methods (online surveys, online experiments) and qualitative methods (online focus groups and interviews, online field research).
Basic social network analysis
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Social media network data collection and analysis
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Content analysis
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Combining methods
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
130 hours of total student learning time made up from: a) 35 hours of contact over 12 weeks: 24 hours of lectures, and 11 hours of tutorials; and b) 95 hours of independent student research, reading and writing.
Not applicable. Preliminary Reading Halfpenny, P. and Procter, R. (2015). Innovations in Digital Research Methods, London: SAGE Publications. Ackland, R. (2013). Web Social Science: Concepts, Data and Tools for Social Scientists in the Digital Age, London: SAGE Publications. Salganik, M. (2016). Bit By Bit: Social Research in the Digital Age, http://www.bitbybitbook.com. Dicks, B. (2012): Digital Qualitative Research Methods (SAGE Benchmarks in Social Research Methods Series), London: SAGE Publications. Gertzel, B., Graham, T. and R. Ackland (2015). vosonSML - an R package for collecting and constructing networks from social media data. https://cran.r-project.org/package=vosonSML