Workshop: Interpreting Cross-Platform Digital Networks

Digital networks offer ways of understanding social and cultural phenomena and network analysis have become a common approach in several fields of research, facilitated by a large list of open source data extraction tools. Whenever we click, see, rate, like, post, download or comment, our digital actions became traceable and ready to be interpreted as nodes and edges in a network. For instance the analysis of retweet chain, hashtags, images or pages in the shape of a network. How can digital networks be read across different platforms? Rather than relying on the use of statistics, this course proposes to approach cross-platform digital networks by looking at the platforms’ vernacular, the relational nature of digital data in tandem with the medium (Rogers, 2013),  and the affordances of spacialization algorithms (Venturini et al. 2015; 2017) – namely Force Atlas 2 in Gephi. Addressing this matter, the course will present some guidelines for interpreting cross-platform digital networks by introducing the technique of visual network exploration and conducting practical exercises in network data extraction and analysis.