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Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter Oldenbourg September 30, 2014

Twitter data: What do they represent?

  • Axel Bruns

    Axel Bruns is an ARC Future Fellow and Professor in the Creative Industries Faculty at Queensland University of Technology, and a Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (http://cci.edu.au/). He is the author of Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond (2008) and Gatewatching (2005), and a co-editor of Twitter and Society (2013). For more details on his current social media research, see http://mappingonlinepublics.net/.

    ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

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    and Stefan Stieglitz

    Stefan Stieglitz is an Assistant Professor at Department of Information Systems at the University of Münster in Germany. He is founder and academic director of the `Competence Center Connected Organization'. His research focuses on economic, social, and technological aspects of collaboration software and has been published in reputable international journals such as Journal of Management Information Systems, Social Network Analysis and Mining, MIS Quarterly Executive, and International Journal of Social Research Methodology.

    Department of Information Systems, University of Münster, Germany

Abstract

Scholarly research into the uses of social media has become a major area of growth in recent years, as the adoption of social media for public communication itself has continued apace. While social media platforms provide ready avenues for data access through their Application Programming interfaces, it is increasingly important to think through exactly what these data represent, and what conclusions about the role of social media in society the research which is based on such data therefore enables. This article explores these issues especially for one of the currently leading social media platforms: Twitter.

About the authors

Axel Bruns

Axel Bruns is an ARC Future Fellow and Professor in the Creative Industries Faculty at Queensland University of Technology, and a Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (http://cci.edu.au/). He is the author of Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond (2008) and Gatewatching (2005), and a co-editor of Twitter and Society (2013). For more details on his current social media research, see http://mappingonlinepublics.net/.

ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

Stefan Stieglitz

Stefan Stieglitz is an Assistant Professor at Department of Information Systems at the University of Münster in Germany. He is founder and academic director of the `Competence Center Connected Organization'. His research focuses on economic, social, and technological aspects of collaboration software and has been published in reputable international journals such as Journal of Management Information Systems, Social Network Analysis and Mining, MIS Quarterly Executive, and International Journal of Social Research Methodology.

Department of Information Systems, University of Münster, Germany

Received: 2014-4-24
Accepted: 2014-8-18
Published Online: 2014-9-30
Published in Print: 2014-10-28

©2014 Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston

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