An introduction to digital media research methods: how to research and the implications of new media data

ABSTRACT

Digital methods have previously been described as ‘a term that seeks to capture a recent development in Internet-related research, summarized as approaches to the web as data set’. Using this as a starting point, this paper positions digital media methods as a methodological approach that incorporates internet-based data, while also including other communicative and social media platforms such as Instagram, Vine, Twitter, giffy, Periscope, and Facebook amongst others. Digital media methods also extends to database research, data generated by sensors, drones and autonomous automobiles. Contemporary research engaging digital media methods is built upon the ‘computational turn’ where ‘computational approaches is increasingly reflected across a number of disciplines, including the arts, humanities and social sciences, which use technologies to shift the critical ground of their concepts and theories’. As media and communication scholars, our ‘research is increasingly being mediated through digital technology… affecting both the epistemologies and ontologies that underlie a research program’. This paper highlights three significant points of departure for digital media methods in the media and communication discipline: the increasing need for typologies and ontologies in social media research; the significance of mapping public issues; and the difficulties researchers face as text-based communication shifts to visually oriented platforms.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital media methods
• scraping
• big data
• computational turn
• ANZCA

Acknowledgements

Many thanks go to Dr Diana Bossio for instigating the initial Digging the Data ANZCA preconference held at the University of Sydney as part of the Media@Sydney seminar series, and to the ANZCA executive for the support before and during the event itself. I also would like to thank Dr Donald Matheson and his New Zealand colleagues for their support during the Queenstown leg of the seminars. I would also like to extend a big thank you to our local Media@Sydney people who seamlessly accommodated the Digging the Data event as part of their own, particularly Drs Benedetta Brevini and César Albarrán Torres for their organising capacity. I must also thank all the presenters at the conferences, and those authors that committed to contributing their work in this special issue. Finally, I would like to extend a sincere thank you to Professor Gerard Goggin who has inspired and mentored me through this entire process from conceptualisation through to publication. Without you all, this special issue would not have been possible.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jonathon Hutchinson

Jonathon Hutchinson (Ph.D. 2013, ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation, Queensland University of Technology) is a lecturer in Online Media and Social Media Communication at the University of Sydney. He has recently completed his thesis investigating the role of user-generated content within the ABC. During this time, he trained as an ethnographer in both online and offline environments, and is also skilled at organisational ethnography. Hutchinson has been published in Mobile Media & Communication, the Australian Journal of Communication, Media International Australia, M/C Journal and Platform, and is the 2013 winner of the Australian and New Zealand Communications Association’s Grant Noble Prize for Best Postgraduate Student Paper Award.