ABSTRACT
Social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are being accessed at incredible rates, with daily user values greater than the populations of small countries. Through social media, users act as sensors who detect, report and respond to global events (Goodchild, 2007), making social media of key value for researchers, who use it as an easily accessible source of data. From its role aiding disaster relief efforts and in crisis management to tracking pandemics, it seems that the possibilities for research using social media are endless. Although such lines of enquiry may seem technically complex or out of reach for the young geographer, this chapter seeks to break down these notions by simmering research down, using data from Twitter in particular, into a set of ideas which can shape the research toolkit of the modern geographer. Drawing on contemporary examples from both human and physical geography, this chapter will examine how Twitter data can be accessed and used as a data source, with suggestions about how such results might be presented. The limitations of social media research are considered, with discussion around representation, sampling and privacy. In particular, this chapter provides insight into the opportunities of social media as a tool for a future generation of geographers.
