Theme 4: Quantitative Research

Geography of Twitter Networks

The research paper I chose was published 2012 and comes from the journal Social Networks, with the impact factor of 3.381. The authors Takhteyev, Gruzd and Wellman wrote Geography of Twitter Networks and is a quantitative study of the different ties between different Twitter-users. Further do they investigate how physical proximity, the traveling distance, national boundaries and language all affects the ties within Twitter. 

The authors built a Python script for collecting available public Twitter data during a groundwork period of seven days in their quantitative method. They retrieved 481,288 messages that Twitter made public in their official timeline, the data therefore may not necessarily be random, but it is the data that Twitter chose. During that seven days were  around 100 millions Twitter messages published, so they retrieved approximately 0,5 percent of the published data. After retrieving the information did Takhteyev et al. further try to divide and review all of their quantitative data to be able to make a thorough analysis of their findings. 

After analyzing the data, the authors concluded that Twitter does not live up to their motto of "Transcending distance, connecting everyone with anyone" since most of the messages connects users within the same regional cluster. For the authors to be able to make such a statement is it demanded that a thorough investigation with a large database of users has been made. Since Takhteyev et al. almost had half a million users in their quantitative study can not the results be ignored, the number of participations brings power to their arguments.

Takhteyev et al. used the data that Twitter had chosen to become public, hence it exist a risk that the released messages do not reflect the ties that a "normal" user on Twitter has. Since they only took around 0,5 percent of all messages can that 0,5 percent be the messages that Twitter consider to be the best ones. If that is the case, the conclusions in the end of the text my be irrelevant. To improve the quality of the quantitative method and the quality of the paper would the authors gain much if they discussed this concern closer and argued that they believed in their chosen method.

I do however believe that their method on collecting data, by accessing public materials and sort them in a Python script, was brilliant. They do not only use a smart approach of collecting and sorting information, they successfully gather enormous amount of data.

Physical Activity, Stress, and Self-Reported Upper Respiratory Tract Infection

In this paper, Fondell, Lagerros, Sundberg, Lekander, Bälter, Rothman and Bälter made a quantitative population-based study, where the authors investigated the relationship between physical activity level, perceived stress and incidence of self-reported upper respiratory tract infection (URTI). They conducted a cohort study of 1509 Swedish men and women aged 20-60 years during a period of 4 month in their paper. They used a Web-based questionnaire to get information from the participants on how they lived, their disease status, their physical activity and their perceived stress. After analyzing the data, they concluded that people with moderate to high physical activity had a lower risk of URTI and that highly stressed people might benefit from physical activity.

There are different ways to gather empirical data when conducting a research paper, in this blog have I mainly mentioned the quantitative methods. The big advantage of using this method type is that you can get input from a huge number of persons. If not much research has been done in the area is it perfect to gather what the concerned masses thinks of the subject. Further can it be easy to compare and find solutions when analyzing the conducted data that supports your hypothesis. That is actually something I think Fondell et al. did well in the text, it felt like they had a clear hypothesis before they began their work, and used the empirical data to show that their speculations were correct.

Another well known method of collecting empirical data is the usage of different qualitative methods. If you have a paper and want a deeper and more thorough examination of the subject will quantitative methods, like interviews or focus groups of experts, give the paper more respect in the academic society. The limitations are that the qualitative methods do not include as many participants as the quantitative methods, hence it hard to get an understanding of what the masses believe to be true. 

Research and Theory- Reflections

After yet another week of this course and its content has the work of writing about a subject and the following reflection been a nice little routine in my life. What makes the routine enjoyably is that the subjects have become more and more interesting for every week. During this week was especially the formulation of what theory is and the search for journals been most intriguing. 

