Diversity of Methodological Approaches in Social Sciences

Inna Lyubareva is Associate Professor of economics at IMT Atlantique and a member of the LEGO research laboratory in France. Her research interests focus on the role of data-driven technologies in creative industries and media. She develops original approaches using quantitative and qualitative methods at the interface between social science, statistics and computer science.Roger Waldeck is Associate Professor of computational social sciences at IMT Atlantique and a member of the LEGO research laboratory in France. His research interests focus on methodologies for modeling and managing complex social systems, including the use of agent-based modeling as well as serious games for complex decision making. His latest research focuses on organizational resilience.

• Overview: Media, Information Pluralism and Methodological Choices ixInna LYUBAREVA and Roger WALDECKChapter 1. Online Platforms and Analysis of Community Dynamics 1Cécile BOTHOREL, Laurent BRISSON and Inna LYUBAREVA1.1. Introduction 11.2. Outline: Ulule and YouTube platforms 41.3. Exploring the social network and communities on the Ulule platform 61.3.1. Platform, data and construction of the social graph 61.3.2. Algorithmic approaches for the detection of communities on Ulule 91.3.3. Typology of community forms 121.4. Exploring the social network and communities on the YouTube platform 181.4.1. YouTube: data and construction of interaction graph 181.4.2. Construction of evolving communities 211.4.3. Community evolution graph 241.4.4. Description of the evolutionary forms of communities 271.4.5. Forms of community development on YouTube 281.5. Conclusion 351.6. References 38Chapter 2. Echo Chambers and Opinion Dynamics: An Agent-Based Modeling Approach 43Julien MÉSANGEAU and Roger WALDECK2.1. Introduction 432.2. Agent-based modeling 452.2.1. ABM modeling principles 452.2.2. The modeling cycle and the ODD representation 502.3. The sociology of echo chambers 522.3.1. A descriptive definition of the echo chamber 532.3.2. Reducing the echo chamber phenomenon into simple factors for modeling 552.4. Modeling echo chambers 562.4.1. The Netlogo model 562.4.2. ODD for the echo chamber model 592.4.3. A short review on the modeling of opinion dynamics 642.4.4. Results of the Netlogo model simulations 682.5. Conclusion 782.6. References 79Chapter 3. Diversity of Sources and Pluralism of Journalistic Framing: A Qualitative--Quantitative Sociosemiotic Approach 83Dario COMPAGNO and Emmanuel MARTY3.1. The sources: interfaces between writing and reality 833.2. Theoretical background 873.2.1. Framing theories 873.2.2. Toward a typology of sources 893.2.3. Citing sources 923.2.4. Formalizing hypotheses about discourse 943.3. Processing and analysis of the corpus 953.3.1. Scope and corpus 953.3.2. Processing procedures and analysis 963.3.3. Processing and corpus enrichment 973.3.4. Analysis and results 993.4. Discussion and conclusion 1063.5. References 110Chapter 4. Interviews as a Research Method for Understanding Online Information Pluralism 115Pauline AMIEL and Alexandre JOUX4.1. Introduction: the tools used by qualitative approaches in journalism studies 1154.2. Semi-structured interviews to gather the views of stakeholders 1174.2.1. Interview methods 1174.2.2. The interview as a means to understanding the dynamics of online information pluralism 1204.3. Conclusion 1304.4. References 130Chapter 5. Media and Information Pluralism Through the Lens of Law 133Dominique BOUGEROL5.1. Introduction 1335.2. Pluralism in European law 1365.2.1. Council of European law 1365.2.2. European Union law 1395.3. Pluralism in French law 1475.3.1. Pluralism in the constitution 1475.3.2. Pluralism in legislation 1515.4. Conclusion 1655.5. References 167List of Authors 177Index 179