Social Media, Sociality, and Survey Research

CHAPTER 12

The Future of Social Media, Sociality, and Survey Research

Craig A. Hill and Jill Dever,

RTI International

In Chapter 1, we discussed the troubled waters in which the survey research ship currently sails, and how the approaching hurricane of social media threatens to capsize that venerable vessel. We introduced our sociality hierarchy as a possible port in the storm, suggesting that survey researcher-captains consider making necessary repairs and improvements to the boat and pointing their sails to catch the gale force winds of social media. But, the saltier sea captains among our ranks will decry social media as only a siren song, tempting us to steer our vessels to be dashed against the rocks of the latest fad. This social media whirlpool is a vast, undecipherable mist, one might say, and is not representative of the entire ocean. It is an eddy, ceaselessly circling, with no beginning and no end. It will sink our ship or, at the very least, render it not fit for use.

In this final chapter, we offer some sturdy rope as a lifeline. Here, we lay out our vision of the future, delineated by the three levels of our social hierarchy: broadcast, conversational, and community. We will show how survey researchers can use and embrace these data and methods. But before we do, we would be remiss if we did not address, at least in part, the “representativeness” question: As we consider incorporating social media data into our work going forward, must we abandon the very principles ...