e-Research applications for tracking online socio-political capital in the Asia-Pacific region

Abstract

Online content offers with it the potential to provide a rich source of data for academic researchers. To capture this data an e-Research tool was developed to utilise results from prominent Korean search engine Naver in the analysis of online political presence, thereby bridging a lack of coverage for this approach in the Asia-Pacific region. This paper will outline the development of this specific tool as well as highlight e-Research tool development in general. Whilst e-Research tools offer greater access to large datasets from online sources than more established data collection methods, they also present challenges to implementation and a lack of consensus exists on the responsibilities when collecting and handling public data. The practice of online data collection and how this can inform an analysis of social capital will be discussed, as well as addressing some of the challenges involved in the development and analysis stages. Suggestions for researchers from a social science background planning to embark on e-Research tool development in an Asian context are offered.