Applying user analytics to uses and effects of social media in China |
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Authors: | Jonathan J H Zhu Yixin Zhou Lu Guan Lei Hou Anqi Shen Heng Lu |
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Institution: | 1. Department of Media &2. Communication, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong;3. School of Data Science, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kongj.zhu@cityu.edu.hk |
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Abstract: | ABSTRACTWe introduce what user analytics can do in the first half of the paper and then illustrate how to do user analytics in the second half. In the current context, user analytics refers to a set of diverse communication research methods on uses and effects of social media. User analytics has evolved from TV ratings research to online user research. The history illustrates what data sources, measures, and analyses can be used for what types of research questions under user analytics. We discuss the similarities of and differences between user analytics and other methods of computational communication research (e.g. content mining and online experiments), and compare the strengths and weaknesses of user analytics with traditional quantitative methods (e.g. survey). Finally, we present an application study of Chinese bloggers to demonstrate how to employ user analytics methods to study the production, consumption, and effects of user-generated content. |
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Keywords: | User-generated content found data behavioral measures media exposure media effects |
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