Integrating Digital Traces into Mixed Methods Designs
An Application to the Study of Online Music Listening Using Survey, Interview and Streaming History Data Collected from the Same Individuals
- By Yann Renisio,
- Amélie Beaumont,
- Jean-Samuel Beuscart,
- Samuel Coavoux,
- Philippe Coulangeon,
- Robin Cura,
- Brenda Le Bigot,
- Manuel Moussallam,
- Camille Roth
- and Thomas Louail
Pages 129 to 160
Cite this article
- RENISIO, Yann,
- BEAUMONT, Amélie,
- BEUSCART, Jean-Samuel,
- COAVOUX, Samuel,
- COULANGEON, Philippe,
- CURA, Robin,
- LE BIGOT, Brenda,
- MOUSSALLAM, Manuel,
- ROTH, Camille
- and LOUAIL, Thomas,
- Renisio, Yann.,
- et al.
- Renisio, Y.,
- Beaumont, A.,
- Beuscart, J.-S.,
- Coavoux, S.,
- Coulangeon, P.,
- Cura, R.,
- Le Bigot, B.,
- Moussallam, M.,
- Roth, C.
- and Louail, T.
https://doi.org/10.3917/rfs.651.0129
Cite this article
- Renisio, Y.,
- Beaumont, A.,
- Beuscart, J.-S.,
- Coavoux, S.,
- Coulangeon, P.,
- Cura, R.,
- Le Bigot, B.,
- Moussallam, M.,
- Roth, C.
- and Louail, T.
- Renisio, Yann.,
- et al.
- RENISIO, Yann,
- BEAUMONT, Amélie,
- BEUSCART, Jean-Samuel,
- COAVOUX, Samuel,
- COULANGEON, Philippe,
- CURA, Robin,
- LE BIGOT, Brenda,
- MOUSSALLAM, Manuel,
- ROTH, Camille
- and LOUAIL, Thomas,
https://doi.org/10.3917/rfs.651.0129
Notes
-
[1]
Acknowledgments: This paper has been realized in the framework of the “RECORDS” grant (ANR-2019-CE38-0013) funded by the ANR (French National Agency of Research). We are grateful to the anonymous referees for useful comments.
-
[2]
According to the report “Engaging with music 2023” by the International Federation of Phonography Industry, https://www.ifpi.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/IFPI-Engaging-With-Music-2023_full-report.pdf.
- [3]
The increase in the digital recording of a wide range of ordinary practices, via cell phones, mobile devices or social platforms (Lazer et al. 2009), represents a new opportunity for the study of human behaviour. Indeed, it provides access to data of an observational nature, at an unprecedented scale, both in terms of quantity (higher number of individuals whose practices are observed, higher number of practices observed over longer time periods) and quality (fine-grained information on the types and modalities of practices). The advantages of these new sources, heralded as an empirical revolution for social scientists (Burrows and Savage 2014, Marres 2017, Salganik 2018), has initially led to numerous studies solely based on such materials (Bakshy, Messing, and Adamic 2015, Lewis, Gonzalez, and Kaufman 2012, Onnela et al. 2007, Salganik, Dodds, and Watts 2006).
In parallel, other scholars have commented on the multiple limitations associated with digital traces of people’s activity, including noise, lack of information on the conditions in which these data have been collected and subsequently treated/filtered, uncertain meaning that can be extracted from the data, risks of generalization of digital observations to similar non-digital practices, etc. (Bastin and Tubaro 2018, Boyd and Crawford 2012). Another type of limitation inherent to this sole observation of practice is that, while providing a broader and more reliable account of what individuals actually do, it does not offer information on the variety of meanings associated with such activities, hence limiting the possibility of explaining what people do to only digital recordings of what they did, and falling into the well documented traps of revealed preferences approaches (Grüne 2004, Moureau and Vidal 2009, Sen 1973)…