Digital methods for social science: an interdisciplinary guide to research innovation

Pages839-840
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/EL-05-2017-0106
Date07 August 2017
Published date07 August 2017
AuthorZinaida Manžuch
Subject MatterInformation & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet
Book reviews
Digital Methods for Social Science: An Interdisciplinary Guide to
Research Innovation
Edited by Helene Snee, Christine Hine, Yvette Morey, Steven Roberts and
Hayley Watson
Palgrave Macmillan
Basingstoke
2016
234 pp.
£70.00 hard cover
ISBN 978-1-137-45365-5
Review DOI 10.1108/EL-05-2017-0106
Digital media provide tools and space for the social interaction that has increasingly
become part of our lives. They also become a promise and a challenge for social
scientists interested in extending their research of social phenomena into digital space.
Social media platforms produce vast data collections that can be used for a wide
spectrum of social research. However, an understanding of digital tools, new
competencies for collecting and interpreting digital data and also awareness of ethical
challenges are necessary to apply them in practice. Digital data collection and analysis
tools are embedded in commercial social media platforms that inuence how data are
accessed and interpreted. Social media enterprises become powerful players in the
digital research arena.
Opportunities, challenges and contexts of using digital technologies and
especially social media platforms in social research are discussed in this collection of
papers. Written by an impressive number of contributors (26!), whose elds of
competence include psychology, education, anthropology, business, digital media,
computer science and sociology, the book is an attractive reading choice. It gives us
the authentic research experiences of contributors so the reader can be aware of the
advantages and drawbacks of such organisation of material. On the one hand, it
helps to get an in-depth understanding of research issues faced by the contributors;
on the other, it limits discussion to specic experiences, tools and sources. The
editors have tried to overcome this fragmentation by thoughtful organisation of
contributions and introductions that summarise the main themes and lessons.
The book consists of four parts. The rst part “Big Data, Thick Data: Social
Media Analysis” provides an introduction to accessing, processing and interpreting
social media data in social research. The second part “Combining and Comparing
methods” invites the reader to align traditional and digital approaches to social
research. It also emphasises the need to combine traditional and digital methods to
study our increasingly mixed physical and digital lives. The third part “Developing
Innovations in Digital Methods” elaborates on applying traditional social methods
Book reviews
839
TheElectronic Library
Vol.35 No. 4, 2017
pp.839-842
©Emerald Publishing Limited
0264-0473

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