Big Data Discourses| Cultural Motifs of Big Data in User-Generated Content: A Semiautomated Analysis of 10 Years of Discourse

This article examines the sensemaking around big data in user-generated content on Reddit, Facebook, and Twitter/X. Big data is not only a technology but also an issue of public concern. However, given that the term “big data” has been around for more than a decade, little is known about how the cultural motifs used to make sense of it have changed over time or how public discussions reverberate with—or dispute—elite framings in news and high-profile publications. To fill this gap, we use a semiautomated content analysis of discourse around big data over a period of 10 years. We focus on cultural motifs that anchor big data frames in sensemaking. Our analysis, which integrates manual annotation with automatic classification using a transformer-based language model, revealed three predominant cultural motifs of seven examined. These recurring motifs primarily emphasize themes of profit and prediction, the evolving datafication of society, or the pursuit of innovations for societal advancement. The motifs encapsulate a range of topics that point to a diversity of adjoining discourses on datafication writ large.