The Risk of Dataphrenia in the Analysis of Big Data. Notes from the Case «Mafia capitale»

Journal title SOCIOLOGIA E RICERCA SOCIALE
Author/s Davide Bennato
Publishing Year 2016 Issue 2016/109
Language Italian Pages 19 P. 83-101 File size 660 KB
DOI 10.3280/SR2016-109008
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This paper begins with an analysis of the diffusion on Twitter of news on an investigation that led to the discovery of the criminal system called «Mafia capitale». It then shows how a strictly computational approach is unable to investigate the factors at play in a media phenomenon, which are halfway between the typical processes of mass communication and those of interpersonal communication. The paper argues that the analysis of Big Data opens significant opportunities for the social scientist, as long as the sociological imagination is maintained and does not fall into an approach dictated by quantophrenia, which we may now call dataphrenia.

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Davide Bennato, Il rischio della datafrenia nell’analisi dei big data. Appunti a partire dal caso «Mafia capitale» in "SOCIOLOGIA E RICERCA SOCIALE " 109/2016, pp 83-101, DOI: 10.3280/SR2016-109008