As digital technologies penetrate deeper into our lives, mobile devices and social media occupy more and more of our time, user behavior and communication content increasingly diversify. Following this communication shift, methods derived from traditional social sciences become seriously challenged. To identify digital communication activities conducted by users, new media research turn to information science for new ally. Digital technologies are employed to collect large amounts of data and to trace digital footprints of users. Driven by the Big-Data approach, this computational turn is currently taking place in communication research with its impacts and implications. Based on a critical review of literature and case-study experiences, this paper addresses issues concerning the Big-Data approach used in new media studies from a methodological perspective. New possibilities are identified and explained along with challenges.