Advancing Interdisciplinary Work in Computational Communication Science

ABSTRACT

In this paper I discuss the interdisciplinarity of computational communication science. I draw on my own experiences leading a multi-disciplinary lab that broadly studies multimodal communication. Scholars are increasingly using text-as-data methods for social science inquiry, driving a need for more training and professionalization of computational political communication as a sub-field. Text-as-data methods are largely borrowed from other disciplines such as linguistics and computer science, but sustained, institutionalized collaboration between scholars in different departments is still somewhat rare. Using the concept of cohesion as an example, I describe how multiple disciplines interpret and operationalize the same term in different ways. Finally, I provide a list of challenges and lessons learned, including the logistics of running a lab, communicating and publishing across disciplines, implications of authorship sequence, and maintaining your own research profile while collaborating. I conclude by discussing the role of meaningful mentorship and future directions for interdisciplinary text analysis research.

KEYWORDS:

• text analysis
• computational communication science
• interdisciplinary

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Leah Cathryn Windsor

Leah Cathryn Windsor is a Research Assistant Professor in the Institute for Intelligent Systems at The University of Memphis where she directs the Languages Across Cultures lab.