Computational Communication Science in a Digital Society

Computational methods have added new approaches to the way many communication scientists do their work. We identify four developments that accelerated the adaption of computational methods: the increasing availability of digital data, the surge of large amounts of user-created data, the need to study new artefacts, and the improved accessibility of computational resources. We describe new data acquisition techniques, new research designs, and new analytical approaches that characterise the field. After discussing contributions to the open source community, to the methodological toolbox, as well as to the testing and development of theories, we sketch in broad strokes a research agenda for the coming years.