IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/anname/v704y2022i1p267-291.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social Media Data for Firearms Research: Promise and Perils

Author

Listed:
  • Lisa Singh
  • Carole Roan Gresenz

Abstract

Firearms research has been hindered by a persistent lack of high-quality, reliable, and timely data. Using social media data in firearms research is, therefore, appealing: these data are large in scale, continuously provided, passively obtained, inexpensive in some cases, and easily combined with data from traditional sources. We consider how social media data have been used in firearms research to date and how they can be best used moving forward. Despite the many advantages of using social media data, there are key analytical and ethical considerations associated with their use, including understanding the underlying population, constructing valid and reliable measures from shared content, the possibility of false data and misinformation through fake accounts, and concerns having to do with the privacy and consent of social media users. Notwithstanding these drawbacks, we show that there is a compelling case for the continued development of these data for firearms research and suggest principles for their responsible use in this context.

Suggested Citation

  • Lisa Singh & Carole Roan Gresenz, 2022. "Social Media Data for Firearms Research: Promise and Perils," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 704(1), pages 267-291, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:704:y:2022:i:1:p:267-291
    DOI: 10.1177/00027162231174320
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00027162231174320
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/00027162231174320?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bruce D. Meyer & Wallace K. C. Mok & James X. Sullivan, 2015. "Household Surveys in Crisis," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 29(4), pages 199-226, Fall.
    2. Michael Bailey & Rachel Cao & Theresa Kuchler & Johannes Stroebel & Arlene Wong, 2018. "Social Connectedness: Measurement, Determinants, and Effects," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 32(3), pages 259-280, Summer.
    3. Bailey, Michael & Farrell, Patrick & Kuchler, Theresa & Stroebel, Johannes, 2020. "Social connectedness in urban areas," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    4. Theresa Kuchler & Dominic Russel & Johannes Stroebel, 2020. "The Geographic Spread of COVID-19 Correlates with the Structure of Social Networks as Measured by Facebook," NBER Working Papers 26990, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Bailey, Michael & Gupta, Abhinav & Hillenbrand, Sebastian & Kuchler, Theresa & Richmond, Robert & Stroebel, Johannes, 2021. "International trade and social connectedness," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    6. Jeremy Ginsberg & Matthew H. Mohebbi & Rajan S. Patel & Lynnette Brammer & Mark S. Smolinski & Larry Brilliant, 2009. "Detecting influenza epidemics using search engine query data," Nature, Nature, vol. 457(7232), pages 1012-1014, February.
    7. Emilio Zagheni & Ingmar Weber & Krishna Gummadi, 2017. "Leveraging Facebook's Advertising Platform to Monitor Stocks of Migrants," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 43(4), pages 721-734, December.
    8. Sasikiran Kandula & Jeffrey Shaman, 2019. "Reappraising the utility of Google Flu Trends," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(8), pages 1-16, August.
    9. Michael Bailey & Ruiqing Cao & Theresa Kuchler & Johannes Stroebel, 2018. "The Economic Effects of Social Networks: Evidence from the Housing Market," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 126(6), pages 2224-2276.
    10. Nelson, C. & Lurie, N. & Wasserman, J. & Zakowski, S., 2007. "Conceptualizing and defining public health emergency preparedness," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 97(S1), pages 9-11.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kuchler, Theresa & Russel, Dominic & Stroebel, Johannes, 2022. "JUE Insight: The geographic spread of COVID-19 correlates with the structure of social networks as measured by Facebook," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    2. Diemer, Andreas & Regan, Tanner, 2022. "No inventor is an island: Social connectedness and the geography of knowledge flows in the US," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(2).
    3. Cramer, Kim Fe & Koont, Naz, 2021. "Peer effects in deposit markets," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 119192, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Oliver Rehbein & Simon Rother, 2020. "The Role of Social Networks in Bank Lending," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 033, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    5. Bailey, Michael & Gupta, Abhinav & Hillenbrand, Sebastian & Kuchler, Theresa & Richmond, Robert & Stroebel, Johannes, 2021. "International trade and social connectedness," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    6. Mayer, Maximilian, 2023. "Climate change concerns and information spillovers from socially-connected friends," IWH Discussion Papers 2/2023, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    7. Michael Bailey & Drew Johnston & Martin Koenen & Theresa Kuchler & Dominic Russel & Johannes Stroebel, 2022. "The Social Integration of International Migrants: Evidence from the Networks of Syrians in Germany," CESifo Working Paper Series 9680, CESifo.
    8. Bailey, Michael & Farrell, Patrick & Kuchler, Theresa & Stroebel, Johannes, 2020. "Social connectedness in urban areas," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    9. Giang Nguyen & My Nguyen & Anh Viet Pham & Man Duy Marty Pham, 2023. "Navigating investment decisions with social connectedness : Implications for venture capital," Post-Print hal-04325756, HAL.
    10. Nguyen, Giang & Nguyen, My & Pham, Anh Viet & Pham, Man Duy (Marty), 2023. "Navigating investment decisions with social connectedness: Implications for venture capital," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    11. Caraiani, Petre, 2023. "Oil news shocks, inflation expectations and social connectedness," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(PB).
    12. Fabio Milani, 2021. "COVID-19 outbreak, social response, and early economic effects: a global VAR analysis of cross-country interdependencies," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(1), pages 223-252, January.
    13. Jun Sung Kim & Eleonora Patacchini & Pierre M. Picard & Yves Zenou, 2023. "Spatial interactions," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 14(4), pages 1295-1335, November.
    14. Kuchler, Theresa & Pagel, Michaela, 2021. "Sticking to your plan: The role of present bias for credit card paydown," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(2), pages 359-388.
    15. Ma, Dan & Zhang, Chuan & Hui, Yarong & Xu, Bing, 2022. "Economic uncertainty spillover and social networks," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 454-467.
    16. Yilan Xu & Sébastien Box‐Couillard, 2024. "Social learning about climate risks," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 62(3), pages 1172-1191, July.
    17. Hu, Zhongchen, 2022. "Social interactions and households’ flood insurance decisions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(2), pages 414-432.
    18. Theresa Kuchler & Monika Piazzesi & Johannes Stroebel, 2022. "Housing Market Expectations," CESifo Working Paper Series 9665, CESifo.
    19. Badarinza, Cristian & Ramadorai, Tarun & Shimizu, Chihiro, 2022. "Gravity, counterparties, and foreign investment," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(2), pages 132-152.
    20. Bentzen, Jeanet Sinding, 2021. "In crisis, we pray: Religiosity and the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 192(C), pages 541-583.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:704:y:2022:i:1:p:267-291. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.