Final answer:
Companies analyzing large data sets are engaging in the field of big data, which allows for the analysis of patterns in human behavior and is crucial across multiple sectors, from business to politics.
Step-by-step explanation:
Companies analyzing huge amounts of data, social media, and other data points represent an emerging area of big data. This branch of technology deals with the ability to manage and analyze large datasets to reveal patterns, trends, and associations, particularly relating to human behavior and interactions. An understanding of big data is crucial in our society because it influences various aspects from media to politics, and it's a skill increasingly fundamental in the workforce. The field requires the use of advanced computer algorithms and supercomputers to efficiently sort through terabytes of information, like those collected in the astronomy project Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Furthermore, big data and the information and communications technologies that support it can have significant impacts on the structure and size of companies, essentially shaping the global business landscape.