1.
Katharina Götsch
Verena Grubmüller
Igor Pejic
The UniteEurope project
Social media analytics
for policy making and decision
support
CeDEM13, Krems, May 22, 2013

2.
Social media and social media analytics
Katharina Götsch
Ongoing research: The UniteEurope project
• Citizens use social media to share opinions
→ this information has been analysed for commercial purposes
(marketing, branding) for several years
• Instruments:
→ Social media monitoring (SMM)
→ Social media analytics (SMA)
• Growing interest of public organisations
→ emergency and crisis management
→ policy making
→ decision support
→ …

3.
SMA for policy making and decision support
Katharina Götsch
Ongoing research: The UniteEurope project
• Usage of public data from social media in a non-commercial but
public/governmental context
• Analysing public opinions on societal issues
→ distinctive differences compared to commercial software tools
→ Qualitative vs. quantitative analysis
→ Specific requirements of users in governments/administrations
→ Legal and ethical challenges: privacy, data protection, question
of representativeness
• Policy making and decision support is still a new field of application for
SMA

4.
Katharina Götsch
Ongoing research: The UniteEurope project
• EU-funded FP7-ICT project (2011-2014)
• Topic: urban integration of immigrants
• Aim: Developing a scientifically sound social media analytics tool
for municipalities and NGOs
→ supporting policy and decision making in the field of
migrant integration at the local level
• Collaboration of municipalities (Rotterdam and Malmö – as end
users), NGOs, public administration, ICT and integration scholars
and technical partners
The UniteEurope project

5.
Katharina Götsch
Data acquisition and analysis
• Selection of relevant sources (online media, social networks,
blogs, discussion forums etc.)
• Selection of integration-relevant postings/comments/articles
based on keywords list
• Categorisation of postings into taxonomy of integration
dimensions and areas (socio-economic, legal-political, …)
• Parameters, indicators, alerts, …
• Visualisations of data
Ongoing research: The UniteEurope project

6.
Katharina Götsch
Impacts/benefits of SMA for policy making
• New source of bottom-up information
• Quick identification of new issues → early reaction, agenda-setting
• Integrating citizens‘ opinions and sentiments into policy and decision
making process
• Contribute to more responsive and sustainable policies and measures
Ongoing research: The UniteEurope project

7.
Katharina Götsch
Particular challenges:
Legal and ethical aspects of SMA for policy making
• Data protection and privacy
• Sources – representativeness of data
• Digital divide
• Safeguarding measures
Ongoing research: The UniteEurope project

8.
Katharina Götsch
Further information:
www.uniteeurope.org
katharina.goetsch@inset-advisory.com
Thank you!
Ongoing research: The UniteEurope project