Digital Methods In Social Sciences

This paper explores the rise in voice-based social media as a pivotal transformation in digital communication, situated within the broader era of chatbots and voice AI. Platforms such as Clubhouse, X Spaces, Discord and similar ones foreground vocal interaction, reshaping norms of participation, identity construction, and platform governance. This shift from text-centered communication to hybrid digital orality presents new sociological and methodological challenges, calling for the development of voice-centered analytical approaches. In response, the paper introduces a multidimensional methodological framework for analyzing voice-based social media platforms in the context of surveillance capitalism and AI-driven conversational technologies. We propose a high-level reference architecture machine learning for social science pipeline that integrates digital methods techniques, automatic speech recognition (ASR) models, and natural language processing (NLP) models within a reflexive and ethically grounded framework. To illustrate its potential, we outline possible stages of a PoC (proof of concept) audio analysis machine learning pipeline, demonstrated through a conceptual use case involving the collection, ingestion, and analysis of X Spaces. While not a comprehensive empirical study, this pipeline proposal highlights technical and ethical challenges in voice analysis. By situating the voice as a central axis of online sociality and examining it in relation to AI-driven conversational technologies, within an era of post-orality, the study contributes to ongoing debates on surveillance capitalism, platform affordances, and the evolving dynamics of digital interaction. In this rapidly evolving landscape, we urgently need a robust vocal methodology to ensure that voice is not just processed but understood.

Versão resumida
Prezado leitor, É com satisfação que apresentamos o Relatório de Análise da CPAC de Maio. Este documento tem como objetivo fornecer uma visão geral e concisa da atuação de agentes da extremadireita em 29 países, com base em 1749 posts coletados de 31 de abril a 14 de maio de 2025. A análise busca identificar os temas centrais, as figuras e organizações recorrentes, bem como as conexões com as Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) e outros eventos. Nosso objetivo é apresentar uma síntese interpretativa das dinâmicas de redes de influência e narrativas do movimento, destacando padrões e especificidades que transcendem fronteiras geográficas. Relatório Executivo-Análise CPAC Abril Período de Análise: Posts de 01/04 a 14/05/2025 Amostra: Posts de perfis de extrema-direita em 29 países e contas mapeadas em edições da CPAC de 2024 e 2025.

This paper introduces a medium-specific research perspective as fundamental basis for Social Sciences and Communication fieldwork. It points to the importance of combining knowledge on platform grammatisation with data research practices (capture, mining, analysis and visualization) to study digital networks. That is what we refer to as call into the platform; an effort to account for the technical fieldwork and digital methods in an interdependent position to research. In this conception, and through the case of Portuguese Universities on Facebook, we interrogate how digital networks contribute to the research contexts of communication and social sciences studies. To respond to this question, two distinctive digital networks were explored, shedding light in the institutional connections and the visual culture of the higher education in Portugal. The first comprises all connections made by a given Page -the act of liking other pages or being liked in return (Page like network). The second is built upon the affordances of computer vision APIs -the connections between images and their descriptive labels (Page timeline image-label network). Beyond providing new ways to design and implement research that can be repurposed for different studies, the main contribution of this study lies in embracing the methods of the medium as key component for digital social sciences.

The transition from paper to digitalization of all processes related to production and service delivery is part of the evolution of new technologies and their deployment in various industries. The automation of these processes leads to a reduction in bureaucratic burden, increased productivity and competitiveness, as well as flexibility in relation to user needs. In the field of education, the development of computer, software and information systems creates the conditions and prerequisites for achieving better efficiency in the planning and delivery of teaching. However, the process of implementing individually developed systems is not yet fully complete. This article aims to examine various factors that have contributed to the delay in this process, as well as the existing gaps in the current higher education development strategy.

En este artículo presentamos los potencia­les de las redes basadas en la API Google Vision para el estudio de las imágenes en lí­nea, abordando tres modalidades importan­tes como parte de una metodología visual crítica: el contenido de la propia imagen, su forma específica de “audienciación” a través de referencias web (o metadatos de la ima­gen) y los sitios de circulación de la imagen. En primer lugar, definimos conceptual y técnicamente diferentes redes construidas a partir de ciertas características de visión artificial: imagen-etiqueta, imagen-entidades web e imagen-dominio. En segundo lugar, presentamos un diagrama de protocolo de investigación que ilustra cómo construir redes de imágenes con sus respectivas des­cripciones o sitios de circulación. En tercer lugar, discutimos las potencialidades de las redes de visión artificial como dispositivos de investigación, enfatizando sus (trans) formaciones relacionales de datos y sus especificidades interpretativas. Se presen­tarán tr...

