Abstract

Within the context of social media there are rich and massive qualitative sources of data. The intense volume of data produced by social media comprises a promising resource for studying socially constructed language, interactions and behaviours. Research utilising data from social media offers a useful alternative to traditional research methods, which are often restricted and limited by theoretical and methodological boundaries. Social media data are characterised by a qualitative and unstructured nature of using words, either written or spoken, that naturally leads to using a qualitative approach. With social media, researchers immerse themselves with captured social media data as ‘text’. Such involvement poses challenges to researchers, and in particular to identify and locate appropriate data to be collected and develop an appropriate research design that analyses data to its full potential with valid findings. This study contributes methodologically to qualitative research and extends traditional qualitative methods to include the social media platform of designated hashtag of Twitter. Two cases of Organic and Semi-organic Twitter Data are discussed along with research implications and limitations.

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