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Workshop Title Slide

Social media scraping and analysis with Zeeschuimer and 4Cat

The landscape of social media data collection has changed significantly in recent years, creating new challenges and opportunities for researchers interested in studying online platforms. This workshop introduces Zeeschuimer and 4CAT, a powerful combination of browser-based and server-based tools designed to support the collection, management, and analysis of data from selected social media platforms. Through guided demonstrations, participants will learn how these tools can be used to support digital and computational research while navigating the evolving social media research environment.

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

  • Explain the purpose and capabilities of the Zeeschuimer and 4CAT tools.
  • Collect data from supported social media platforms using Zeeschuimer.
  • Import, manage, and explore collected datasets within 4CAT.
  • Conduct basic analyses of social media data using 4CAT’s built-in tools and workflows.
  • Identify ethical, legal, and methodological considerations related to social media data collection and analysis.

This session is ideal for students, researchers, and instructors interested in social media research, digital methods, and computational approaches to studying online platforms. No prior experience with web scraping or social media data analysis is required.

Workshop Preparation

None

Facilitator Bio

John Fink is the Digital Scholarship Librarian in the Sherman Centre.

Lauren McLean (She/Her/They) is the postdoctoral fellow for the Sherman Centre for Digital Scholarship. As an interdisciplinary researcher, educator, and advocate, she is passionate about intersectional social change, community, and digital culture. Lauren holds a PhD in Literary Studies and Theatre Studies from the University of Guelph and her current work focuses on queer acts of resistance in relation to popular culture within online community spaces. Within and beyond her current work, Lauren is a self-declared feminist killjoy hoping for change. Email Lauren at mclealc@mcmaster.ca

Workshop Slides

Coming soon.