This article examines the organisation of collaborative digital methods and data projects in the context of engaged research-led teaching in the humanities. Drawing on interviews, field notes, projects and practices from across eight research groups associated with the Public Data Lab (publicdatalab.org), it provides considerations for those interested in undertaking such projects, organised around four areas: composing (1) problems and questions; (2) collectives of inquiry; (3) learning devices and infrastructures; and (4) vernacular, boundary and experimental outputs. Informed by constructivist approaches to learning and pragmatist approaches to collective inquiry, these considerations aim to support teaching and learning through digital projects which surface and reflect on the questions, problems, formats, data, methods, materials and means through which they are produced.

O artigo apresenta resultados de estudo sobre Interfaces de Pro- gramacao de Aplicacoes (API, na sigla em ingles) de visao compu- tacional e sua interpretacao de re- presentacoes em bancos de ima- gens. A visao computacional e um campo das ciencias da computa- cao dedicado a desenvolver algo- ritmos e heuristicas para interpre- tar dados visuais, mas sao ainda incipientes os metodos para sua aplicacao ou investigacao criticas. O estudo investigou tres APIs de visao computacional por meio de sua reapropriacao na analise de 16.000 imagens relacionadas a brasileiros, nigerianos, austriacos e portugueses em dois dos maio- res bancos de imagens do ociden- te. Identificamos que: a) cada API apresenta diferentes modos de etiquetamento das imagens; b) bancos de imagens representam visualidades nacionais com temas recorrentes, mostrando-se uteis para descrever figuracoes tipi- cas emergentes; c) APIs de visao computacional apresentam dife- rentes graus de sensibilidade e modos de tratamento ...

The effect of an artist's prestige on the price of artwork is a well-known, central tenant in art market research. In considering how an artist's prestige proliferates, much research examines networks, where certain artistic groupings and associations promote individual member's artistic standing (i.e., "associative status networks"). When considering the role of associative status networks, there are two models by which status may increase. First, the confirmation model suggests that actors of similar status are associated with each other. Second, the increase model suggests that a halo effect occurs, whereby an individual's status increases by association with higher-status artists. In this research, we examine the association of artists through museum exhibition to test confirmation versus increase models, ascertaining whether prestige acquisition is a selection or influence process. This research capitalizes on the retrospective digitization of exhibition catalogues, allowing for large-scale longitudinal analysis heretofore unviable for researchers. We use the exhibition history of 1148 artists from the digitized archives of three major Dutch museums (Stedelijk, Boijmans-Van Beuningen, Van Abbe) from 1930 to 1989, as well as data on artists' market performance from artprice.com and bibliographic data from the WorldCat database. We then employ network analysis to examine the 60-year interplay of associative status networks and determine how different networks predict subsequent auction performance. We find that status connections may have a point of diminishing returns by which comparison to high prestige peers increases one's own prestige to a point, after which a high-status comparison network becomes a liability.

All of the contributions to this special issue are occupied with how to engage data otherwise. This otherwise indexes the rich variety of approaches to data beyond what we are currently witnessing. Whether through the development of politically and ethically relevant forms of data experiments, or the construction of alternative visions of the much-critiqued data infrastructures of powerful platform providers, all the articles reflect upon how we - as scholars and citizens - can live and work with data in ways amenable to diverse, critical, and ethical forms of social existence. This introduction intervenes in this debate in its own particular way, principally by considering what it means to characterise the contemporary as a data moment. The term data moment, we argue, works as a conceptual device calling for more ethical-political engagement with data practices. At the same time, it also retains a temporal inflection. Moments, we claim, are not sequential steps in a linear process,...

