Investigating social media (or using it as a research method) is not that easy. You can encounter various obstacles. We conducted research in which, using various case studies, we investigated the role social media play in the development of incidents and how social unrest arises and is influenced by this.
We conducted the research into the influence of social media on situations of social unrest on behalf of the research program Police & Science. The report of this research (PDF) was published on June 12, 2013.
This article does not, however, discuss the conclusions of this report,latvia phone number list but the (im)possibilities of social media as a subject of research. Because during this research and several other studies, we have gained a lot of experience with it, which we would like to share.
first-aid-kit-62643The Internet offers more and more possibilities for interactive data collection. Many respondents can be reached quickly and relatively easily via the web, and social media reinforce this. That is great, but not everyone uses the internet. When all respondents in a study are approached via the internet (including social media), this has consequences for the population to which generalisation can be made.