Since I first could summarize my thoughts properly in life have I made out theories of various subjects, all from which baby bottle I preferred to academic theories. Despite that, I have never really formulated a definition of what a theory really is, and what a theory is not. To first try and formulate what theory is for me, and after partake in my fellow students definitions has enriched my academic abilities. When I wrote my bachelor thesis 1,5 year ago was not the theory part not 100 per cent clear, hence the quality did not meet my personal requirement. Since I am writing my master thesis after Christmas, this theory definition has helped me a lot.  

Further was it good to participate in seminars, not only because it is a good chance to discuss complicated questions, but also because it is possible to hear about interesting papers from excellent journals. The only types of journals I was familiar with before this course was the big famous ones, which frequently appeared in mass media, like Nature. Hence, I have not worked so much directly with journals, since my collection of empirical data always been focused directly on finding relevant articles, and I have not looked for relevant journals. Since many of the journals are focus on very specific subjects am I going to change my behavior in collecting empirical data in the future. For that purpose is it good that a quality rating, in form of the impact factor, exist. The impact factor makes it easy to get a quick direct response of which quality the journal holds, so no time needs to be wasted. 

I believe that Gregor's text was well written, and he distinguished the different kinds of theory types in a clear way. Luckily for me was the task of choosing what type of theory my text had easy, the author of "Tastes, ties and time: A new social network dataset using Facebook.com" utilized the theory of analyses. For that purpose was the seminar good, to listen to my fellow peers and their motivations of choosing the theory type they did. Next text I will receive a text may it not be as easy to pinpoint what kind of theory being used, so the seminar helped me to get a broader understanding of the different types of theory.

Theme 3: Reserch and Theory

Journals

After going through different journals, did my focus first land at the journal "Environmental Science & Technology (ES&T)" with an impressive impact factor of 5.257. Even though the journal is highly regarded with good articles didn't I felt like it had enough media technology focus. My second big finding was the journal I finally chose; "Social Networks"  (ISSN: 0378-8733) from the Dutch publishing company Elsevier. Social Networks has a trustworthy impact factor of 3.381 and covers research on social network theories.  It aims to be a interdisciplinary journal containing mixed disciplines with the common interest of studies of the empirical structure of social relations. It publishes both theoretical and substantive papers.

Article

The article I chose came from the fourth edition 2008, from the journal Social Networks and is written by Lewis, Kaufman, Gonzalez, Wimmer and Christakis, authors from Harvard University and University of California. The text is called "Tastes, ties and time: A new social network dataset using Facebook.com" and is one of the most cited articles on Social Networks, with 350 citations on the database Google Scholar. The text is divided in two parts, part one is a huge dataset based on manipulations and embellishments of Facebook-users, and part two is analysis and conclusions of the presented dataset. The dataset contains 1640 students, freshmen's from an American university and analyses how they interact and behave on the social media platform Facebook. Lewis et al. believes that the use of social media is highly individual and some users "act out their social life" through Facebook and some don't. They believe that their work has much to offer and can for example be used for education and by scholars as empirical research. In my opinion is it an excellent paper to use as reference when constructing theories because it contains lots of basic facts, but I believe that the paper lacks in conclusions and analysis. Sure, it's an excellent dataset, but what is the consequence of all presented data and why?   

Theory 

Theory is a mental tool that can be used to construct an explanation to everything around us. A theory tries to give an understanding of what's going on and see connections between experiences and predictions. The two most important words that a theory is based on are how and why. How can for example an atom excite and why? To build a theory around excitation is it of importance to get an understanding of atoms, see all information clearly, observe the behaviour and try to see the interconnections. A theory can be used both in academic situations to support a hypothesis or in a sport bar to give an argument more power. 

Gregor's Theory Types

I believe that my selected text for this assignment "Tastes, ties and time: A new social network dataset using Facebook.com" had a clear theory type - the theory of analysing. Considering that the text gave an extensive description on how typical Facebook users behaves, how they are perceived and their characteristics, do I believe that the authors used the theory of analysing. Especially since the paper lacked enough explanations, predictions and instructions to be any other theory type.