Posterpräsentation mit dem Titel "Come Together: Digitale Daten und Museale Objekte"
anlässlich des #digiRoundtable V - Projektreigen, Status und Zukunft
im MAK - Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Wien
am 22. 11. 2023

Poster presentation on the occasion of the #digiRoundtable V
at MAK - Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria
22. November 2023

This paper addresses the need to renew sociological research methods in
light of the transformations that social morphology has defined as the emergence of a virtual society. Technology, viewed as a network, has changed the structure of social forms and perceptions of the concept of living in the world. The question is whether the nature of the methods that have long been used to study them also changed. If they have already evolved, where can this innovation be found? This paper concludes that the renewal of sociological research approaches should not be an end in itself but rather a service of sociological theory. This should create an integrative relationship between both existent social research methods and virtual and digital approaches.
محجوبة قاوقو. المجتمع الافتراضي وإشكالية تجديد منهج البحث السوسيولوجي نحو بناء نموذج لدراسة التفاعلات الإلكترونية بواسطة الحاسوب. Omran for Social Sciences, 2019, vol. 8, no 29.‎

This study examined a social movement in the digitalized world along with its role in the public policy process. The research focused on how the social movement was accessed and spread, and how knowledge was formed on Facebook so that it could influence the success or failure of a certain policy. It is essential to further explore how knowledge is mobilized through social movements in the digitalized world so as to enrich the theories of governance and public policies. In this study, content analysis was ued. The results showed that the group of main actors who criticized the vaccine's safety was heterogeneous. In terms of vaccine criticism, there were the anti-vaccine movements, the marginally anti-vaccine movements, and the occasionally vaccine-critical movements. This heterogeneity could be found in the type of arguments mobilized to question the vaccine's safety and in these actors' likelihood of being involved in any vaccine-related controversies. The religion and conspiracy theory discourses were the two most used discourses to reject the vaccine delivery program in Indonesia. By mobilizing knowledge through a social movement in the digitalized world, the anti-vaccine movement actors had a wider network and had the potential to influence the success of the government program.

The increasing availability of digital resources is an opportunity as well as a challenge for ethnographers who seek to incorporate 'the digital' into their field studies. This article is an attempt to reflect on the peculiar nature of new digital resources, their relation to conventional method integration problems, and the practical opportunities for making the digital relevant to ethnographic field studies. These reflections are grounded in the authors' trials and tribulations during an ethnographic project, in which a deliberate attempt was made to combine digital methods with traditional ethnographic methods. This involved wrestling with a series of methodological issues, which were eventually managed by developing an approach called the slalom method. The slalom method consists of a series of rules and heuristics that together constitutes a pragmatic strategy for facilitating the integration of digital resources into the iterative and reflexive process of an ethnographic field study.

Over the last couple of decades, one of the significant developments in digital STS has been the rapid growth in digital methods and tools for data harvesting, analysis and visualisation. The increasing availability and deployment of digital tools raises questions about how to develop an analytic practice that reconciles the theoretical sensibilities of STS with tools and data that may sometimes be grounded in assumptions alien to STS. This article explores these challenges by reporting on two related digital STS projects that were carried out at the Techno- Anthropology Lab in Copenhagen. Drawing on science historian Peter Galison’s notion of trading zones, the article analyses how project participants from different communities of practice exchanged and combined tools, theories and projects in a variety of ways. The article identifies two particular trading strategies: the introduction of assisting ontologies or mini-theories, and the introduction of project-specific problems and ...

O artigo mapeia o significado e as qualidades atribuídas ao “dado” nos documentos destinados aos usuários e investidores da Fitbit, terceira maior plataforma no setor global de vestíveis. Foram analisados o relatório financeiro (IPO) do primeiro ano da marca no mercado de ações, os termos de uso e privacidade. Os documentos foram explorados no softwareAtlas.ti. Os resultados indicam que, embora os discursos endereçados ao cliente coloquem o dado como um benefício para o usuário, as narrativas dirigidas aos investidores destacam como riscos para o negócio: a garantia de segurança e privacidade dos usuários, os interesses governamentais no acesso aos dados e as políticas de regulação. O nosso argumento central é de que as narrativas oficiais constroem um imaginário do dado enquanto truque retórico, ocultando a rede político-econômica da marca, os riscos e as agendas de interesse ao passo que enaltecem as práticas de dataficação necessárias ao modelo de negócio da plataforma

The present paper has tried to discuss what “smart ethnography” is. It has endeavoured to focus on the current situation of ethnography in this pandemic time to some extent. Sitting at a computer desk, what we have seen, through the lenses of Smartphones, media coverage, and daily newspapers, what we observed, as a student of anthropology, is written in this paper. According to the view of social anthropology, this type of equipment has been regarded as the ultimate essential technological device for investigating human behaviour in a pandemic situation. At the beginning of the essay, remember that if we go back to armchair anthropology before Malinowski, where anthropologists had collected data from travellers and other sources, in the present situation, data is collected from the newspaper, the Internet, research papers, webinars, and mobile phones from the opposite side of the devices-the participant may be a respondent. Therefore, the concept of a researcher, or else fieldworker...

