TY  - CHAP
AB  - Abstract The chapter will review significant changes in information technology (IT) affecting research over the 30-year history of Communication, Information Technology, and Media Sociology. It compares broad overviews of computers and the social sciences published shortly after the beginning of the section (1989 and 1990) with a contemporary overview of online research methods from 2017. It also draws on my own experiences from 1981 to the present as both an academic and a software entrepreneur. The author will discuss how changes in the section parallel developments in social science computing over this period, identifying some of the significant ways IT has transformed both the methods of research and the substantive foci of research. Finally, the author extrapolates into the future to consider how continuing changes in the Internet, big data, artificial intelligence, and natural language understanding may change how sociological research is conducted in the foreseeable future.
VL  - 17
SN  - 978-1-78769-666-2, 978-1-78769-665-5/2050-2060
DO  - 10.1108/S2050-206020180000017003
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/S2050-206020180000017003
AU  - Brent Edward
ED  - Barry Wellman
ED  - Laura Robinson
ED  - Casey Brienza
ED  - Wenhong Chen
ED  - Shelia R. Cotten
PY  - 2018
Y1  - 2018/01/01
TI  - How Information Technology Transforms the Methods of Sociological Research: Past and Future
T2  - Networks, Hacking, and Media – CITA MS@30: Now and Then and Tomorrow
T3  - Studies in Media and Communications
PB  - Emerald Publishing Limited
SP  - 41
EP  - 60
Y2  - 2024/05/07
ER  -