In a thought-provoking article published in the QRCA VIEWS magazine, Cynthia W. Jacobs explores whether we still need humans to do qualitative research. There’s a growing focus on “listening” to social media, and – in part forced by the volume of data generated this way – we see automated methods replacing human-powered analysis. There are two questions to consider here. First, who are we hearing and not hearing when we “listen” to social media? Second, what are we missing or misinterpreting when we rely on automated analysis?

The high-volume, free insights generated by social media will go to waste if we don’t use caution in interpretation. Regardless of the tool, it is critical that we don’t rely on the overall summary. Read the article for more details on the role of human-powered analysis vs. automated social listening methods and why the role of the qualitative researcher has a great new importance.