Get a gentle, practical introduction to Python coding by setting up, customizing and running your own Python-based Twitter scraper.

The scraper will let you use any search criteria you like to find and download any amount of Twitter content from any time in Twitter’s history, subject only to the storage capacity and processing power of your computer.

The brown bag will be offered twice, once on Wednesday, Feb. 12 and again on Thursday, Feb. 13. Both sessions will run from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Dean’s Conference Room.

Setting the scraper up and configuring it will introduce you to the powerful (and free) Anaconda data science platform, the Jupyter Notebooks programming environment, and the Python programming language. You’ll also see an example of how to conduct a basic framing analysis in Excel on a set of scraped tweets that mention “Ferguson” and were posted during the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, during August of 2014.

Learning to work with these fundamental tools can help you discover additional ways to use coding in your research and teaching.

To prepare:

• Visit the Anaconda web site to download and install the version of Anaconda suitable for your computer. Whether you download the Windows, macOS, or Linux version, be sure to get the one for Python 3.7. For details, see these step-by-step instructions for installation on a Windows 10 PC.
• Download this zip file containing a “TwitterScraper” directory and a “TwitterScraper=Ferguson.ipynb” Jupyter Notebook file, and unzip the file to your computer’s desktop – or to some directory where you’ll be able to find it easily during the session.
• If you like, here’s the PowerPoint I’ll be showing. It’s a big file, due to some embedded videos. You might prefer the lighter, but less detailed, .pdf version.

Then, just show up with your computer for the session of your choice. Bring some lunch, if you like. Led by me, Dr. Ken Blake, and sponsored by the Office of Communication Research and the Media and Communication master’s program, the session is open to faculty as well as graduate students.

Note: To set up and run the scraper, your computer must be capable of accessing the web during the session.