Studying political communication on Twitter: the case for small data

- A classification of key research on political communication on Twitter.
- Nuances of political communication are hard to capture through quantitative methods.
- Contextual study of politicians' discourse is improved through qualitative approaches.

Big data has dramatically changed the study of political communications online as researchers access massive feeds of data on social media behavior, networks, and language. However, the nature political communication remains inherently message-driven, where the composition, timing, and metaphor are necessary components of the overall message. This article surveys research on political communication on Twitter and classifies it into seven subjective domains of research. The methodological approaches that have been applied toward these domains include quantitative technique studying the size, shape, profile of the networks and their nodes; large-scale data mining techniques applied to study the contents of Twitter messaging; and qualitative methods for in-depth study of messages. Showing that qualitative research methods have extended our understanding of political communications domains, we propose that small data approaches, through interpretive analysis and commentary by human readers, can be coupled with large-scale data analysis for deeper, contextual understanding of political messaging.