B1.

0 Acknowledgement

Assalammualaikum w.b.t and greetings, First and foremost, I want to

sincerely thank Allah S.W.T. for His guidance and blessings, which allowed
me to successfully do this task. After that, I would like to thank
University Technology Mara (UiTM) Campus Puncak Perdana for their
confidence in me and for providing me with the chance to work on this group
project assignment. I also want to thank Dr Mazlina Binti Pati Khan the
instructor for the Media Archiving(IMr463), for providing us with the
chance to complete this project.

I also want to express my gratitude to my family for their unwavering

encouragement and support. Not to be overlooked are our friends and
classmates who have helped and encouraged me during this entire process by
sharing their knowledge. Also, not to forgotten to our friends and
classmates whom had supported and helped me by sharing their knowledge
through this whole assignment progression. Last but not least, I would also
like to thank everyone who has contributed directly or indirectly to the
assignment I have commissioned.
Introduction
2.0 Introduction

In today’s digital world, the preservation of social media has

emerged as a critical concern, much like traditional digital records.
Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have
transformed how we communicate, share information, and document life
events. The massive volume of user-generated content poses both
opportunities for historical and cultural preservation and challenges
in terms of scalability, platform restrictions, and ethical
considerations. Ensuring the longevity of this data is essential for
future research, archiving, and cultural memory.

The article “Preserving Social Media: Applying Principles of Digital

Preservation to Social Media Archiving” by Sara Day Thomson (2017)
addresses these challenges by applying established “digital
preservation principles” to the unique issues faced by social media
data. Thomson emphasizes that social media content is vulnerable due
to its transient nature and the lack of clear preservation strategies
from platforms themselves. Without long-term preservation efforts,
significant cultural, social, and political events recorded on these
platforms risk being lost to future generations.

The article draws parallels between traditional digital preservation

practices—such as “bit preservation”, “metadata management”, and
“defining a Designated Community”—and the emerging field of social
media archiving. Thomson stresses the need for “collaboration
between researchers, archivists, and institutions” to develop
effective strategies for capturing, storing, and providing long-term
access to social media data. Furthermore, the challenges related to
“data scalability”, “privacy concerns”, and “platform
restrictions” are thoroughly examined in the article, offering
practical solutions based on the principles of digital preservation.

Through the use of real-world examples like the UK Data Service’s

“After Woolwich Twitter corpus”, Thomson illustrates the practical
applications of these principles and provides a road map for
addressing the growing complexities of archiving social media. By
leveraging existing digital preservation frameworks, the article
advocates for the proactive preservation of social media data to
ensure it remains accessible and usable for future researchers and
institutions.
Bibliography (APA Style)

Thomson, S. D. (2017). *Preserving social media: Applying principles of digital

preservation to social media archiving*. Digital Preservation Coalition. Retrieved
from [http://dpconline.org/handbook](http://dpconline.org/handbook).

Author Background

Sara Day Thomson is a Research Officer at the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC).
Her expertise lies in the field of digital preservation, where she focuses on ensuring
long-term digital access to various forms of data, particularly social media. Through
her work, she has contributed to the development of strategies and best practices
aimed at preserving vulnerable digital content. Thomson’s extensive research into
archiving and digital preservation frameworks makes her a leading voice in
addressing the challenges of social media preservation, helping institutions navigate
the complexities of ensuring long-term access to online platforms and their content.

Introduction

In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, the sheer volume of social

media content presents both opportunities and challenges. Social media
platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, serve as repositories
of user-generated content, capturing personal, social, and public interactions
on a global scale. This wealth of data has the potential to provide invaluable
insights into social behavior, public opinion, and historical events. However,
due to its transient nature, much of this content is at risk of disappearing if
not properly preserved.

The article, Preserving Social Media: Applying Principles of Digital

Preservation to Social Media Archiving by Sara Day Thomson (2017),
highlights the growing need to ensure the long-term preservation of social
media data. In the same way that traditional web archiving efforts seek to
capture websites for future use, social media archiving faces similar
challenges, such as the scalability of digital storage, external platform
dependencies, privacy concerns, and issues of data ownership. These
challenges require digital preservation principles to be adapted for use in a
social media context.

