Diversity of Methodological Approaches in Social Sciences: Example of the Analysis of Media and Online Information

As with many rapidly evolving areas, research on pluralism in media and information makes use of appropriate interdisciplinary approaches that consider diverse and interdependent factors. These considerations include new economic constraints, journalistic production, networked technologies, online social interactions, new forms of discourse, consumer preferences and practices, and the specificities of information markets. This book presents and assesses several methodological approaches that have proven to be valuable in the study of transformations in media and information. Some are well-known in social sciences (e.g. qualitative analysis by interviews), whereas others come from different disciplines and remain rare and original (e.g. agent-based modeling). By focusing on various dimensions of the media and information pluralism, this book pulls together methods based on network analysis, agent-based modeling and sociosemiotics, as well as qualitative and legal approaches. Each of the five chapters introduces a specific method and its relevance for the analysis of a particular research question.

Table of Contents:
Overview: Media, Information Pluralism and Methodological Choices ix Inna LYUBAREVA and Roger WALDECK Chapter 1. Online Platforms and Analysis of Community Dynamics 1 Cécile BOTHOREL, Laurent BRISSON and Inna LYUBAREVA 1.1. Introduction 1 1.2. Outline: Ulule and YouTube platforms 4 1.3. Exploring the social network and communities on the Ulule platform 6 1.3.1. Platform, data and construction of the social graph 6 1.3.2. Algorithmic approaches for the detection of communities on Ulule 9 1.3.3. Typology of community forms 12 1.4. Exploring the social network and communities on the YouTube platform 18 1.4.1. YouTube: data and construction of interaction graph 18 1.4.2. Construction of evolving communities 21 1.4.3. Community evolution graph 24 1.4.4. Description of the evolutionary forms of communities 27 1.4.5. Forms of community development on YouTube 28 1.5. Conclusion 35 1.6. References 38 Chapter 2. Echo Chambers and Opinion Dynamics: An Agent-Based Modeling Approach 43 Julien MÉSANGEAU and Roger WALDECK 2.1. Introduction 43 2.2. Agent-based modeling 45 2.2.1. ABM modeling principles 45 2.2.2. The modeling cycle and the ODD representation 50 2.3. The sociology of echo chambers 52 2.3.1. A descriptive definition of the echo chamber 53 2.3.2. Reducing the echo chamber phenomenon into simple factors for modeling 55 2.4. Modeling echo chambers 56 2.4.1. The Netlogo model 56 2.4.2. ODD for the echo chamber model 59 2.4.3. A short review on the modeling of opinion dynamics 64 2.4.4. Results of the Netlogo model simulations 68 2.5. Conclusion 78 2.6. References 79 Chapter 3. Diversity of Sources and Pluralism of Journalistic Framing: A Qualitative--Quantitative Sociosemiotic Approach 83 Dario COMPAGNO and Emmanuel MARTY 3.1. The sources: interfaces between writing and reality 83 3.2. Theoretical background 87 3.2.1. Framing theories 87 3.2.2. Toward a typology of sources 89 3.2.3. Citing sources 92 3.2.4. Formalizing hypotheses about discourse 94 3.3. Processing and analysis of the corpus 95 3.3.1. Scope and corpus 95 3.3.2. Processing procedures and analysis 96 3.3.3. Processing and corpus enrichment 97 3.3.4. Analysis and results 99 3.4. Discussion and conclusion 106 3.5. References 110 Chapter 4. Interviews as a Research Method for Understanding Online Information Pluralism 115 Pauline AMIEL and Alexandre JOUX 4.1. Introduction: the tools used by qualitative approaches in journalism studies 115 4.2. Semi-structured interviews to gather the views of stakeholders 117 4.2.1. Interview methods 117 4.2.2. The interview as a means to understanding the dynamics of online information pluralism 120 4.3. Conclusion 130 4.4. References 130 Chapter 5. Media and Information Pluralism Through the Lens of Law 133 Dominique BOUGEROL 5.1. Introduction 133 5.2. Pluralism in European law 136 5.2.1. Council of European law 136 5.2.2. European Union law 139 5.3. Pluralism in French law 147 5.3.1. Pluralism in the constitution 147 5.3.2. Pluralism in legislation 151 5.4. Conclusion 165 5.5. References 167 List of Authors 177 Index 179

About the Author :
Inna Lyubareva is Associate Professor of economics at IMT Atlantique and a member of the LEGO research laboratory in France. Her research interests focus on the role of data-driven technologies in creative industries and media. She develops original approaches using quantitative and qualitative methods at the interface between social science, statistics and computer science. Roger Waldeck is Associate Professor of computational social sciences at IMT Atlantique and a member of the LEGO research laboratory in France. His research interests focus on methodologies for modeling and managing complex social systems, including the use of agent-based modeling as well as serious games for complex decision making. His latest research focuses on organizational resilience.