DIGITAL METHODS
(PRACTICAL)
Marie De Rick & Britt Moens
2021-2022
,PRACTICAL 1: R AND THE R ENVIRONMENT
PRACTICAL 1
1. Computational social science: what is it, and what will we do?
2. Installing R and exploring the R environment
3. Individual assignment
COMPUTATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE
INTRO
= Computational tools and techniques have made the collection (e.g., web scraping) and analysis (e.g., machine
learning) of these data easier, faster, and reasonably accurate.
Computational Social Sciences: An interdisciplinary field in which computational tools and techniques are
applied to advance social science research
• Digital Methods > Distant Reading
o Working with Big Data
o Adopting a computational approach to describe and identify patterns in the data
o Social scientific research questions can be addressed in entirely new ways
THIS COURSE:
Two key principles that we focus on:
1) Seeing the big picture
2) Understanding the workflow
3) (3. Hack your way to a solution)
1
,FROM BIG PICTURE TO WORKFLOW
• Big picture: Understanding the broad patterns regarding the beginning (input) and end (output) of
specific tasks.
o goal at the end → To create a dataset in which we basically pull the data that we grab together
in a meaningful way.
• Workflow: Knowing the logical steps that connect these two dots.
E.g., Web scraping
2
, FIRST STEPS IN R!
Download the programs:
RSTUDIO
Rstudio is the interface between that makes using R easier.
R exists of 4 smaller windows/ panel
1. Program panel = here we will type write our programs
2. Environment panel = this is where object will be loaded: lists, data, frames, vectors
3. Console panel = this is where calculations and commands can be entered. They will be executed
immediately
4. Files panel = here you can navigate to your folders and files
3
(PRACTICAL)
Marie De Rick & Britt Moens
2021-2022
,PRACTICAL 1: R AND THE R ENVIRONMENT
PRACTICAL 1
1. Computational social science: what is it, and what will we do?
2. Installing R and exploring the R environment
3. Individual assignment
COMPUTATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE
INTRO
= Computational tools and techniques have made the collection (e.g., web scraping) and analysis (e.g., machine
learning) of these data easier, faster, and reasonably accurate.
Computational Social Sciences: An interdisciplinary field in which computational tools and techniques are
applied to advance social science research
• Digital Methods > Distant Reading
o Working with Big Data
o Adopting a computational approach to describe and identify patterns in the data
o Social scientific research questions can be addressed in entirely new ways
THIS COURSE:
Two key principles that we focus on:
1) Seeing the big picture
2) Understanding the workflow
3) (3. Hack your way to a solution)
1
,FROM BIG PICTURE TO WORKFLOW
• Big picture: Understanding the broad patterns regarding the beginning (input) and end (output) of
specific tasks.
o goal at the end → To create a dataset in which we basically pull the data that we grab together
in a meaningful way.
• Workflow: Knowing the logical steps that connect these two dots.
E.g., Web scraping
2
, FIRST STEPS IN R!
Download the programs:
RSTUDIO
Rstudio is the interface between that makes using R easier.
R exists of 4 smaller windows/ panel
1. Program panel = here we will type write our programs
2. Environment panel = this is where object will be loaded: lists, data, frames, vectors
3. Console panel = this is where calculations and commands can be entered. They will be executed
immediately
4. Files panel = here you can navigate to your folders and files
3
