Accepting the challenges of social media research

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new viewpoint series, Monitoring the Media: Spotlight on Social Media Research, by providing an overview of the key challenges in social media research and some current initiatives in addressing them.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper considers publication output from disciplines dealing with social media studies and summarises the key challenges as discussed in the broader research community.

Findings

The paper suggests that challenges originate both from the interdisciplinary nature of social media research and from the ever-changing research landscape. It concludes that, whilst the community is addressing some challenges, others require more attention.

Originality/value

The paper summarises key challenges of social media and will be of interest to researchers in different disciplines, as well as a general audience, wanting to learn about how social media data are used for research.

Citation

Weller, K. (2015), "Accepting the challenges of social media research", Online Information Review, Vol. 39 No. 3, pp. 281-289. https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-03-2015-0069