Reddit in communication research: current status, future directions and best practices

ABSTRACT

This study offers a prescriptive review of the current status of Reddit in communication research. We analyze the characteristics of studies utilizing Reddit in the field of communication, examine the functions of Reddit within those studies, and identify future directions emerging from the analysis. Findings describe characteristics (e.g. methodologies, publication outlets, disciplinary affiliations, and use of theory) of communication studies utilizing Reddit. Findings also indicate three functions of Reddit in communication research and four future directions, one of which is the increased uptake of automated data sampling techniques. Thus, we supply a model script for scraping Reddit data using R. The discussion includes six best practices which assist scholars of communication seeking to utilize Reddit within their own research programs.

KEYWORDS:

• Reddit
• research methods
• internet
• communication ethics

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr. Marleah Dean (Associate Professor) and Dr. Steven R. Wilson (Professor) of the University of South Florida for their comments on earlier versions of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).