Need your insights for my dissertation on GME’s wild ride

I don’t have enough Karma to post directly on many subs, and I’m not sure where else this could go, so I’m hoping you folks might stumble upon this and lend a hand.

I'm working on my university dissertation about the GameStop saga and hit a snag that you might help me solve.

The Plan: My goal was to dig into how options volumes impact GME stock prices during the famous gamma squeezes. I wanted to explore the complex interplay between options trading and stock price movements.

The Snag: Turns out, accessing historical options data is not an easy task. Without this data, I'm considering a shift in my research focus.

Potential New Directions:

1. The Power of Social Media: How does our chatter on platforms like Reddit influence GME’s trading volumes and stock movements? This would involve analyzing how posts and sentiments here correlate with market actions.
2. Using Proxies: Looking at things like the put/call ratio and implied volatility to guess at options activity (as proxies to options volume). It’s not as direct, but it might still shed light on what’s happening behind the scenes. However, I don't really know if they are accurate proxies.

I’d Love Your Input: Which approach do you think would be more effective or interesting? Any thoughts or tips on navigating these options would be incredibly valuable.

Thanks a ton for any advice or insights you can offer!