This research investigates the use of search engine optimization (SEO) by political and non-political actors to amplify the visibility of search engine results. While there has been much theoretical speculation around the role of SEO techniques in boosting the ranking appearance of a website, few empirical studies have been undertaken to understand the extent to which SEO techniques are used to promote visibility online. This study takes Italy as a case study to map the information landscape around nine highly controversial issues during the Italian electoral campaign of 2022. Using a combination of digital methods and a tool detecting optimization in websites, our article aims at examining which actors employ SEO techniques to foster the circulation of their ideas and agendas around hot topics. Our analysis reveals that information channels, institutions, and companies are predominant, while political actors remain in the background. Contextually, data indicate that SEO techniques are employed by several recurrent editorial groups, company owners, and institutions. Ultimately, we discuss the impact of SEO techniques on the circulation and visibility of information around relevant policy issues, contributing to shaping and influencing public debate and opinion.

Participatory Video (PV) is a method that involves supporting individuals in a group setting to co-produce videos. It is a community development, research and advocacy tool that has recently been adapted for online, remote facilitation in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic (Marzi forthcoming). As with the in-person methodology, an online PV process is geared towards fostering dialogue around a shared issue. During the process, smartphone videos are created by participants as a tool for communication and reflection. PV captures situated viewpoints, while fostering intra-group communication, peer-to-peer learning and skills development. PV also enables participants to communicate their ideas to an external target audience, which may include communities in other areas, policy-makers, or scientists. PV can support many different steps along a participatory research journey. In the early stages, PV may be applied to support the co-creation of video-based funding proposals or the development of group plans (box 1). Further into the research process, videos can be created by participants for project documentation and reflection purposes, or for participatory monitoring and evaluation (Lemaire and Lunch 2012). Towards the latter stages, PV could be used to support dissemination of "best practices" or to communicate results and lessons learned (Richardson et al. forthcoming). In these ways, video-making by participants can support both internal and external communication processes within a research project.

Anthropology has a computational past. As early as the 1960s, ethnoscience was seriously pursuing a formalist and computationally enabled analysis of culture with the aim of discovering what were essentially 'cultural algorithms' or rules that a stranger would need to follow in order to pass for a native (Hymes 1965; see also Seaver 2015). Yet, as ethnoscience was excluded from the ethnographic canon (see, for example, the scathing critique in Geertz 1973), so was-for a while at least-the ambition to work computationally in anthropology (Seaver 2018). Recently, however, the anthropological interest in computation (Fortun et al. 2017), big social data (Manovich 2011), and digital methods for pattern recognition in large datasets (Munk and Jensen 2015) has been rekindled. On the heels of this renewed interest in computers for the analysis of ethnographic materials comes the question of how it challenges what ethnography is. What, if anything, changes in how anthropologists generate and analyse empirical material and with what effects? With this question, we do not mean to imply that an anthropological interest in all things digital will automatically lead to a

This chapter points out data visualization's double role as explorative and communicative means in humanities research. We draw from science and technology studies looking at the mediation process at stake: the interaction between visualization tool and researcher. To emphasize this mediation process and expose the various decisions at its heart we introduce the term 'data interface'. We highlight how visualizations function as data interfaces and visualization practices allow for interfacing with data biographing a network graph's 'life'. Using the lens of the 'data interface' underscores that a particular (network) visualization provides just one perspective on the data. Moreover, we examine if and how the used data interfaces encourage scholars to critically position their investigative work, during research processes and communication.

CrowdSourcing is a new word that is being used among enterprise companies, startups, social business experts and professionals, as well as various social networking platforms like facebook, WhatsApp, telegram, twitter etc. It has been used to provide support to already established as well as upcoming business ideas. It has been observed that on daily basis new services and products are being launched to leverage the power of the crowd to do something out of the box. In the same context, this paper shows the present scenario and the requirement of CrowdSourcing to get meaningful insight, on which analyzers may take proper corrective actions or decisions.

