Research project Collective identity formation in social media - interaction in Facebook groups.
Social media have in recent decades emerged as an important arena for interaction and identity formation. The overall aim of the study was to investigate how collective identity formation takes shape within groups in social media where social issues are discussed. Specifically, three Facebook groups with different orientations have been studied.
The results show how the interaction in the Facebook groups is enabled and limited by both the platform's technical conditions and the social conditions, norms and rules that frame these practices during the time the study was carried out. Using an application of conversation analysis, the study showed how it is possible to distinguish three types of interaction in the groups, interaction characterized by: resistance, agreement, and nuance.
Based on these three types of interactions, three different types of togetherness, and three collective identities, were presented:
- Resistance identity is the first type of collective identity, and is formed through interaction that manifests a shared distance from something/someone.
- Solidarity identity is the second type of collective identity, and is formed through interaction that manifests common advocacy of something and/or celebration of someone.
- Negotiation identity is the third type of collective identity, and is formed through a joint effort to reflect on, negotiate and nuance the understanding of something/someone.
From this overall result, two aspects are highlighted in the concluding discussion. The first aspect is interaction in social media and the second aspect is collective identity formation as learning.
Project description
Research questions
- What possibilities and limitations for interaction do Facebook groups offer where social issues are discussed?
- What types of interaction take shape in discussion threads in such Facebook groups?
- How are collective identities formed through the interaction that takes shape in discussion threads?”
The study's three research questions have been answered in the dissertation's three results chapters.
Methodology
The theoretical starting point of the study is a combination of a socio-cultural perspective and Goffman's dramaturgical perspective. The study starts from a socio-cultural perspective that emphasizes participation in practices as a way for individuals to learn, develop and shape identities, as well as Goffman's dramaturgical perspective where identities are understood as presentations in ongoing interactions between people. Netnography as a qualitative approach constitutes an important methodological point of departure for studying Facebook groups as practitioners.
Project members
Project managers
Members
Matilda Wiklund, Main Supervisor
