Description
Provides the knowledge and tools needed for the future of survey research
The survey research discipline faces unprecedented challenges, such as falling response rates, inadequate sampling frames, and antiquated approaches and tools. Addressing this changing landscape, Social Media, Sociality, and Survey Research introduces readers to a multitude of new techniques in data collection in one of the fastest developing areas of survey research.
The book is organized around the central idea of a "sociality hierarchy" in social media interactions, comprised of three levels: broadcast, conversational, and community based. Social Media, Sociality, and Survey Research offers balanced coverage of the theory and practice of traditional survey research, while providing a conceptual framework for the opportunities social media platforms allow. Demonstrating varying perspectives and approaches to working with social media, the book features:
- New ways to approach data collection using platforms such as Facebook and Twitter
- Alternate methods for reaching out to interview subjects
- Design features that encourage participation with engaging, interactive surveys
Social Media, Sociality, and Survey Research is an important resource for survey researchers, market researchers, and practitioners who collect and analyze data in order to identify trends and draw reliable conclusions in the areas of business, sociology, psychology, and population studies. The book is also a useful text for upper-undergraduate and graduate-level courses on survey methodology and market research.
Table of Contents
List of Figures xiii
List of Tables xvii
Contributors xix
Preface xxi
Acknowledgments xxv
1. Social Media, Sociality, and Survey Research 1
Joe Murphy, Craig A. Hill, and Elizabeth Dean
What Is Social Media? 2
Social Media Origins 6
Social Networking Sites and Platforms 6
Blogs 8
Twitter 8
Facebook 9
LinkedIn 9
Second Life 9
Other Social Networking Platforms and Functionalities 10
Why Should Survey Researchers Be Interested in Social Media? 11
The Current State of Survey Research 11
Falling Response Rates 11
Frame Coverage Errors 13
The Coming Age of Ubiquity 14
Public vs. Private Data 17
Social Media Interaction: Next Wave (or Subwave)? 18
Adding Social Media to the Survey Research Toolbox 21
Toward Using the Concept of Sociality in Survey Research of the Future 22
How Can Survey Researchers Use Social Media Data? 26
References 28
2. Sentiment Analysis: Providing Categorical Insight into Unstructured Textual Data 35
Carol Haney
Describing Emotional or Subjective Feeling in Textual Data 36
Definition of Machine-Augmented Sentiment Analysis 37
How Sentiment Analysis Is Used with Text Data 38
Different Ways of Representing Sentiment 42
Ordinal Scales 42
Nominal Emotion Classification 43
Neutral Sentiment 44
Techniques for Determining Sentiment 44
Precursors to Analysis 44
Harvesting 46
Structure and Understand 50
Approaches to Determining Sentiment 51
Machine-Coded Sentiment Analysis 51
Human-Coded Sentiment Analysis 53
Sentiment Analysis as a Subset of Text Analytics 54
Current Limitations of Sentiment Analysis 57
References 59
3. Can Tweets Replace Polls? A U.S. Health-Care Reform Case Study 61
Annice Kim, Joe Murphy, Ashley Richards, Heather Hansen, Rebecca Powell, and Carol Haney
Methods 64
Twitter Data 64
Public Opinion About Health-Care Reform: Kaiser Health Tracking Poll 70
Analysis 70
Results 71
RQ1: To What Extent Was Health-Care Reform Discussed on Twitter? 71
RQ2: What Is the Distribution of Sentiment of Health-Care Reform Tweets? 74
RQ3. Do Trends in the Sentiment of Tweets About Health-Care Reform Correlate with Observed Trends
in Public Opinion About Health-Care Reform from Nationally Representative Probability-Based Surveys? 75
KFF Trends 75
Comparison 77
RQ4. What Are the Key Topics Discussed in Health-Care Reform Tweets? 78
Discussion 80
Conclusions 84
References 85
4. The Facebook Platform and the Future of Social Research 87
Adam Sage
The Changing Web: From Searchable to Social 88
Digital and Digitized Data 93
The Case for Facebook Integration 94