Image-based social media is undergoing a significant increase in popularity among adolescents and young adults (Pew Research Center, 2018). On Instagram, Health Influencers share magazine-ready images that communicate health and wellness to millions of followers. These images have been criticized by academics and the public alike as self-promotional, lacking a scientific basis, and promoting Western beauty standards and thin-ideals. Given Health Influencers' considerable social reach, and mounting concern that certain types of Instagram content can negatively affect young people's mental health and body image, it is important to assess the social costs of their posting habits. While empirical research has identified types of posts that contribute to body image issues (e.g., selfies exhibiting naked body parts), research on the prevalence of these posts in health messages on Instagram is more limited. To this end, we analyzed the most frequently used hashtags of 784 Health Influencers with ten-thousand or more followers and fit an unsupervised topic model to over 285,000 of their posts. This analysis revealed that a majority of health and wellness content on Instagram is related to four themes: Cosmetics and Appearance, Self-promotion, Fitness, and General Wellness. Furthermore, while many posts appear to promote health habits (e.g., vegan food recipes or posts of inspiration and encouragement), a substantial number of images contain content previous research has suggested can lead to body-image and self-esteem issues (e.g., photos promoting thin-body ideals). Future work will package this model as a web application that informs users of their own potentially harmful posting behaviors.

Nowadays It is essential for universities and faculties to interact on-line with their potential applicants, current students as well as other stakeholders. In recent years, social media such as Facebook has provided higher education institutions with new means of communication with their target groups. The purpose of this study is to explore the use of the most popular social network Facebook by selected faculties in the Czech Republic and Slovakia and to provide a set of practical benchmarks on successful communication with public. To answer presented research questions, a convergent parallel mixed-methods research design was used. Firstly, a focus group investigation was put forward to clarify what communication channels are generally used by applicants and students when searching and sharing information about faculties. Secondly, a quantitative data analysis, based on data mining using tools such as Power BI and Netvizz, was presented. Data for year 2017 obtained from sixteen Fa...

O objetivo desse artigo teórico é apresentar a temática da algocracia e seus contornos sobuma lente crítica, especialmente no que tange a utilização dos algoritmos pelasorganizações, especialmente na mediação da gestão do trabalho. Esse sistema é pautadona busca por eficiência, e legitimado pelas novas tecnologias de informação e comunicação,afetando relações de trabalho e estruturas organizacionais, seus aspectos culturais,econômicos, sociais e políticos. Para tanto, observamos esse modelo de gestão poralgoritmos pela lente dos estudos críticos de gestão. Argumentamos que o contextoneoliberal camufla as disparidades entre organizações e trabalhadores, ao legitimar aideologia da flexibilidade, e usando os algoritmos para capturar dados, processá-los e, emseguida, decidir sobre as atividades e avaliações dos trabalhadores.

The recent rise of computation-based methods in social science has opened new opportunities for exploring qualitative questions through analysis of large amounts of text. This article uses a mixed-methods design that incorporates machine reading, network analysis, semantic analysis, and qualitative analysis of 414 highly cited publications on obesogenic environments between 2001 and 2015. The method produces an elaborate network map exhibiting five distinct notions of environment, all of which are currently active in the field of obesity research. The five notions are institutional, built, food, family, and bodily environments. The network map is proposed as a navigational tool both for policy actors who wish to coordinate efforts between a variety of stakeholders and for researchers who wish to understand their own research and research plans in light of different positions in the field. The final part of the article explores how the network map may also initiate a broader set of reflections on the configuration, differentiation, and coherence of the field of obesity research.

The recent rise of computation-based methods in social science has opened new opportunities for exploring qualitative questions through analysis of large amounts of text. This article uses a mixed-methods design that incorporates machine reading, network analysis, semantic analysis, and qualitative analysis of 414 highly cited publications on obesogenic environments between 2001 and 2015. The method produces an elaborate network map exhibiting five distinct notions of environment, all of which are currently active in the field of obesity research. The five notions are institutional, built, food, family, and bodily environments. The network map is proposed as a navigational tool both for policy actors who wish to coordinate efforts between a variety of stakeholders and for researchers who wish to understand their own research and research plans in light of different positions in the field. The final part of the article explores how the network map may also initiate a broader set of reflections on the configuration, differentiation, and coherence of the field of obesity research.

