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Innovations in Online Research

A regional, academic network to unite postgraduate researchers across the North West of England interested in online research methods

Launch Event for the Innovations in Online Research Network

09 May 2019

9:30-4:45

Funding provided by the ESRC

Launch Event

University of Manchester

09 May 2019

09:30 am

This workshop seeks to bring together postgraduate researchers from various disciplines across the social sciences. Acting as the launch of the "Innovations in Online Research" network, this PGR-led event seeks to stimulate an important debate on the usage of online methods for social science research, covering the following aims:

Share ways of using online research to stimulate an important debate on developing innovative ways that tackle key research challenges
Critically engage with the methodological and ethical issues of online research
Establish a postgraduate online research network for more sustained collaboration

Through addressing these goals, a range of themes will be nuanced, including that which pertains to the future of research in the digital age; the ethics of online research and innovations in how social media data can be leveraged.

The day will be structured as follows:

Registration and Welcome (09:30-10:00)
Roundtable - Using online tools in research (10:00-11:30)

- A small panel will give informal presentations of their research and how it pertains to innovations in online research methods.
- This is aimed at stimulating discussions on developing innovative ways that tackle key research challenges.
Coffee Break (11:30-11:45)
Themed Workshop Session (11:45-13:15)

- Attendees will be divided into theme-based groups which will be chaired by academic staff and doctoral researchers with knowledge/expertise in each themed areas.
- These include:
- Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, etc.
- The Future of Online Research
- Ethics and Representation
Lunch Break (13:15-14:00)
Keynote Talk by Dr Jamie Hakim (14:00-15:30)

- Keynote title: "Male Bodies in Digital Culture:
Men Using Digital Media to Negotiate Neoliberalism
in the post-2008 conjuncture".
- Dr. Jamie Hakim is a lecturer at UAE who is situated
in the field of media studies. His current research
specialises in the male body in digital culture.
Mini-poster and Networking Session (15:45-16:45)

- Attendees take part in a mini-poster session, where they display an A3 poster and discuss their current research with others.

The Conference

About the Network

What is Innovations in Online Research?

The network was initiated by a cohort of doctoral researchers across Universities belonging to the North West Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership in response to the rise of online research methods. As society has entered the digital age, there has been an increase in how citizens engage with all things digital. Through the rise of social media and the increasing digitisation of all aspects of society, new forms of data are emerging which proffer novel opportunities to the social scientist. However, the ever-changing digital landscape and the increasingly complex forms of data being generated presents new challenges for social researchers that warrants greater collaboration, innovation and interdisciplinary discussions.

In light of this backdrop, the Innovations in Online Research network aims to bring together postgraduate researchers across the North-West of England to stimulate debates on the contemporary issues faced by researchers leveraging online research methods. Some of the issues that the network are interested in are as follows:

Technical, ethical, epistemological and ontological challenges relating to social media data.
Methodological concerns when facing "Big Data".
Qualitative and ethnographic methods for studying social media use.
Effectively constructing and distributing online questionnaires.
The usage of latent machine learning classification techniques for online data.

Through this network, participants will be able to engage in a form of knowledge-exchange and debate that nuances the unique advantages and challenges posed by online research.

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