It's important to use the theory of analysing if not enough extensive research and analysis has been done in the area before. Since Facebook only been launched for two years when the observations from Lewis et al. started in 2006, hadn't much previous studies on Facebook users been done before. Therefore does the theory type in the text play an important part, and many other authors have benefitted from their work. Although many other authors benefitted from their work, the limitations from this theory becomes clear when the paper clearly lack deep since no real conclusions been made. Even if the paper would have the highest potential ever, would the reader still get the feeling of unsatisfactory, since something felt missing. If future studies are required to get a satisfactory feeling, is it impossible to give the paper the highest rating, regardless of how well it's written. 

Critical Media Studies - Reflections

First of all, I'm glad that we had a seminar this week since I now have something real to reflect on, compared the unfortunate cancelation of last week's seminar. Going in to the seminar room, ready to start reflecting with Dahlberg and my fellow classmates was my expectations mixed. The positive surprise of the meeting was that we didn't only go through the seminar questions and talk about the general quality of the book by Adorno and Horkheimer, but also allowed ourselves to get wild and discuss other relevant questions. Another key insight from the seminar was that the heavy focus wasn't on the terms "enlightenment" and "myth" which I experienced beforehand, but rather "the culture industry" and "mass media / mass deception". That shift in focus was something that pleased me, since the authors' thoughts on those two subjects still is applicable today. Of course has both the culture industry and mass media / mass deception grown a lot and almost changed meaning since 1944, the year the book got published. But I believe that the key elements of the two subjects persist over time, and that's what making the book still relevant today. Now, as well as back then, is it still money and what the masses wants that controls the market. Both the positive effects e.g. information spread and the negative effects e.g. the risk of abusing power are still necessary to take under consideration.  

Our first big discussion in class concerned censorship, a subject I hadn't reflected so much upon in relation to the text by Adorno and Horkheimer. Some in class argued that they thought censorship was a good idea, since there are many damaging and awful things in life. My natural instinct was everything but understanding since I'm very liberal in my way of thinking. Because if we were to censor certain subjects or concepts in life, who should be the almighty persons whom decides what shall pass and what shall be censored? That idea sounds close to dictatorship. If we were to allow everything and not censor one single thin in life does it arise a couple of concerns though. One of the biggest is child pornography, if everything were to be allowed, does that mean that child pornography should be allowed? The problem with that line of thought is that innocent children get hurt in the process, which isn't acceptable. One alternative could be to allow everything and not censor anything except illegal activities, an exception which child pornography falls under. In conclusion, I do believe that nothing should be censured and it's up to each person to decide what to experience and what to avoid, as long as no one gets hurt or used in the process. 

Further was both the subject and literature good this week, Adorno and Horkheimer but up some good questions and much of what they wrote are important questions to discuss. Since they wrote it so long ago do they miss some relevant facts in their conclusions to make it 100 per cent relevant today. One of those facts were that they didn't point out that we consume media differently in different situations, the television is for example not always our first screen and main focus point. 

Theme 2: Critical Media Studies

Enlightenment 

Enlightenment can be described as a whole concept, a higher quality of life. It has been an idea that been discussed throughout history, first being mentioned in the Odyssey. According to Adorno and Horkheimer can enlightenment be described in the widest sense as advanced thoughts, and how enlightenment can, if used correctly free mankind from fear and install them as masters of their own minds. To break down what Adorno and Horkheimer are writing about enlightenment can it be comparable to a lifestyle of intellectuals, always using reason trying to challenge daily inefficient thinking through science. Adorno and Horkheimer tries to simplify enlightenment by drawing parallels in this quote: "Enlightenment stands in the same relationship to things as the dictator to human beings. He knows them to the extent that he can manipulate them. The man of science knows things to the extent that he can make them. Their "in-self" becomes "for him," In their transformation the essence of things is revealed as always the same, a substrate of domination." 

