The CNMS (Marburg University) and Prof. Dr. Fuess hosted 12 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) for an in-depth workshop on the analysis of data gathered through social media platforms.

 

The workshop, held from August 10 – 14, was taught by Ivo Furman (lecturer at Istanbul Bilgi University). It was a unique opportunity for all ESRs within the Mediating Islam in the Digital Age (MIDA) project. It especially allowed those ESRs working mainly with social media data to gain a thorough understanding of new digital and computational methodologies and their application.

 

Software and methodologies that were discussed and engaged with for data collection included web scraping, YouTube data tools, instaloader and the Twitter Capture and Analysis Tool (TCAT). Next, a stark focus was put on social network analysis (SNE) that is used mainly for understanding patterns presented through the analysis of social media data, and lastly, the visualization of data was discussed and executed primarily through the Software Gephi.

 

Finally, after having discussed the pitfalls and limitations of computation methods, the workshop was concluded with a group project, in which the ESRs gathered data from social media, graphed and further analyzed the data independently. The results obtained were then presented at the CNMS.

 

This intensive training was nicely balanced with a scenic tour through historic Marburg by Prof. Fuess. The tour included a visit to Elisabeth church, the historic center, the Marburg castle, and finally a communal dinner in one of Marburg’s many authentic restaurants in the old city.