ABSTRACT
Big social data scholars collect data from information-communication technologies and online social spaces before mining it for insights into human social behavior. To study something as multifaceted as big social data requires imagination in rhetorical methods, yet definitions help provide a footing. The “big” indicates streams of data records so vast and quick that the human mind cannot process or conceptualize their passing, requiring some form of computation to both store and sort the records. Despite the role of big social data analysts in constructing arguments that serve as the foundational assumptions of their findings, the ASONAM community wrongly rejects the analysts’ own agency. Big social data researchers are writing persuasive documents responding to situational exigencies. In the big social data research community, researchers are attributing both ability and responsibility to the tools being used and the data under query.
