Download full text
(419.5Kb)
Citation Suggestion
Please use the following Persistent Identifier (PID) to cite this document:
https://doi.org/10.48541/dcr.v12.25
Exports for your reference manager
Scraping social media data as platform research: A data hermeneutical perspective
[collection article]
This document is a part of the following document:
Challenges and perspectives of hate speech research
Abstract Working with social media data is a hermeneutic procedure systematically guided by doubts about the meaning of data at all stages of the research process, from data collection and preparation to data analysis and publication. A short walk through the automated data collection workflow, as it is impl... view more
Working with social media data is a hermeneutic procedure systematically guided by doubts about the meaning of data at all stages of the research process, from data collection and preparation to data analysis and publication. A short walk through the automated data collection workflow, as it is implemented in the open-source software Facepager, highlights some of the epistemic peculiarities of the process. The paper encourages researchers to deal with technical details, errors, and restrictions in order to gain a deeper understanding of the organizing principles of the web. Technical limitations and hurdles should not solely be considered as problems to be solved, but also as indicators of social processes on online platforms. Scraping social media data touches on key aspects of platformization and, therefore, is not merely a data collection method, but also a means of examining the online world through a data hermeneutical lens.... view less
Keywords
data access; data; hermeneutics; social science; social media; online media; Internet; data capture; automation
Classification
Basic Research, General Concepts and History of the Science of Communication
Methods and Techniques of Data Collection and Data Analysis, Statistical Methods, Computer Methods
Interactive, electronic Media
Free Keywords
scraping; platform economy; Facepager
Collection Title
Challenges and perspectives of hate speech research
Editor
Strippel, Christian; Paasch-Colberg, Sünje; Emmer, Martin; Trebbe, Joachim
Document language
English
Publication Year
2023
City
Berlin
Page/Pages
p. 427-441
Series
Digital Communication Research, 12
ISSN
2198-7610
ISBN
978-3-945681-12-1
Status
Primary Publication; peer reviewed