Research Methods: Using Big Data to Study Responses to Collective Trauma
StressPoints
Studying large-scale traumatic events is difficult, given the unpredictability of such events and the resources needed to mobilize in their aftermath to conduct sound research (Jones, Wojcik, Sweeting, & Silver, 2016; Silver, 2004). However, big
social media data on Twitter offer a multitude of ways to study people in stressful contexts that avoid many of the practical and methodological challenges associated with this work.