Week 9 - Workflow

You have learned a lot over the past 9 weeks. You have taken data from a single tool - TCAT. With that data you have carried out

• Basic content analysis
• Network analysis
• Simple discourse analysis
• Creating visualisations

That is quite a lot!

How can we bring these elements together?

This week we consider them as parts of a workflow. Research often consists of:

• Choosing a topic. Decide what is an interesting thing to investigate.
• Selecting a specific question. This is important! You need a question you can answer with data. Too vague a question may not be answerable. Too specific a question might not be answerable with your data. Consider what an answer to your question would be. Then work through the other research stages and see if you can produce that type of answer. The devil is in the detail.
• Identifying data. Use suitable data. Your data needs to answer your question. Is the data from the right area? Is there enough data? Is Twitter a suitable platform for a particular question.
• Analysing the data. Different analysis tell you different things about some data. Content analysis may reveal the underlying meaning of tweets. Network analysis such as co-hashtag networks could show subgroups of hashtags which occur together. Natural language processing may identify organisation or people present in your dataset. You need to choose an appropiate analysis for answering your question. Network analysis probably will not reveal the common interpretive theme which underpin you data.
• Interpreting your analysis. What does it all mean? A network, selection of possible actors or themes in data need to interpreted. You need ot understand the context of your research project and this will often require understanding your topic. For example, one will find it challenging to understand Brexit tweets without reading about and understanding (a) the brexit issue and (b) the different groups involved.
• Answering your question. The goal of your research is to answer the question. What did you find out? How did you find it out? How does it answer your question?
• Speculating about what your answer means. An interesting part of reserach. You have answered your question. What might this answer mean for the general debate? Let us take a hypothetical example. Finding out conservative elites manipulate the masses using memes to support Trump could inform the general issue of political discourse in America.

Notice that the above are not numbered. You may move from point to point out of order. For instance, you may identify your data before selecting your question. That is part of research. We create narratives and use data to explore an issue. In this lab you will consider the narrative you are creating with your data and research question.

In this lab work within your assignment groups or, if no one from your group is around, on your own. Focus on your narrative. Think about your presentation. Consider the way you will present your findings.

The below tasks are created to encourage you to consider your assigment. You will be delivering a presentation. You need to understand your narrative and be able to take a niave audience along with you. They need to understand your specific question, how you selected and analysed your data, what your analysis tells you and how it directly addresses your question. It sounds like a lot. In this lab James will help you and you should meet with your assignment group member outside this session to discuss this lab and how you can clearly express your narrative.

You are welcome to use any word processor program you like (email, onenote, word, etc.) write down answers to the below tasks.

Task 1 - Setting the scene

Answering the following about your assignment. Please write a maximum of 3 sentances for each answer.

1. Describe your topic
2. What specific aspect are you interested in?
3. Detail the data you chose (i.e., the number of tweets and terms used)
4. Why did you choose this data?

Task 2 - Asking and answering

Answering the following about your assignment. Please write a maximum of 3 sentances for each answer.

1. What is your question?
2. Rewrite the question as a single sentance. Be specific. What exactly are you trying to find out? This is challenging and is intended to focus you. It might not be possible.
3. How did you answer your question?
4. Based on your data and analysis, what is your answer?

Group discussion

Here we consider as a group the challenges of answering our question. We also consider other issues that have been raised by the above.

BREAK

Task 3 - Communicating your answer

We are going to carry out a bit of roleplay. Issues in your narrative can be identified by trying to deliver your narrative to someone else.

Each assignment group should pair up with another group (or individual from a group). Go and sit with them. You are going to take it in turns to go through your research with them. Let us call the groups A and B. Please do the following:

1. Group A is the presenter. Group B is the audience. Group B, take notes and be prepared to give feedback. Group A, describe your workflow and findings in simple terms. Include:

• Question
• Data
• Analysis
• Results
• Interpretation

• After Group A is finished then give them feedback. Talk about what was unclear. Try to understand exactly what Group A has done.
• Reverse roles. Group B is the presenter and group A is the audience.

After both groups have presented their narrative then critically consider what can be improved. Was the point clear? Consider what could improve the workflow and help with the narrative?

Task 4 - Reflections

This lab was difficult. You should have critically considered your assignment. It is often difficult to present and think carefully about your work. However, taking a critical eye and refining your narrative will improve your project.

In your assignment groups, write 5 things you will do next in response to this lab.

You should also:

1. Have a specific question
2. Answer the question. Have a clear answer.
3. Understand what your answer might mean. Identify what your answer teaches all of us about your topic.

Remember that you are very welcome to come along and see James during his office hours and send him email. You are also very welcome to speak to the other embers of staff during their office hours and email them. Do ask any questions you have.