Using APIs

SICSS, 2022

Christopher Barrie

Introduction

• Why get tweets?

  • Testing API call (again…)

  • We can investigate text beyond keywords

  • We can investigate additional tweet characteristics (metrics, annotations)

  • We can investigate user characteristics…

Getting tweets

• As barometer of public opinion

Getting tweets

• As barometer of public opinion
  • Coverage?

Getting tweets

• As barometer of public opinion
  • Bias?

Getting tweets

• As barometer of public opinion
  • Advantages versus surveys?

    • Real-time (“always on”)

    • More accurately/realistically measured (?)

Sampling tweets

• By keyword

Geolocating tweets

• By user-reported location

Group work

1. Replicate Flores (2017) using get_all_tweets() and another event of interest
2. Formulate code needed to request that data
3. (If access granted) make the API call to get data
4. Consider limitations + design considerations