To analyse social and behavioural phenomena in our digitalized world, it is necessary to understand the main research opportunities and challenges specific to online and digital data. This book presents an overview of the many techniques that are part of the fundamental toolbox of the digital social scientist. Placing online methods within the wider tradition of social research, Giuseppe Veltri discusses the principles and frameworks that underlie each technique of digital research. This practical guide covers methodological issues such as dealing with different types of digital data, construct validity, representativeness and big data sampling. It looks at different forms of unobtrusive data collection methods (such as web scraping and social media mining) as well as obtrusive methods (including qualitative methods, web surveys and experiments). Special extended attention is given to computational approaches to statistical analysis, text mining and network analysis. Digital Social Research will be a welcome resource for students and researchers across the social sciences and humanities carrying out digital research (or interested in the future of social research).

This provocative new introduction to the field of digital sociology offers a critical overview of interdisciplinary debates about new ways of knowing society that are emerging today at the interface of computing, media, social research and social life. Digital Sociology introduces key concepts, methods and understandings that currently inform the development of specifically digital forms of social enquiry. Marres assesses the relevance and usefulness of digital methods, data and techniques for the study of sociological phenomena and evaluates the major claim that computation makes possible a new ‘science of society’. As Marres argues, the digital does much more than inspire innovation in social research: it forces us to engage anew with fundamental sociological questions. We must learn to appreciate that the digital has the capacity to throw into crisis existing knowledge frameworks and is likely to reconfigure wider relations. This timely engagement with a key transformation of our age will be indispensable reading for undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in digital sociology, digital media, computing and society.

This essential guide to doing social research in this fast-evolving digital age explains how the digital revolution is transforming the way social scientists observe behavior, ask questions, run experiments, and engage in mass collaborations.

Qualitative Social Research employs an accessible approach to present the multiple ways in which criticism enhances research practice. Packed full of relevant, ′real world′ examples, it showcases the strengths and pitfalls of each research method, integrating the philosophical groundings of qualitative research with thoughtful overviews of a range of commonly used methods. This book is ideal for students and prospective researchers and explains what makes qualitative sociological research practical, useful and ethical. It’s an essential guide to how to undertake research, use an appropriate research design and work with a range of qualitative data collection methods, and includes: detailed discussions of ethical issues references to new technologies in each chapter explanations of how to integrate online and visual methods with traditional data collection methods exercises to enhance learning The authors use their many years’ experience in using a range of qualitative methods to conduct and teach research to demonstrate the value of critical thinking skills at all stages of the research process.

The digital, in the form of technologies, scenarios, objects, processes, and relational and interactional structures, is increasingly becoming central to understanding culture, society, human experience, and the social world. It permeates our society’s practices, symbols, and shared meanings, and it makes old distinctions, such as the one between online and offline, real and virtual, and material and immaterial, obsolete. It also introduces digitally native objects of research, such as cyber-bullying and digital identities, which have a direct impact on mainstream sociological problems.

The rise of digital technology is transforming the world in which we live. Our digitalized societies demand new ways of thinking about the social, and this short book introduces readers to an approach that can deliver this: digital sociology. Neil Selwyn examines the concepts, tools and practices that sociologists are developing to analyze the intersections of the social and the digital. Blending theory and empirical examples, the five chapters highlight areas of inquiry where digital approaches are taking hold and shaping the discipline of sociology today. The book explores key topics such as digital race and digital labor, as well as the fast-changing nature of digital research methods and diversifying forms of digital scholarship. Designed for use in advanced undergraduate and graduate courses, this timely introduction will be an invaluable resource for all sociologists seeking to focus their craft and thinking toward the social complexities of the digital age.

What can flame-throwing squirrels tell us about human emotion? Can social media empower political activism? How has the internet changed the way we form our identities? Do algorithms have a social role? What is digital society? In the early 21st century, digital media and the social have become irreversibly intertwined. In this cutting-edge introduction, author Simon Lindgren explores what it means to live in a digital society. Neatly divided into three sections, Digital Media and Society expertly leads students through: Theories: from social media and cyber-optimism, to online social interaction and social change Topics: from emotion, participation and the public sphere, to the impact of data, software and mobile technology Tools: from digital ethnography, social network analysis and text-mining, to guidance on digital ethics and mixing methods With succinct explanations of key concepts and theories, practical exercises to aid understanding and application, and suggested further reading sections to guide students through the literature and enhance their own research, this is a must-have resource for all students of the digital society. Digital Media and Society is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate courses exploring digital media, social media, media and society, media sociology, and the Internet.

This book examines and engages with the ambivalence of digitization, illuminating the diverse ways in which researchers approach, negotiate, understand and interpret objects and practices of digital research.

Exploring the implications of the digital transformation on society, as well as demonstrating how we might use the digital transformation to further our knowledge on society, this incisive Research Handbook on Digital Sociology provides an extensive overview of cutting-edge social research on the digital turn of modern society. Bringing together contributions from more than 60 experts spanning a wide range of disciplines, Jan Skopek explores how digital technologies inextricably permeate the ways we go about our everyday lives, from how we seek information and carry out economic transactions to how we construct our identities and pursue and maintain social relationships. Chapters investigate timely issues related to social theory and social research in the digital age, including the study of online behaviour, digital social inequalities, and the micro- and macro-level consequences of digital technological change. Covering state-of-the-art quantitative and qualitative research methodologies in digital sociology, this Research Handbook serves as a comprehensive resource for teaching and research in a continually developing field. Cross-disciplinary in scope, this dynamic Research Handbook will be essential reading for a diverse audience of academics, researchers, students, and practitioners, particularly in the fields of sociology, demography, computer and information sciences, economics, business, and psychology.

Digital technologies, digital media, and mobile technologies now shape the experience of everyday life in the Western world, yet the way our quotidian lives are enmeshed with these technologies is far from clearly understood. Through studies of the digital everyday, sociologists are beginning to reinvigorate the sociological imagination in light of digitization. Chapters in this Byte cover topics such as designing a research framework and how to work ethically as a digital researcher, continually interrogating one’s position as a researcher and reflecting on the process of knowledge creation. Cumulatively, they highlight the value of sociological theory for understanding our digital world.