Talking back to our broadcast media seems to be an integral part of the early 21st century experience. … It might seem like something that’s just started popping into conversations recently, but the idea is as old as broadcasting itself. In 1934, a New York research engineer named Dr. Nevil Monroe […] Read more »
10 Things Survey Researchers Should Know About Twitter (Part 2)
Yesterday I shared the first half of the ten things every survey researcher should know about Twitter. Today I give you things 6-10: [cont.] Joe Murphy, RTI International Read more »
10 Things Survey Researchers Should Know About Twitter (Part 1)
Over the last couple years, I’ve been looking at Twitter’s potential in survey research. Why Twitter? Because it’s vast, it’s fast, and it’s cheap. Recently, at the 2013 FedCASIC Workshops, I presented ten things survey researchers should know about Twitter. [cont.] Joe Murphy, RTI International Read more »
Briefing paper: Social Media and Public Opinion
The use of social media to measure public opinion faces major unresolved challenges. While potentially promising for trend-spotting, modeling or qualitative analysis, current research indicates that social media is not appropriate for quantitative analysis of broader public attitudes, particularly when the research aim is to estimate population values. … Difficulties […] Read more »
Social media for social science: The imperfect window
Much of the world, it seems, has been atwitter about social media in recent years. Researchers are no exception. Rather than needing to solicit insight from people with telephone calls during dinner or mailing surveys that largely end up in the trash, social scientists now have readily available tools to […] Read more »
Twitter Reaction to Events Often at Odds with Overall Public Opinion
The reaction on Twitter to major political events and policy decisions often differs a great deal from public opinion as measured by surveys. This is the conclusion of a year-long Pew Research Center study that compared the results of national polls to the tone of tweets in response to eight […] Read more »