Week 3 Tutorial 3 1 Twitter API

Summary

The tutorial explains how Twitter’s API can be used to collect data for social media research. Tweets can contain text, usernames, topic hashtags, and links, while the API allows programs to retrieve and work with this information.

Main Ideas and Workflow

Obtain API Access

• Apply for a Twitter developer account and create an application.
• Describe the application’s intended use.
• Use the resulting credentials, such as consumer keys and access tokens, to authenticate a program.

Connect with a Python Library

The tutorial appears to demonstrate a Python library, likely Tweepy, for connecting to Twitter and reading or writing data. The program uses credentials to create an authenticated connection to the API.

Search for Tweets

• Submit a search query and optionally narrow results by keywords, location, or language.
• Choose a result mode, such as recent, popular, or mixed.
• Set the requested result count.
• Use identifiers such as since_id or max_id to control which tweets are retrieved.

Search results are subject to time limits, though the exact duration is unclear in the autogenerated captions.

Inspect Returned Data

Tweets are returned as objects containing information about the tweet and its author. Examples discussed include the tweet’s text and ID, the author’s username and location, and counts or information related to likes, replies, and retweets.

The tutorial recommends consulting Twitter’s developer documentation to understand the available fields and parameters.

Collect Tweets as They Arrive

The tutorial also introduces the streaming API for continuous tweet collection. The described approach is to create a custom listener or class with a status-handling function, create an authenticated stream object, and filter the stream by terms or other criteria.

API use is subject to rate limits, which vary by endpoint. Developers should check the documentation and avoid exceeding those limits.

Speakers and Sources

• Presenter or instructor: A speaker introduces the tutorial, but the name is unclear in the captions; “Ajay” may be part of it.
• Sources discussed: Twitter’s API and developer documentation, and a Python library that appears to be Tweepy.