A systematic literature review of how and whether social media data can complement traditional survey data to study public opinion

Maud Reveilhac,Stephanie Steinmetz,Davide Morselli

doi:10.1007/s11042-022-12101-0

Maud Reveilhac, Stephanie Steinmetz + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-022-12101-0

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Abstract

In this article, we review existing research on the complementarity of social media data and survey data for the study of public opinion. We start by situating our review in the extensive literature (N = 187) about the uses, challenges, and frameworks related to the use of social media for studying public opinion. Based on 187 relevant articles (141 empirical and 46 theoretical) - we identify within the 141 empircal ones six main research approaches concerning the complementarity of both data sources. Results show that the biggest share of the research has focused on how social media can be used to confirm survey findings, especially for election predictions. The main contribution of our review is to detail and classify other growing complementarity approaches, such as comparing both data sources on a given phenomenon, using survey measures as a proxy in social media research, enriching surveys with SMD, recruiting individuals on social media to conduct a second survey phase, and generating new insight on “old” or “under-investigated” topics or theories using SMD. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages associated with each of these approaches in relation to four main research purposes, namely the improvement of validity, sustainability, reliability, and interpretability. We conclude by discussing some limitations of our study and highlighting future paths for research.

Highlights

This paper provides a systematic literature review of how social media data (SMD) and traditional survey data have been used complementarily to study public opinion (PO) over the last decade
The aim of this article was to provide a review of published papers on the complementarity of SMD and survey data for PO research
Research attention has only recently turned to SMD as a source of expression of PO and of its measurement

Summary

Introduction

This paper provides a systematic literature review of how social media data (SMD) and traditional survey data have been used complementarily to study public opinion (PO) over the last decade. As social media users represent more than half of the world’s population (see [26]) and provide continuous reactions to daily socio-political events, it is not surprising that traditional survey research has been concerned about whether such data would make surveys obsolete or whether they could be used complementarily. Addressing these questions is relevant in the area of PO. Whereas there is substantial research on augmenting survey data with administrative (e.g. electricity or water consumption) or other type of “web data” (e.g. Google searches or citation metrics) to improve estimates of PO or official statistics, we still lack an overarching picture of the (new) developments and approaches of complementing SMD and surveys with each other

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