Note: This course will require a laptop and we recomend that you bring your own if possible. If you are interested in this course but do not have access to a Windows laptop, please contact ACSPRI staff or instructor Rob Ackland. You will need Excel 2007/10, Mozilla Firefox and NodeXL, which is free to download. Help will be provided in advance to ensure you have access to these programs.
This course will provide students with an introduction to social media analysis in the context of social research. The course is designed for social researchers interested in social media, and covers methods of accessing and analysing digital trace data from websites, blogsites, Twitter and Facebook. While there is emphasis on social networks (e.g. WWW hyperlink networks, follower networks in Twitter, friendship networks in Facebook), analysing text content from social media is also covered. There will also be an introduction to using Virtual Worlds (e.g. Second Life and Massively Multiplayer Online Games) and online experiments for social research. Analytic approaches include social network analysis and text content analysis. The course also provides practical training in two software tools that can be used for social research using social media data: VOSON (for hyperlink network construction and analysis) and NodeXL (an Excel 2007/2010 template for social media network analysis).
