'Tis the season...of Social Media Conferences
It's that season! No, I don’t mean bathing suit season or in my case sunburn season. It is a time of many exciting conferences on the use, opportunities and challenges of using social media in research. NSMNSS co-ordinators have been doing their best to cover as many of these as possible and we’re finding that research and practitioners across disciplines are having the same conversations about ethics and quality in social media research. Firstly, the Social Research Association (SRA) hosted their third conference on social media, attracting over 80 delegates. The diversity in approaches to and views of social media in research made it clear these platforms provide a great opportunity to breakdown communication barriers between disciplines, fields and sectors. Technicians, programmers, social workers, civil servants, academics, market and applied researchers were all accounted for and kept up animated discussions throughout the day. Some sessions that stood out for me inc...