Myth

The concept of mythology, as well as enlightenment was first introduced in the Odyssey, and has after been used frequently throughout history. According to Adorno and Horkheimer is a myth much like enlightenment, something to describe what's happening and how we should experience the world. Compared to enlightenment, that uses scientific methods to perceive whats happening around us, does a myth use the imagination of humans through fiction and fantasy. Further do Adorno and Horkheimer explain how enlightenment and mythology often can coexist in a time span of a person, where the knowledge starts with a myth and develops into enlightenment after research and analysis. 

Old and New Media

Since the text Dialect of Enlightenment was written 1944 is it a bit strange to analyze the concepts new and old media, especially since we students are media technology students. The arguments presented from the authors are despite that applicable today. In my interpretation, Adorno and Horkheimer are referring to mass productions of radio, magazines, television and film when talking about the new media. Whilst traditional quality art that could trigger the audience to think and imagine was what they meant by old media. As appears from my descriptions was the authors much more positive when describing the old media, especially since they for instance argued that new media got the people enslaved by consumption.

Culture Industry 

Adorno and Horkheimer described the culture industry as the balance between old and new media and how culture went from being a highbrow culture to a whole industry. The authors tried to explain how people of their time consumed media, and expressed fears and concerns for the future if people continued to use new media to the extent they did. They believed that new media made its consumers stupid, since all imagination, fantasy, spontaneity and creativity that the old media unleashed during consumption was taken away. According to them could the new culture industry only produce high volume of generalized media that wasn't meaningful nor unique.

Mass Media and Mass Deception

As mentioned in the two previous paragraphs did Adorno and Horkheimer describe their concerns of the changing culture industry and the negative effects mass produced new media has on the society. The most relevant fear, that's most applicable today, is how easy it is to deceive people with mass media. If mass media breaks a new story will 99 of 100 people accept what's being stated directly, without the slightest source criticism or information evaluation. Hence the power mass media possess is huge, and it comes with great responsibility to choose what culture to spread widely to the population. 

An Interesting Concept

What I found most interesting when reading the text is how applicable much of the reasoning made by Adorno and Horkheimer is today. Obviously are there many arguments I don't agree with, especially the ones concerning how bad new media is for the mankind. But the concept of mass deception is a thrilling subject, which many of the world leaders has used in their countries throughout history to get their habitants to believe in a certain cause. The people from North Korea for example, got the impression from mass media that their former president Kim Yong-il invented the hamburger, played a round of golf on a all time low results of 38 strokes and that a double rainbow appeared on the sky the day he was born. Non of those fact were obviously true, but if mass media claims it to be true, will the mass deception be highly effective.  

Theory of science - Reflections

After almost two weeks of studies in the course are my thoughts fragmented. On one hand haven't I learned so much, even though I wrote 800 words about a relatively complicated text, but on the other hand haven't we had a lecture since the introduction. For me personally was it a disappointment that Dahlberg wasn't able to attend the lecture and seminar since my expertise on the subject initially was poor. But after reading the literature from Russel and blogs from my fellow students has my knowledge on the subject grown, which pleases me a lot. 

The general reasoning of Russel and the other philosophers is hard for me to grasp, especially since I'm an engineers. If I see a white table in the middle of the room will my first though be that what I see is the truth, that it's in fact a white table in front of me, and nothing else. I haven't reached the philosophical level of Russel yet in life, but to be honest doesn't that alert me much - a white table for me will always be a white table and I'm fine with that. 

Even though I don't always share Russels view on every question is it interesting to read his arguments. To question everything around us, as Russels does, is in my opinion healthy. How knowledge is created and how it travels between different carriers is important to highlight, since it's such a powerful tool. But if I understood Russels definition of knowledge correctly does it seem extremely hard, if not even impossible to posses knowledge. If that would be a real scenario would he lose me as a listener, since the complexity would take over the subject completely. As appears from above would a complementary seminar or/and lecture hopefully have given me more clarity on the question.