As discussed in the article, digital preservation strategies—such as bit

preservation and metadata management—are essential to ensure future
access to social media data. Without these strategies, researchers,
historians, and the public risk losing significant cultural and historical
artifacts. Thomson emphasizes that social media content, much like
traditional forms of digital data, should be captured and archived to prevent
irreversible loss, thus ensuring that future generations can analyze this rich
source of information. By implementing effective digital preservation
practices, institutions can safeguard social media data, just as they do with
other digital and physical records.

Moreover, archiving social media is not without its ethical and technical
complexities. Concerns about personal data privacy, platform restrictions,
and the scalability of data collection make this a challenging task for
archivists and researchers alike. However, the article underscores the
importance of collaboration between researchers and digital preservationists
in order to navigate these challenges and create sustainable solutions for
the long-term preservation of social media archives.

In sum, the article serves as a call to action for researchers, archivists, and
institutions to prioritize social media preservation as a critical component of
our digital legacy, offering both immediate and long-term benefits for
academic research, public memory, and historical preservation​

2. Methods (20 Marks)

a. Types of Research Methodology:

The article adopts a theoretical and applied research approach, focusing on
how established digital preservation strategies can be utilized to archive
social media data. Rather than conducting primary empirical research, the
author, Sara Day Thomson, synthesizes a variety of existing literature, case
studies, and best practices within the digital preservation community. This
methodology draws from a wide range of sources, including the Digital
Preservation Handbook, published reports by institutions such as the Digital
Preservation Coalition, and case studies of ongoing social media archiving
efforts. By applying these established principles to the novel challenge of
social media preservation, the article provides a structured and informed
analysis of the methods that can be employed to ensure long-term access to
social media content. N= This theoretical framework allows the article to
draw from various real-world examples and expert opinions without the need
for traditional research participants or samples.

b. Participants/Sample:
Since the article is theoretical and descriptive in nature, it does not involve
participants in the typical sense of human subjects in empirical studies.
Instead, the article refers to institutions and organizations that are actively
engaged in the digital preservation of social media. Notable examples
include the UK Data Service and the UK Web Archive, both of which are
cited as organizations working to archive social media datasets, such as
Twitter feeds and other public online interactions. These institutions serve as
the "participants" in the sense that their activities and methodologies are
examined and discussed. N= Rather than a sample size or participant group,
the article’s scope revolves around organizations’ initiatives, making the
“sample” a collection of institutional practices and preservation projects
rather than individual or quantitative data subjects.

c. Experiment Design:
The article does not follow a traditional experimental design with variables,
controls, and hypothesis testing. Instead, it takes a descriptive approach,
analyzing existing efforts in social media archiving and how they reflect
broader trends in digital preservation. The "design" of the article involves a
comparative discussion of different case studies and the application of digital
preservation principles, such as bit preservation and metadata management,
to social media platforms. For instance, the article discusses the UK Data
Service’s “After Woolwich Twitter corpus”, a dataset containing Twitter
interactions following the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby, and how it serves
as a model for preserving social media data in a usable format for future
researchers. N= Instead of an experimental procedure, the article is
structured around a discussion of best practices and their application to
emerging challenges in digital archiving.

d. Materials Used:
In discussing the practical aspects of social media archiving, the article
references several key materials and tools employed in this field. One
prominent example is Webrecorder.io, a tool used to capture web-based
content for archival purposes, which enables the preservation of social
media in its interactive form. The article also mentions the Wayback Machine,
a well-known tool that archives snapshots of websites, including social
media platforms. These tools are central to the digital preservation strategies
discussed in the article, as they allow institutions to store and replicate social
media environments as they existed at specific points in time. Additionally,
the article refers to specific datasets like the “After Woolwich Twitter corpus”,
a collection of tweets that were harvested to analyze public sentiment during
a major UK event. N= These materials—ranging from web archiving tools to
specific datasets—are crucial components of the digital preservation process
and serve as the "materials" for both practitioners and researchers involved
in the long-term safeguarding of social media data.

