The MOSAIC team hosted their first event on Thursday, June 3rd to kick-off the survey research collaborative. Over 100 guests from around the world tuned in to listen to experts discuss the merits and challenges of using social media data and survey data.
First, in a discussion moderated by Rebecca Ryan (Georgetown University) panelists Sandra González-Bailón (University of Pennsylvania), Andy Guess (Princeton University), Michael Link (Abt Associates), and Joshua Pasek (University of Michigan) discussed the strengths and limitations of traditional survey data and non-traditional social media data to understand public attitudes on salient topics.
Next, in a discussion moderated by Zeina Mneimneh, research team members Pamela Davis-Kean (University of Michigan), Brad Jensen (Georgetown University), Trivellore Raghunathan (University of Michigan), and Chintan Turakhia (SSRS) shared preliminary findings and highlighted future directions from the new research collaboration MOSAIC: Measuring Online Social Attitudes and Information Collaborative. This served as an introduction to the collaboration between Georgetown University, SSRS, and the University of Michigan that is focusing on understanding the measurement properties of social media through a large-scale study that links survey data and Twitter data to investigate the attitudes related to the impact of COVID-19 on the economy, education, and vaccinations.