Data and the Graph API 97
Facebook Applications 99
Social Plugins 103
The Future, Mobile Apps, and the Ever Increasing Complexity of the Social Graph 104
References 104
5. Virtual Cognitive Interviewing Using Skype and Second Life 107
Elizabeth Dean, Brian Head, and Jodi Swicegood
Brief Background on Cognitive Interviews 108
Cognitive Interviewing Current Practice 109
Practitioners’ Techniques 109
Cognitive Interviews in Practice: Present and Future 112
Second Life for Survey Research 114
Methods 115
Recruitment 115
Screening 117
Incentive 118
Think-Aloud and Probes 118
Results 118
Overall Participant Characteristics 118
Feasibility of Pilot Study 120
Quality of Cognitive Interviews by Mode 121
Participant Disengagement 122
Nonverbal Cues 125
Total Problems 126
Type and Severity of Problems 126
Conclusions 127
Discussion and Future Research 128
References 129
6. Second Life as a Survey Lab: Exploring the Randomized Response Technique in a Virtual Setting 133
Ashley Richards and Elizabeth Dean
Overview of Second Life 134
Research in Second Life 134
The Randomized Response Technique 136
Study Design 137
Results 142
Discussion 144
References 146
7. Decisions, Observations, and Considerations for Developing a Mobile Survey App and Panel 149
David Roe, Yuying Zhang, and Michael Keating
Impact of the Evolution of Technology on Data Collection 150
Telephone Interviewing 151
Web Interviewing 151
Cell Phones 152
Smartphones 153
Building an App 156
Goals 157
Preliminary Findings 168
Recruitment 170
Respondent Communication 170
Survey Topics 172
Respondent Impressions on Incentives, Survey Length, and Frequency 175
Next Steps 175
References 176
8. Crowdsourcing: A Flexible Method for Innovation, Data Collection, and Analysis in Social Science Research 179
Michael Keating, Bryan Rhodes, and Ashley Richards
What Is Crowdsourcing? 180
Open Innovation 181
Cisco Systems I-Prize Challenge 182
RTI International’s 2012 Research Challenge 183
Options for Hosting Your Own Challenges 185
Legal Considerations 186
Data Collection 187
Crowdsourcing Survey Response on Mechanical Turk 187
Targeted Data Collection 190
Cost Considerations 194
MyHeartMap Challenge 195
Analysis by Crowdsourcing 197
Sentiment Analysis 197
Challenge-Based Data Analysis 198
Conclusion 199
References 200
9. Collecting Diary Data on Twitter 203
Ashley Richards, Elizabeth Dean, and Sarah Cook
Background 204
Twitter 204
Diaries 204
Methods 206
Recruitment 208
Data Collection 210
Results 211
Nonresponse 212
Data Quality 216
Incentive Preference 221
Participant Feedback 222
Discussion 227
References 229
10. Recruiting Participants with Chronic Conditions in Second Life 231
Saira N. Haque and Jodi Swicegood
Background 233
Methods 234
Instrument Development 235
Recruitment Methods 235
Survey Administration 244
Results 244
Discussion 247
Communities 247
Using Existing Second Life Resources 248
Other Effective Methods 249
The Importance of the Recruitment Avatar 249
Conclusion 250
References 251
11. Gamification of Market Research 253
Jon Puleston
Significance of Gamification in Market Research 254
Apply Gamification to Market Research 256
Gamification in Survey Design 259
Apply Rules to Question Design 265
Add the Competitive Element 269
Add Reward Mechanics 271
Give Feedback 272
Make Tasks More Involving 273
Ensure the Challenge Can Be Accomplished 275
How to Design Questions To Be More Game-Like 275
Common Questions About Gamification 284
Who Responds to Gamification? 284
What Impact Does Gamification Have on the Data? 285
How Do These Techniques Work in Different Cultures? 289
Conclusions 291
References 292
12. The Future of Social Media, Sociality, and Survey Research 295
Craig A. Hill and Jill Dever
Statistical Challenges with Social Media Data 296
Quality and Representativeness 297
Sampling from Social Media Sources 298
Population Estimation from Social Media Data 303
Future Opportunities 306
What Does the Future Hold? 307
Sociality Hierarchy Level 1: Broadcast 308
Sociality Hierarchy Level 2: Conversation 311
Sociality Hierarchy Level 3: Community 312
Final Thoughts 314
References 315
Index 319
