Newspapers, innovation and technology
Posts tagged thesis
Research challenges
Apr 19th
I haven’t posted in a while – I’ve been busy trying to figure out ways to conqueror my insane amount of data (as well as quite possibly repeatedly banging my head off my desk). For my discourse analysis on the future of newspapers, I was going to use the tweets of the top media experts including the first level links that they tweeted (including comments where available).
Sounds big but manageable, maybe!? Well … the original data set is over 18,000 tweets from 25 people over a two month span. I always knew I was going to narrow that down to the top 20 experts but that still leaves me with 16,000-odd tweets. After having several mini-strokes and maybe a few drinks I went to see one of my committee members who quite rightly pointed out that it just wasn’t doable by hand. He smiled and knowingly said “Get Nvivo”.
Nvivo is a qualitative data analysis software that is apparently going to make my life easier but thus far I’ve found out that it won’t run on my mac, costs $200 and is only installed on four machines on the entire University of Ottawa campus. Nonetheless, I’ve recalled all the books from the library on the program and have set out to try and figure out how to parse my data into the program. Thus far I have had no luck. I am desperately hoping to find someone who actually knows how to use the program!
So yeah, if you know Nvivo and want my undying love (or some reasonable facsimile) please let me know!
*drum roll please* Top 20 Twitter commentators on the future of the news
Feb 5th
So I’ve actually put up my list of the top 30 because I remain undecided about whether or not I will include Twitter accounts that are either aggregators or group accounts. It is to be a discourse analysis so I’m still working out whether these accounts play an important role in the discussion on the future of the news. They do and they don’t. In terms of sharing information they are invaluable but at the same they don’t necessarily join in the conversation. What do you think?
I’m also hoping that if you think anyone is missing from my list please let me know. I’ve averaged each user’s Klout and Tweetlevel scores. The last column is whether or not the user discusses the future of the news every day or not, if they do not regularly talk about it, I will have to pull them off my list = which is unfortunate because it means that someone like @cshirky will not be on the list. Obviously I will still use his stuff in my thesis but just not as part of my data set.
Please feel free to let me know what you think so far!
Thanks.
***edit: I’m having problems putting the excel table into html so I’ve attached it as a pdf but the names, without the data, are:
@scobleizer (doesn’t talk about media’s future daily so not usable)
@davewiner
@jayrosen_nyu
@jeffjarvis
@mathewi
@cheeky_geeky
@cshirky (doesn’t talk about media’s future daily so not usable)
@journalismnews
@digiphile
@ajkeen
@dangillmor
@jdlasica
@poynter
@themediaisdying
@mediatwit
@journalistics
@yelvington
@knightfdn
@harrisj (doesn’t talk about media’s future daily so can’t use)
@iwantmedia
@stevebuttry
@kirklapointe
@NYT_JenPreston
@thefutureofnews
@digidave
@hermida
@david_a_eaves
@steveouting
@bxmx (doesn’t talk about media’s future daily so can’t use)
@CodyBrown
@howardweaver