Analysis and Visualization Considerations for Quantitative Social Science Research Using Social Media Data
J. Bradford Jensen, Lisa Singh, Pamela E. Davis-Kean, Katharine G. Abraham, Paul C.W. Beatty, Leticia Bode, Duen Horng Chau, Tina Eliassi‐Rad, Richard Gonzalez, Rebecca Hamilton, In Song Kim, Theresa Kuchler, Jonathan McDonald Ladd, Kristina Lerman, Margaret C. Levenstein, Zeina Mneimneh, Quynh C. Nguyen, Josh Pasek, Trivellore Raghunathan, Rebecca M. Ryan · 2021
This is the fifth in a series of white papers providing a summary of the discussions and future directions that are derived from these topical meetings. This paper focuses on issues related to analysis and visual analytics. While these two topics are distinct, there are clear overlaps between the two. It is common to use different visualizations during analysis and given the sheer volume of social media data, visual analytic tools can be important during analysis, as well as during other parts of the research lifecycle. Choices about analysis may be informed by visualization plans and vice versa - both are key in communicating about a data set and what it means. We also recognized that each field of research has different analysis techniques and different levels of familiarity with visual analytics. Putting these two topics into the same meeting provided us with the opportunity to think about analysis and visual analytics/visualization in new, synergistic ways.