The influence of social media on vaccine hesitant users is concerning, as it most often negatively affects the decision about vaccination of oneself and their children, encourages the spread of misinformation and leads to the endangerment of the population. Giving all the potential that the online sphere obtains, this work is meant to bring awareness of the issues caused by social media regarding anti-vaccination and encourage closer monitoring of such content in order to battle hesitancy. The territory of interest for this research is European Union, as despite its unsullied prior record, the most recent data has been showing outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases due to insufficient vaccination coverage rates. (European Commission, 2016) Analyzing European vaccination data and patterns, EU-focused academic researches and literature and social media presence of the "anti-vax" campaigns, the work brings up the prospects and suggestions for the possible solutions to the problem.

Previous study found that the perceptions regarding the Zika virus (ZIKV) are likely to be shaped by person‟s own experiences with the disease. For example, people who have been infected by ZIKV associate the disease with its most common symptoms, such as pain and rash. The perception of the virus, however, may vary by gender and SES. Using novel survey data collected in Governador Valadares, Brazil (a hotspot for vector-borne diseases), we evaluate if the meaning people attribute to the ZIKV varies according to their sociodemographic differences and mediates the way they employ measures of prevention and care amidst the ZIKV epidemics. Using a combination of Pearson Chi Square, Exponential Random Graph Models and count regression, we found that individual perception about ZIKV is shaped by gender and alter the employment of self-protection measures against the mosquito. Education does not shape perception regarding Zika, but change the odds of applying certain measures against the ...

There is a methodological tendency in work on diaspora and digital media for quantitative investigations to approach diaspora in static ways that contrast with theories of diaspora as a dynamic cultural formation. On the other hand, qualitative, ethnographic work tends not to engage with digital methods and quantitative datadriven investigation. In this article, we sketch this methodological and disciplinary disconnect and address it by proposing a model for understanding digitally mediated formations of diaspora that combines digital methods techniques with a sensitivity to ethical and theoretical discussions of migration and diaspora. Drawing on interpretive epistemologies and feminist research ethics, we present a case study analysis of a locally informed, Turkish-Dutch issue. We argue for a method that produces 'mattering maps'. This involves tracking and visualizing digital traces of an issue across web platforms (Google Search results, Facebook pages, and Instagram posts) and integrating this with an analysis of the face-to-face interview responses of a key issue actor.

In this article, we present the potentials of Google Vision API-based networks for studying online images, covering three important modalities as part of a critical visual methodology: the content of the image itself, its specific ‘audiencing’ through web references (or image metadata), and the sites of image circulation. First, we conceptually and technically define different networks built upon computer vision features: image-label, image-web entities, and image-domain. Second, we present a research protocol diagram that illustrates how to build networks of images and respective descriptions or sites of circulation. Third, we discuss the potentialities of computer vision networks as a research device, stressing their data-relational (trans)formations and interpretative specifics. Three different case studies will be introduced as examples. In conclusion, we argue that such a visual methodology requires critical technical practices accounting for the multiple layers of technical me...

The effect of an artist’s prestige on the price of artwork is a well-known, central tenant in art market research. In considering how an artist’s prestige proliferates, much research examines networks, where certain artistic groupings and associations promote individual member’s artistic standing (i.e., “associative status networks”). When considering the role of associative status networks, there are two models by which status may increase. First, the confirmation model suggests that actors of similar status are associated with each other. Second, the increase model suggests that a halo effect occurs, whereby an individual’s status increases by association with higher-status artists. In this research, we examine the association of artists through museum exhibition to test confirmation versus increase models, ascertaining whether prestige acquisition is a selection or influence process. This research capitalizes on the retrospective digitization of exhibition catalogues, allowing fo...

There is a methodological tendency in work on diaspora and digital media for quantitative investigations to approach diaspora in static ways that contrast with theories of diaspora as a dynamic cultural formation. On the other hand, qualitative, ethnographic work tends not to engage with digital methods and quantitative datadriven investigation. In this article, we sketch this methodological and disciplinary disconnect and address it by proposing a model for understanding digitally mediated formations of diaspora that combines digital methods techniques with a sensitivity to ethical and theoretical discussions of migration and diaspora. Drawing on interpretive epistemologies and feminist research ethics, we present a case study analysis of a locally informed, Turkish-Dutch issue. We argue for a method that produces 'mattering maps'. This involves tracking and visualizing digital traces of an issue across web platforms (Google Search results, Facebook pages, and Instagram posts) and integrating this with an analysis of the face-to-face interview responses of a key issue actor.

