ABSTRACT
The growing big data literature and research points to both the challenges and possibilities of using this so-called “digital oil” for research and other academic or corporate purposes, while specific directions and applications for qualitative research are emergent. Methods and software have been proposed in social semiotics to integrate qualitative multimodal analysis with data mining and visualization. The collection of naturally occurring big data could be conceived as a different type of naturalistic inquiry—hallmark of much qualitative research. Big data is often unstructured, digital data that occurs as a byproduct of social interaction, including transactional, organizational, governmental, educational, or security processes, to name a few “patches” of contemporary social life. There are potentials for taking a small data approach to research questions that aim to understand the motivations and beliefs of social actors, and combine it with the study of big data patterns of online, geo-spatial, or social behavior.
