In this interactive workshop, Sander Prins and a 4CAT developer (to be announced) will introduce you to social media data collection and analysis. After this hands-on session, you will be able to gather social media data yourself using 4CAT: the Capture and Analysis Toolkit. Using this toolkit does not require any programming experience.

The Centre for Digital Humanities recently launched its own installation of the 4CAT toolkit, originally developed by the Digital Methods Initiative. This web-based toolkit enables you to collect and directly analyze data from various social media platforms such as Telegram, Instagram, and TikTok. The toolkit also provides large amounts of processing scripts for analyzing and visualizing collected data through established methods.

During this entry-level workshop, you will explore the capabilities of 4CAT for data gathering and exploration. You will also have the opportunity to compile your own datasets for research purposes.

Practical information

This workshop will take place on Wednesday, 4 June 2025 from 13.00 to 16.00 hours in the Digital Humanities Workspace of the Utrecht University Library, City Centre (room 0.32, Drift 27, Utrecht). Admission is free.

The tutorial part of this workshop lasts from 13.00 to 15.00 hours. After that, participants have the option to stay until 16.00 hours for individual application-related questions regarding their education and/or research.

Level

No prior experience with 4CAT is required. You do not need any programming experience to use this toolkit. The workshop will be in English.

Preparation

Participants should bring their own laptops.

For whom?

Due to our funding, priority will be given to teachers, researchers and students of the Faculty of Humanities at Utrecht University for this workshop. If you are affiliated with a different faculty or institution but interested in participating, please register below to be placed on a waiting list. Notification of available spaces will be sent shortly before the workshop.

Registration

Please complete the registration form below if you wish to sign up for this workshop. Register early to secure your place, as spots are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

If you find yourself unable to attend after completing registration, we kindly request that you cancel your registration by sending an email to cdh@uu.nl, allowing us to offer the spot to another participant. Thank you for your cooperation.