Introduction to Digital Methods

Objectives

1) Be enabled with a theoretical and practical approach to the doing of social, cultural or medium research advanced by digital methods 2) Grasp the whole and the parts of doing digital methods research, including how to extract, analyse, interpret and visualise data from web platforms, search engines and app stores 3) Design and implement research projects with and through natively digital objects and methods 4) Be able to use a range of tools and approaches to critically take advantage of digital methods research

General characterization

Code

02109821

Credits

10.0

Responsible teacher

Ilo Aguiar Reginaldo Alexandre

Hours

Weekly - 3

Total - 280

Teaching language

English

Prerequisites

Available soon

Bibliography

Marres, N. (2017). Digital Sociology: The Reinvention of Social Research. London: Polity Press. Rieder, B., and Röhle, T. (2017). Digital Methods: From Challenges to Bildung. In M. T. Schafer and K. van Es (Eds.), The Datafied Society: Studying Culture Through Data (pp. 109–124). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. Rogers, R. (2019). Doing Digital Methods. Sage Publication. Venturini, T., Jacomy, M., and Jensen, P. (2019). What Do We See When We Look at Networks. An Introduction to Visual Network Analysis and Force-Directed Layouts. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3378438 ieder, B., Coromina, Òscar, and Matamoros-Fernández, A. (2020). Mapping YouTube. First Monday, 25(8). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v25i8.10667 Gillespie, T. (2010). “The politics of ‘platforms’,” New media & society, volume 12, number 3, pp. 347-364. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1461444809342738

Teaching method

In class teaching and practical labs. The teaching method includes theoretical and practical exposition of contents supported by the active and critical participation of students.

Evaluation method

Método de avaliação - The evaluation consist of a group project (intermediary evaluation) and individual 2,000-word essay (final evaluation). Each evaluation element counts for 50% of the final grade.(100%)

Subject matter

1. What are digital methods? 1.1. Research based on a medium-specific theory with «born digital» data 1.2. How to lead research on the internet, web platforms and social media 1.3. Affordances and limitations of digital methods 2. Applied research with digital methods and tool 2.1. Data extraction 2.2. Analysis and visualisation 2.3. Interpretation