Sharing of anti-vaccine posts on social media, including misinformation posts, has been shown to create confusion and reduce the public’s confidence in vaccines, leading to vaccine hesitancy and resistance. Recent years have witnessed the fast rise of such anti-vaccine posts in a variety of linguistic and visual forms in online networks, posing a great challenge for effective content moderation and tracking. Extending previous work on leveraging textual information to understand vaccine information, this paper presents Insta-VAX, a new multi-modal dataset consisting of a sample of 64,957 Instagram posts related to human vaccines. We applied a crowdsourced annotation procedure verified by two trained expert judges to this dataset. We then bench-marked several state-ofthe-art NLP and computer vision classifiers to detect whether the posts show anti-vaccine attitude and whether they contain misinformation. Extensive experiments and analyses demonstrate the multimodal models can classif...

The epidemic of microcephaly and other congenital abnormalities associated with Zika virus which emerged in Brazil now threatens different countries worldwide. Since the declaration of a National Public Health Emergency, the Brazilian government has implemented a response plan in which the research agenda is central. Developments were achieved in four main areas of the agenda: 1) virological, clinical and epidemiological studies, 2) alternative vector control strategies, 3) development and evaluation of diagnostic tests, and 4) development and evaluation of vaccines. National and international collaborative networks have played an important role in the race against the clock to quickly translate the results of R&D initiatives into public policies. It is paramount that the lessons learned from Zika lead to fast and effective responses to future epidemics.

Nowadays It is essential for universities and faculties to interact on-line with their potential applicants, current students as well as other stakeholders. In recent years, social media such as Facebook has provided higher education institutions with new means of communication with their target groups. The purpose of this study is to explore the use of the most popular social network Facebook by selected faculties in the Czech Republic and Slovakia and to provide a set of practical benchmarks on successful communication with public. To answer presented research questions, a convergent parallel mixed-methods research design was used. Firstly, a focus group investigation was put forward to clarify what communication channels are generally used by applicants and students when searching and sharing information about faculties. Secondly, a quantitative data analysis, based on data mining using tools such as Power BI and Netvizz, was presented. Data for year 2017 obtained from sixteen Fa...

Internet research requires internet-based research methods and tools. Since the commercial adoption and the rapid expansion of internet use in civil society, social scientists have tried to understand the impact and contribution of this technology in the shaping of contemporary human existence. However, academic research has been based mainly in mature and traditional data collection and analysis methods, previously established, like survey research or social network analysis. Some authors suggest that this trend represents a challenge for the social sciences’ ability to champion innovative methodological resources, underlining the need to create also native digital methods. The authors developed, considering this challenge, an online panel of internet users – a method already used in the market research industry to monitor and characterize audiences and consumer behaviour, but not usually explored in social science academic research. Following a case study approach, the current pap...

Mosquito-borne illnesses present a public health threat. This analysis quantifies general online mosquito media, and the Zika virus [ZIKV) specifically, from 7-20-2016 to 10-20-2018 in five U. S. geographies. The ZIKV sub-search comprised a shrinking share of online media about mosquitoes over time. Net sentiment, numerical scoring of search result positivity/negativity bounded between −100 and +100, was assessed. Mean net sentiment for the general mosquitoes search was −51;-55 for ZIKV. The ZIKV search revealed more variation in weekly net sentiment with a standard deviation of 14, compared to 10 for mosquitoes. Seventy-seven percent of the weeks had a net sentiment for the mosquito search that was more positive than the ZIKV search. For the 23% of the time the ZIKV search net sentiment was more positive than the general mosquito search, there were mentions of scientific advances, such as the potential for vaccine development associated with the post. Greater emphasis on public health threats from mosquitoes may be necessary to stimulate public action on mosquito-borne illness control. This analysis serves as an illustration of the potential for online/social media analysis to inform health officials of public interest/focus, and perhaps inform effective communication campaigns to combat public health threats.

