Building Networks and Analyzing Content

Readings

• Read chapters 7-8
• Welser, Howard T., et al. "Visualizing the signatures of social roles in online discussion groups." Journal of social structure 8.2 (2007): 1-32.

Content

• YouTube Lecture on Building Networks
• Video example on how to convert file formats
• YouTube Lecture on Content Analysis
• Building Networks Slides
• Content Analysis Slides
• 
  Mouse example (click to enlarge)

Exercise

Read the first chapter of Pride and Prejudice. Build a social network of the characters. You must decide:

• Who becomes a node in the graph. Is it anyone mentioned? Just major characters? People who appear but not people who are only mentioned? Come up with a criteria to apply.
• What constitutes an edge. Is it people who know one another? People who know of one another? Are the edges directed or undirected?

Create your network. Label your edges (e.g. sisters may have an edge labeled "sister" connceting them) to indicate the type of relationship. Enter this data in Gephi.

To do this in Gephi, create a new project. Then go to the data laboratory. At the top, enter all your nodes using the "Add Node" button. Then, enter all the edges using the Add Edge button. To label the edges, click on the "Edges" tab in the top bar of the data laboratory. There is a column called "Label". Double click in that column to label a relationship. Note that if you are using a directed graph and there is a mutual relationship (e.g. A knows B and B knows A), you need to enter the edge twice - once for A to B and again for B to A.

Create a visualization. Save the entire project as a Gephi file and submit it. Then, post your visualization image and a description of your criteria to the discussion board. Comment on any difficulties you had in making your decisions. Then comment on at least two other posts. These must be substantial comments. Look to see if people were consistent in their choices and applications of the criteria.