One important fact to take under consideration when reflecting upon Russels words, is who he was and what he has accomplished during his career. Not only the fact that the text is over 100 years old and still applies to todays society, Russel won the Nobel Prize in Literature 1950. In a perfect world shouldn't that fact affect me at all when reading and reflecting his text, but unfortunately my natural critical thinking and objectivity became compromised. I accepted his reasoning and arguments to 100 per cent at first, so I'm glad we had another week to reflect.

As an end to this blog post do I intend to take the spotlight from Russels and his take on knowledge to another smart man who discussed the question. 

- "Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is strictly speaking a real factor in scientific research" - Albert Einstein

Theme 1: Theory of science

Sense data
To be able to describe sense data are there a few ground rules that needs to be established. First of all must we question all “knowledge” we possess, one example of that is the shape of the earth. Even though all research today points towards the fact that the earth is round, how can we really know and accept that if we only lived in one place during whole our lives? Secondly must we accept that people experience what can be perceived as “the same thing” differently. If ten people watch a table and try to estimate it’s colour, will the estimation depend on what previous experience everyone has and what light and angle everyone stands in. The end result can surprisingly be that all those ten people will state ten different colours.  To better handle these problems and kinds of questions Bertrnad Russel introduced the term “Sense data”. Sense data are object whose existence, form, sounds, smells, hardness, roughness, colour and shape are dependent to how we perceive them in our mind and what we believe to be true. 

Proposition & Statement of fact 
Russel argues in his text about how people can make different kinds of expressions and comments depending on their background knowledge. If someone makes a statement regarding a subject that he doesn’t know anything more about than just a description, that statement will probably be pretty stiff and only regarding the actual subject. But if that person knows the subject by heart and has personal experience from it, the statement can be involving and not only include the actual fact, but to include personal opinions and an analysis. Further does Russel talk about propositions and if it’s used right, the implementations behind an effective proposition. A proposition can be used to describe a certain statement, in a way that either clarifies and makes it more understanding, or in a way that confuses a situation to the worse. Hence is the power of the proposition huge, and it’s important to understand what it can express. Russels has defined a proposition containing a description as the following: “Every proposition which we can understand must be composed wholly of constituents with which we are acquainted.”

Definite description 
According to Russel is a definite description a phrase that is singular and determined. And even though people makes assumptions, which first can seem to be obvious, doesn’t those assumptions necessarily have to be true. If we say “Americas president is fond of guns”, is the first assumption that the phrase is towards president Obama, but that might not be the case because the sentence lacks a clear proposition. Without a definite description can this statement mean anyone of Obama and his 43 previous American presidents. This problem can be avoided if the sentence you intend to communicate uses a clear definite description, furthermore will this lead to less misleading interpretation. According to Russel is it possible to exchange common words or names to a definite description during a statement, and as long as this is done properly under consideration of the pitfalls described above can it be an effective tool. It’s important not to lose focus from the exchange word or name during the whole expression, than the intended truth can concur and falsehood can be avoided

Traditional problems in the theory of knowledge
Russel talks about knowledge in general and how we people deal with what we define as knowledge. In a scenario where there is a quiz and the question of which letter the presidents name begins with suppose that one of the participants guesses “O”, because he thought it was O’Neal. The final answer is correct, the name of the president of the USA begins with the letter “O”, but since he thought it was O’Neal and not Obama, can we really say that his answer is connected to knowledge? Is it really knowledge if the reasoning is completely off but the final answer happens to be right? Russel doesn’t think so, what he tries to say is that it’s hard to define knowledge, and that everything isn’t as black and white as it seems at first. Further is it a difference between beliefs and knowledge, mainly because belief is subjective, and according to Russels doesn’t that count as knowledge, since it doesn’t come from an objective thought. But the complexity doesn’t stop there; even knowledge can be divided even further. Russel separates knowledge in two category, which is depends on how that knowledge is gained. If it’s obtained by description, something that you read or heard, or obtained by acquaintance, something that you learned by sense-data.