Tools for public social science in the digital age: interpretative strategies for content analysis in the public good

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1590/

Keywords:

Content Analysis, Interpretive Methods, Qualitative Methods, Public Sociology

Abstract

Digital platforms have grown into powerful forms of messaging and dissemination of discourse within and across important economies including the U.S. and Brazil. While big data approaches may give us the broad strokes presented with a host of quantitative measures, these strategies are not ideally suited researchers contributing to public-facing social sciences in which narrative, storytelling, and naturally occurring discourse are prominently featured. This research begins to fill this gap by offering content analysis strategies for such interpretively oriented qualitative researchers. In providing replicable methodological tools to analyze data interpretively, this research provides a toolkit for qualitative researchers engage in Public Social Science in an age of contentious politics.

Author Biography

  • L. Robinson, Santa Clara University

    Laura Robinson specializes in digital sociology, research methods, and global media in Brazil, France, and the U.S. Robinson’s work has appeared in journals including Information, Communication and Society; New Media & Society;  Sociology, and Sociological Methodology. Robinson earned her Ph.D. from UCLA, where she held a Mellon Fellowship in Latin American Studies and received a Bourse d’Accueil at the École Normale Supérieure. She also earned degrees from Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3 and USC. Leadership to the discipline has included serving as CITAMS Section Chair and as a member of the ASA Committee on the Status of Persons with Disabilities in Sociology.

capa da revista INTERCOM (volume 48 - ano 20225). sobre um fundo cinza, está o nome da revista, os dados da edição e as logomarcas da Intercom, da Capes, do CNPq e do governo do Brasil.

Downloads

Published

2026-02-09

Data Availability Statement

todos os dados estão no texto

Issue

Vol. 48 (2025)

Section

Dossiê

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Laura Robinson

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Copyright and Licensing Policy
Revista Intercom operates under an Open Access model. All journal content, including published articles, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), unless otherwise noted.
  • Copyright: Authors retain unrestricted copyright and full publishing rights to their work without restrictions.
  • License to Publish: Authors grant Revista Intercom the right of first publication. Concurrently, the work is licensed under CC BY 4.0, which permits sharing, copying, distributing, displaying, and creating derivative works, provided the original work is properly cited and ownership is acknowledged.
  • Self-Archiving: Authors are permitted and encouraged to deposit the published version of their articles (Version of Record) in institutional or thematic repositories immediately upon publication.
 

How to Cite

Tools for public social science in the digital age: interpretative strategies for content analysis in the public good. Intercom - Brazilian Journal of Communication Sciences, São Paulo, v. 48, p. e2025121, 2026. DOI: 10.1590/. Disponível em: https://revistas.intercom.org.br/index.php/revistaintercom/article/view/5239. Acesso em: 10 jul. 2026.