Instagram allows for graphical and visual information exchange. This paper aims to explore the current landscape of rheumatology on Instagram and analyse the accounts available based on their objectives and level of engagement. The search term "#rheumatology" reveals 62 results, leaving 55 after careful exclusion. On grouping into "educational", "broadcasting", "support", and a combination of all three, an analysis is carried out using the total number of posts, follower counts, number of caption characters (last 10 posts), likes per post (last 10 posts), archived stories, reels, IgTV (Instagram Television) videos, hashtags, and links in bio. The analysis reveals that 29 accounts (52.7%) disseminate educational content, 36 (65.4%) are run by organisations, and 22 (40.0%) are of an institute or clinic. Character counts (rho 0.44, p = 0.0006) and videos (likes for ten posts 149 vs. 54, p = 0.006) positively correlate with the number of likes, while hashtag use and post count have no statistical significance with likes. Reels and IgTV videos are infrequently used (18.18%, 3.6%). The rheumatology social media landscape is in its nascency and currently split into educational and broadcasting accounts with a significant overlap between the two. The positive correlation of character counts and videos and the negative correlation of hashtag use and post count with likes lay the case for quality content to improve engagement. Social media editors may ensure quality content for rheumatology education using Instagram. Key Points • The current landscape of Instagram use in rheumatology is limited and largely orientated towards educative content. • Likes on Instagram are positively correlated with caption character counts and videos. • Using currently underutilised tools like videos, engaging captions, and infographics may enhance the utility of Instagram in rheumatology education.

Despite having been broadly advertised by the mass media, many negative consequences of the Zika virus have been less significant than originally predicted. It is likely that after a few months from the epidemic's onset, personal experience with the virus has altered the person's way to deal with the disease. This study explores the relation between exposure to Zika virus and the social representation of the epidemic. More specifically, one analyzes if increased exposure to the risk of Zika infection changes the characteristics of the web of meanings surrounding the epidemic. Between August and November of 2016, 150 interviews were conducted in the municipality of Governador Valadares, Minas Gerais State, Brazil. Based on the Free Words Association Technique, data on evocations related to the Zika virus were modeled by social network analysis, allowing the characterization of the web of meanings by level of exposure to the risk of Zika infection. The analysis performed here ...

The epidemic of microcephaly and other congenital abnormalities associated with Zika virus which emerged in Brazil now threatens different countries worldwide. Since the declaration of a National Public Health Emergency, the Brazilian government has implemented a response plan in which the research agenda is central. Developments were achieved in four main areas of the agenda: 1) virological, clinical and epidemiological studies, 2) alternative vector control strategies, 3) development and evaluation of diagnostic tests, and 4) development and evaluation of vaccines. National and international collaborative networks have played an important role in the race against the clock to quickly translate the results of R&D initiatives into public policies. It is paramount that the lessons learned from Zika lead to fast and effective responses to future epidemics.

Despite having been broadly advertised by the mass media, many negative consequences of the Zika virus have been less significant than originally predicted. It is likely that after a few months from the epidemic's onset, personal experience with the virus has altered the person's way to deal with the disease. This study explores the relation between exposure to Zika virus and the social representation of the epidemic. More specifically, one analyzes if increased exposure to the risk of Zika infection changes the characteristics of the web of meanings surrounding the epidemic. Between August and November of 2016, 150 interviews were conducted in the municipality of Governador Valadares, Minas Gerais State, Brazil. Based on the Free Words Association Technique, data on evocations related to the Zika virus were modeled by social network analysis, allowing the characterization of the web of meanings by level of exposure to the risk of Zika infection. The analysis performed here ...

practice. It conceptualizes current and future digital worlds in novel ways, discusses how we have historically interpreted pre-digital behaviors, media, and surroundings, and explores advances in digital ethnography technique and practice. This book is ideal for those interested in the implications of the digital world.

Image analysis Networks Digital methods Visual methodologies Computer vision Janna Joceli Omena-Master in Contemporary Culture and New Technologies, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa. Research fellow at the Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS). She is a member of iNOVA Media Lab and the Public Data Lab. Her research focuses on digital methods, digital network studies, and technicity-of-the-mediums in support of social and medium research. She is the editor of Métodos Digitais: Teoria-Prática-Crítica (ICNOVA, 2019) and the coordinator of the SMART Data Sprint. Some of her latest publications are: 'Digital Methods for Hashtag Engagement Research'