ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on the "social" in social media and analyzes the aspect of communities. It describes topical network analysis as a method for studying online activity. Topical networks are units of analysis within large datasets. By using qualitative and quantitative methods, the approach can supplement the analysis of large datasets to provide further detail into what is being tracked. The book also focuses on the study of media use patterns, more precisely the impact of relationship-related information. It deals with new technologies in human services and the health sector and seeks methods to analyze these new formats. The book proposes a new methodology to measure the potential impact of new digital health communication formats. It outlines the research design and shows the methodological advantages and challenges.
