Geosocial capta in geographical research – a critical analysis

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a critical view of the use of geodata/capta from social media sources as a research tool in geographic research. It compares three captasets from Instagram, Flickr, and Twitter, based upon spatial and descriptive statistics. Observed discrepancies in the different distribution of values are found to be related to differences in the spatial practices of their users and the modes of production of the ambient geosocial information. The results indicate that the interpretation of geosocial media capta must consider underlying social processes, but such linkages are currently poorly understood. Therefore, caution should be exercised when aggregating capta from more than one social media platform. Geotagged content can represent various interactions and intentions of its creators. At the same time, the observed differences can give more insights into relationships between material space and the production of digital realities.

KEYWORDS:

• Data
• capta
• geosocial media
• critical GIS

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the four anonymous reviewers for their invaluable help – substantial improvements were made to this paper thanks to their comments. I also would like to express my gratitude to the Editor Dr Nick Chrisman, who was extremely helpful and encouraging during the whole process of paper submission.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Polish National Science Center [Grant Number UMO-2015/17/D/HS4/00272].