Social media in public opinion research
Venue
AAPOR, AAPOR (2014), pp. 57
Publication Year
2014
Authors
Michael Link, Joe Muphy, Michael F. Schober, Trent D. Buskirk, Jennifer Hunter Childs, Casey Langer Tesfaye, Mario Callegaro, Jon Cohen, Elizabeth Dean, Paul Harwood, Josh Pasek, Michael Stern
BibTeX
Abstract
AAPOR announces the release of an important report, Social Media in Public Opinion
Research, authored by the Emerging Technologies Task Force. As social media
platforms – such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to name a few – expand and
proliferate, so does access to users’ thoughts, feelings and actions expressed
instantaneously, organically, and often publicly, across these platforms. At
question is how researchers and others interested in public opinion derive reliable
and valid insights from the data generated by social media users. The report,
Social Media in Public Opinion Research, highlights the use of social media as a
vehicle for facilitating the survey research process (i.e., questionnaire
development, recruitment, locating, etc.) and as a way of potentially supplementing
or replacing traditional survey methods (i.e., content analysis of existing data).
It offers an initial set of guidelines and considerations for researchers and
consumers of social media-based studies, noting the opportunities and challenges in
this new area.
