Digital discussions: how big data informs political communication

Big data in political communication / Natalie Jomini Stroud & Shannon Mcgregor -- Normalizing digital trace data / Andreas Jungherr -- Everything old is new again: big data and methodological transparency / Leticia Bode -- Ignorance or uncertainty: how the "black box" dilemma in big data research may "misinform" political communication / Lei Guo -- Why don't tweets consistently track elections? lessons from linking twitter and survey data streams / Josh Pasek and Jake Dailey -- Inferring individual-level characteristics from digital trace data: issues and recommendations / Deen Freelon -- The technical, the personal, and the political: understanding journalists and news users' engagement in the New York Times comments section / Ashley muddiman -- Is Yik Yak a platform for political communication? exploring college students: communication on an emergent social media platform / Chris Vargo and Toby Hopp -- Data-driven campaigning / Jesse Baldwin-Philippi -- "Little Marco," "lyin' Ted," "crooked Hillary," and the "biased" media: how Trump used Twitter to attack and organize / Ayellet Pelled, Josephine Lukito, Fred Boehm, Janghwan Yang, and Dhavan Shah.

"Big data raise major research possibilities for political communication scholars interested in how citizens, elites, and journalists interact. With the availability of social media data, academics can observe, on a large scale, how people talk about politics. The opportunity to study political discussions also is available to media organizations and political elites; examining how they make use of big data represents another fruitful scholarly trajectory. The scholars involved in Digital Discussions represent forward thinkers who aim to inform the study of political communication by analyzing the behavior of and messages left by citizens, elites, and journalists in digital spaces. Using a variety of methodological approaches and bringing diverse theoretical perspectives, this group sheds light on how big data can inform political communication research. It is critical reading for those studying and working in communication studies with a focus on big data"--