CRISP - Online debates around food allergy

On the 10th of June I attended a CRISP research seminar. CRISP stands for critical research in social psychology. Today Richard Hamshaw, a first year PhD student, presented some exploratory data he'd collected on twitter. These tweets were in response to a Telegraph article about 100 chefs who contested new regulations about the labelling of allergy information on their menus.
The data was collected following the #100chefs hashtag, with a lot of tweeters also using the food standards agency hashtag #14allergens. We then engaged in some group analysis and critical discussion of social media research.


Topics discussed included:

- The language and customs of twitter
- Context: how do we know what is meant in a tweet?
- Twitter not being a self-contained data set (often with links to other posts or media)
- Respondents having different agendas to the article. The telegraph article focused upon the legislation side whereas tweeters focused on more personal issues relating to their own allergies
- How do tweeters engage with the conversation? Are they following the hashtag or having their own mini conversations?
- Politics of hashtag use: corporations may not get involved
- Responses and replies not being hashtagged: would they be included in the data set
- Differences between comments on a website (which may be moderated) or on twitter, where speech is more free but confined to 140 characters

Again, social media appears to be an interesting data collection tool but may be confusing to researchers who do not know the conventions and 'rules' of twitter. Using social media in research is still in it's infancy but holds much promise. I wonder how long it will take for a mainstream textbook to emerge for guidance on social media research. And how large the book would have to be!