Key Results
The article identifies several significant challenges that threaten the
long-term preservation of social media data. One of the foremost challenges
discussed is platform restrictions, where social media companies often do
not provide adequate access to their data for preservation purposes. This
lack of cooperation can impede the archiving process, making it difficult
to capture the full scope of user-generated content. Furthermore, privacy
concerns are highlighted, particularly around the ethical dilemmas of
preserving personal data without user consent, as users may not always be
aware that their posts or interactions are being archived for future
research. Additionally, data scalability emerges as a critical challenge,
as social media platforms generate an immense amount of content daily,
requiring institutions to develop methods that can handle such vast amounts
of data while ensuring that the most valuable content is preserved
effectively.
Thomson also underscores the importance of collaboration between
researchers and archivists to address these challenges, as the preservation
of social media requires both technical and ethical considerations. By
applying principles from the field of digital preservation, such as
defining "Designated Communities" (the primary users of preserved data) and
bit preservation (ensuring the long-term viability of digital information),
the article provides solutions to overcome these challenges. For instance,
the bit preservation principle ensures that even as the technologies used
to access the data evolve, the data itself remains accessible, enabling
future research. In summary, the key results of the article point toward
the need for robust digital preservation frameworks to tackle the growing
complexities of archiving social media content for future access.

Support for Hypotheses/Objectives

Thomson successfully adapted to address the challenges specific to social
media archiving like demonstrates that by applying well-established
frameworks from the field of digital preservation, such as risk assessment,
policy development, and the concept of Designated Communities, it is
possible to mitigate the risks associated with preserving such a large and
diverse data set. The proposed strategies, such as developing institutional
policies for handling social media data and conducting risk assessment to
identify potential issues in archiving, align well with the objective of
ensuring long-term access to social media data.

Thomson argument is further supported by real-world examples, such as the

UK Data Service’s After Woolwich Twitter corpus, which illustrates how
social media data can be effectively archived for future research. Through
these case studies, Thomson provides concrete evidence that the challenges
of platform restrictions, ethical concerns, and scalability can be
addressed within the frameworks of digital preservation, thereby supporting
the objectives of the study.

Implications or Applications of the Study

The implications of the study are significant, particularly for
institutions involved in archiving digital content. Thomson's work suggests
that applying digital preservation techniques to social media archiving is
essential for ensuring the the re-productivity of research and the
protection of a valuable cultural resource. By following the principles of
digital preservation, institutions can create long-term strategies that
safeguard social media data for future use, allowing researchers,
historians, and the public to access information that reflects the social
and cultural dynamics of our time. Moreover, the study advocates for the
development of more open data policies from social media platforms, which
would facilitate easier access to user-generated content for preservation
purposes. This recommendation could have broad implications for policy
advocacy, as it calls for a re-evaluation of the restrictive data-sharing
practices currently employed by many social media companies.
The study’s findings also have practical applications for organizations
responsible for managing large-scale digital archives, such as libraries,
museums, and academic institutions. By adopting the digital preservation
frameworks discussed in the article, these institutions can better manage
the challenges associated with **scalability** and privacy, ensuring that
their digital preservation efforts are both efficient and ethically sound.

Major Limitations of the Study:

The article acknowledges several major limitations in the current state of
social media preservation. One of the most significant limitations is the
lack of cooperation from social media platforms, which often have
restrictive data-sharing policies. These platforms are under no legal or
contractual obligation to preserve users' data for the long term, which
makes it challenging for researchers and archivists to capture and store
this content effectively. Another key limitation is the ethical concern
related to preserving personal data without user consent. Many users may
not be aware that their social media interactions are being archived for
future use, raising serious privacy concerns. Addressing this issue
requires the development of ethical guidelines and privacy safeguards to
ensure that social media data is handled responsibly.

Additionally, the study highlights the lack of standardized practices for

social media preservation. While digital preservation has established
frameworks, the specific challenges posed by social media data—such as its
ephemeral nature, the rapid pace at which it is generated, and the varying
formats it takes—require new and innovative approaches that have yet to be
fully developed. This gap in the literature suggests that more research is
needed to create standard guidelines for archiving social media content.
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