Modeling influence and community in social media data using the digital methods initiative-twitter capture and analysis toolkit (DMI-TCAT) and Gephi.

The methods summarized in this video tutorial series are based on the open source Digital Methods Initiative - Twitter Capture and Analysis Toolkit (DMI-TCAT) that allows media researchers to collect tweets off the STREAM API (application programming interface) on an ongoing basis. With DMI - TCAT and the open source data visualization software Gephi, social data in the millions of units is quickly and easily sorted by algorithms to find users or items of importance on Twitter, such as in the Fig. 1 below.

Toward a Typology of Transnational Communication among Venezuelan Immigrant Youth: Implications for Behavioral Health.

We identify subtypes of Venezuelan youth based on patterns of technology-based communication with friends in their receiving (US) and sending (Venezuela) countries and, in turn, examine the behavioral health characteristics among different "subtypes" of youth. Using data from 402 recently-arrived Venezuelan immigrant youth (ages 10-17), latent profile analysis and multinomial regression are employed to examine the relationships between technology-based communication and key outcomes. We identified a four-class solution: [#1] "Daily Contact in US, In Touch with Venezuela" (32%), [#2] "Daily Communication in Both Countries" (19%), [#3] "Weekly Contact: More Voice/Text Than Social Media" (35%), and [#4] "Infrequent Communication with US and Venezuela" (14%).

Trends in cannabis use among immigrants in the United States, 2002-2017: Evidence from two national surveys.

Background And Aims: Findings from recent studies suggest that, among the general population of adults, the prevalence of cannabis use has increased over the last decade in the United States (US). And yet, there is much we do not know regarding the trends in cannabis use among immigrants. We address this important shortcoming by examining data on immigrants vis-à-vis US-born individuals using two national surveys.