Chapter Making social media archives: Limitations and archiving practices in the development of representative social media collections

Overview & Synopsis

Social media has become an important digital space where individuals can participate in ongoing global discussions and document instances of historical events. Social media offers marginalized communities a means to express their identities, voice their concerns, and tell their stories. Archiving institutions have started to include social media in their collections because of its enduring value. However, constraints set by legal and technical frameworks and limited resources available at single institutions can influence the overall representativeness of content archived on social sites. This chapter explores the impact these constraints have on the development of representative social media collections and illustrate participatory approaches that can help to mitigate concerns.