Social Media Scraping and Analysis with Zeeschuimer and 4Cat

The landscape of social media data collection has changed significantly in recent years, creating new challenges and opportunities for researchers interested in studying online platforms. This workshop introduces Zeeschuimer and 4CAT, a powerful combination of browser-based and server-based tools designed to support the collection, management, and analysis of data from selected social media platforms. Through guided demonstrations, participants will learn how these tools can be used to support digital and computational research while navigating the evolving social media research environment.

This session is ideal for students, researchers, and instructors interested in social media research, digital methods, and computational approaches to studying online platforms. No prior experience with web scraping or social media data analysis is required.

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

1. Explain the purpose and capabilities of the Zeeschuimer and 4CAT tools.
2. Collect data from supported social media platforms using Zeeschuimer.
3. Import, manage, and explore collected datasets within 4CAT.
4. Conduct basic analyses of social media data using 4CAT's built-in tools and workflows.
5. Identify ethical, legal, and methodological considerations related to social media data collection and analysis

Details: Any preparatory work for the session can be found on its information page. This virtual workshop will be recorded and shared on the same page, and discoverable via the Sherman Centre's Online Learning Catalogue.

Certificate Eligibility: This workshop is eligible for the Sherman Centre's certificate program. For more information, visit scds.ca/certificate-program. It is also eligible for the Canadian Certificate for Digital Humanities. To learn more, visit ccdhhn.ca or contact scds@mcmaster.ca.