Research Seminar - Technologies for the Analysis of Communication

Technologies for the Analysis of Communication

Date: 11 August, 2017
Time: 3pm-4pm
Location: Room 601, Michie Building (#9)

Abstract:

The Communication Analytics Lab is a new formation within the School of Communication and Arts. The Lab brings together researchers interested in the development and application of computational approaches for the study of communication, and in critically exploring the use of technology in society, specifically with regard to communication and journalism. The Lab is currently supported by the UQ Node of the Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, and the HASS Visual Politics Program, with projects ranging from social media analytics, assistive language technologies for people with dementia and their carers, to critical explorations of the increasing role that algorithms are playing in society. This talk will begin by briefly highlighting the various research projects being conducted in these areas by members of the Lab. The talk will then shift to focus on a new software toolkit for social media research, Social Reaper, which has been designed by the Lab for non-technical experts to harvest data from various popular social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr, and more. Participants are encouraged to bring a laptop computer if they can as there will be an opportunity to participate in a live demo of the software during this session.

Presenter:

Dr Daniel Angus' research focuses on the development of visualization and analysis methods for communication data, with a specific focus on conversation data. Dr. Angus and colleagues pioneered the development of the Discursis computer-based visual text analytic tool, used to analyse various forms of communication. Discursis has been used to analyse conversations, web forums, training scenarios, among other large and complex datasets, and is featured in numerous journal articles.