A new book written by DIGSUM researchers Moa Eriksson Krutrök and Simon Lindgren, titled “Researching Digital Media and Society”, was published last week. The book results from several years of research, workshops, and PhD courses at our centre, aimed at developing social science research methods for studying digital media and its societal implications. Lindgren expressed his excitement about the book: “Developing and adapting these methods has been a collaborative journey, both with us at DIGSUM, and in the much wider community of like-minded scholars, nationally and internationally. We are excited to now have been able to package it all in a fun book”. One of the target groups is undergraduate students who increasingly ask for practical insights and guidance when analyzing digital media and its societal impacts in their papers and theses. Eriksson Krutrök says, “I’m so happy to see this in print. This is the book I wish I would have had starting out.”
From the publisher:
We live in an increasingly digitised society. In an age of digital identities, rapid developments in Artificial Intelligence and ever more sophisticated software available, our methods for researching digital media must be flexible and adaptable. This book will help you to understand why researchers in this field choose and use particular research methods, equipping you to put these methods into practice across the whole range of undergraduate media courses. This book shows you how research methods can help us to make sense of the myriad of information we encounter online every day, from Tiktok influencers to viral Twitter posts. Complete with case studies in each chapter, the book covers both well-established methods, such as network analysis, and cutting-edge ones, such as interface analysis. It provides a crucial foundation for research in digital media, demonstrating the scope and potential of these tools. The book adopts an easy-to-navigate structure, taking you through specific methods in a systematic way. It shows you examples of classic uses of each method, and directs you towards further resources after each chapter.
Preview the book [here].