ABSTRACT

Research means investigating a particular phenomenon here the language used in social media contexts in order to bring new knowledge to light. A core principle is that research should involve systematic inquiry. There is a difference between identifying that a topic or phenomenon is interesting and designing a research project about that topic or phenomenon. Academic disciplines can be thought of as communities of scholars who develop particular norms and practices for their scholarship. However, the trans-disciplinary scope and interdisciplinary potential of researching how language is used in social media contexts is not always easy to handle. Qualitative approaches aim to take into account the perspectives of the research participants, for example by collecting and reviewing data and results with the participants in an iterative cycle. The methods used in research do not group neatly into mutually exclusive categories which map onto quantitative or qualitative groupings.