Approaching Completeness: Capturing a Hashtagged Twitter Conversation and Its Follow-On Conversation. (April 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lorentzen, David Gunnarsson; Nolin, Jan
• Is Part Of: Social science computer review. Volume 35:Number 2(2017:Apr.)
• Page Start: 277
• Page End: 286
• Publication Date: 2017-04
• Subjects: Twitter -- Twitter API -- methodology -- sampling -- conversations -- hashtags -- selection bias; Social sciences -- Data processing -- Periodicals; Computers -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Microcomputers -- Periodicals; Sciences sociales -- Informatique -- Périodiques; Micro-ordinateurs -- Périodiques; 300.285
• DOI: 10.1177/0894439315607018
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0894-4393

Abstract

The aim of this article is to engage with problems of sampling and completeness currently discussed within data science through the specific example of conversations in Twitter. Some of the difficulties involved in Twitter concern restrictions laid out by platform owners, restrictions that make it difficult for researchers to collect complete conversations. A contribution is made through the development of a method for collecting and analyzing follow-on conversations around a set of hashtags. This was made possible through the simultaneous tracking of a set of hashtags and prominent participants in the conversation. The full set of tweets was compared to the subset of tweets including either of the selected hashtags. Including follow-on conversation increased the set of tweets by 56% and the set of tweeting users by 17%. It is also shown that different network analysis techniques and filtering options give different results with regard to prominent users.