Qualitative inquiry using social media: A field-tested example

Abstract

Social media is a rapidly expanding set of technology tools that people use to communicate, learn, interact, document, create, and participate in societies worldwide. It is also transforming how social work, among other professions, conducts qualitative research. This study outlines a field-tested method used to analyze data from Reddit, a major social media platform used by 6% of online adults in the United States. It provides a step-by-step account of a Reddit-based qualitative thematic analysis from a social work heuristic lens on the subject of poverty. To our knowledge, no such account of mining social media big data from Reddit for social work practice exists in the literature. Philosophical, ethical, and practical considerations of this method are discussed.

Real-Time Effects of Payer Restrictions on Reproductive Healthcare: A Qualitative Analysis of Cost-Related Barriers and Their Consequences among U.S. Abortion Seekers on Reddit

“…Reddit-based data collection has a number of advantages, including its widespread use, gratis nature, and abundant personal narratives that researchers may miss with more traditional data collection modes such as surveys or interviews [26]. The anonymous nature of Reddit makes it especially well-suited for studies of socially stigmatized experiences [27] such as abortion.…”

Sosyal Hi̇zmeti̇n Sorunlarina Twi̇tter Üzeri̇nden Bakmak: Eği̇ti̇m Ve İsti̇hdam Sorunu

“…Teknolojik gelişimin getirdiği bu değişim ve dönüşüm hayatın tüm alanını etkilediği gibi, sosyal hizmet alanını, müracaatçılarını, uygulamasını ve eğitimini etkilemektedir. Günümüzde teknolojik araçların sosyal hizmet uygulamasına ve eğitimine entegre edilme düzeyi; sosyal hizmet sunumunun ve eğitiminin niteliğinde belirleyici faktörlerden biri haline geldiği, sosyal hizmet ve teknoloji kullanımı arasındaki ilişkinin müracaatçı, uzman, akademisyen ve öğrenciler açısından önemli bir yer tutuğu söylenebilmektedir (Edmunds, Thorpe ve Conole, 2012;NASW, ASWB, CSWE ve CSWA, 2017, Caplan ve Purser, 2019.…”

How Twitter is changing the meaning of scholarly impact and engagement: Implications for qualitative social work research

“…In recent years, scholars from various academic disciplines including social work have taken to Twitter for research purposes (e.g., Caplan and Purser, 2017;O'Connor et al, 2014;Pulman, 2009;Duke et al, 2018;Wilkerson et al, 2014). Twitter has demonstrated to be an effective vehicle for democratizing knowledge by providing a public open access platform for scholarly conversations (Effing et al, 2011).…”

“…Recently, social work researchers have used Twitter to conduct qualitative thematic analysis with social media data (Caplan and Purser, 2017), to amplify marginalized voices in participatory research (Sitter and Curnew, 2016), and creatively engaging marginalized youth (Chan and Holosko, 2017). While some scholars have begun to highlight tensions of using social media in social work research and practice (Boddy and Dominelli, 2017;Burns et al, 2018;Jackson, 2016;Sitter and Curnew, 2016;Turner et al, 2016;Westwood, 2014) there has been little focus from a qualitative perspective.…”