TY - JOUR
T1 - A state of flux
T2 - Histories of social media research
AU - Lomborg, Stine
PY - 2017/2/1
Y1 - 2017/2/1
N2 - This article sets out to map the broad contours of social media research, teasing out in particular the ways in which the scholarly literature in the fields of media and communication research has addressed social media as a phenomenon since the emergence of the term ‘social media’ in the early 2000s. As a communicative phenomenon and research object, social media would appear to be in flux. Changes to existing services, the emergence of new services, and the disappearance of previously popular services testify to the sense of social media as a moving target. Researchers of social media seem to accept change, rather than continuity, as a condition for the study of social media. This is evident in our choice of research topics and data sources, but also in our discourses on social media. By examining the sense of flux of social media research in a historical perspective, this article aims to provide useful directions for future media and communication research on social media. Specifically, it suggests ways to stabilise social media as an object of study and to install a greater historical awareness in social media research.
AB - This article sets out to map the broad contours of social media research, teasing out in particular the ways in which the scholarly literature in the fields of media and communication research has addressed social media as a phenomenon since the emergence of the term ‘social media’ in the early 2000s. As a communicative phenomenon and research object, social media would appear to be in flux. Changes to existing services, the emergence of new services, and the disappearance of previously popular services testify to the sense of social media as a moving target. Researchers of social media seem to accept change, rather than continuity, as a condition for the study of social media. This is evident in our choice of research topics and data sources, but also in our discourses on social media. By examining the sense of flux of social media research in a historical perspective, this article aims to provide useful directions for future media and communication research on social media. Specifically, it suggests ways to stabilise social media as an object of study and to install a greater historical awareness in social media research.
KW - Faculty of Humanities
KW - Social media definitions
KW - continuity and change
KW - data-driven research
KW - utopian and dystopian discourses on social media
KW - history of social media research
U2 - 10.1177/0267323116682807
DO - 10.1177/0267323116682807
M3 - Journal article
SN - 0267-3231
VL - 32
SP - 6
EP - 15
JO - European Journal of Communication
JF - European Journal of Communication
IS - 1
ER -