At its core, democracy is about citizens having a say in how they are governed through accountable, transparent and inclusive government. Increasingly, social media is the public square in which debates and discussions take place. In our daily lives we all see the role that social media plays in shaping public opinion and coloring political events. We have seen how virtual tools bring communities together, but also spread discord and tear them apart. 

NDI seeks to empower partners to leverage technology to strengthen democracy. This means harnessing technology’s potential to promote information integrity and help build inclusive democracies; while also mitigating the harm posed by disinformation, online influence campaigns, hate speech, harassment and violence. 

For that reason, NDI developed,  “Data Analytics for Social Media Monitoring,” a guide for democracy activists and researchers. 

This new guide is designed to help democracy practitioners better understand social media trends, content, data, and networks. By sharing lessons learned and best practices from across our global network, we hope to empower our partners to make democracy work online by helping them:

• Collaborate with local, national, or international partners;

• Understand different methods of data collection;

• Make the best use of mapping and data visualization;

• Analyze the online ecosystem; 

• Detect malicious or manipulated content and its source; 

• Understand available tools for all aspects of social media monitoring; and

• Know how to respond with data, methods, research, and more through social media. 

Watch The Guide To Data Analytics For Social Media Monitoring Webinar Walkthrough Here:

We’d like to extend a special thanks to our partners at the National Endowment for Democracy for their support to develop this guide, and to the Institute for the Future for helping us to share it with the world. The lead co-author, Nick Monaco, is also the Director of IFTF's Digital Intelligence Lab, and as one of the top experts in the field, he helps explain how these research techniques can illuminate the online world. 

We hope it can be a practical resource for you as you join us in Working for Democracy and Making Democracy Work.