We are happy to announce that the SIGSNA team is now officially part of a larger research group, counting 5 Italian universities (University of Urbino, University of Bologna, Catholic University of Milano, University of Bergamo, Calabria University), that has recently been awarded of PRIN research funds for the project: Online social relations and identity: Italian experience in Social Network Sites.
PRIN (short for the Italian version of: Research project of national interest) funds are awarded to large research group working of high level projects. The Online Social Relations and Identity project aims at investigating how social relations are reshaped and constructed Online. The research will focus on Italian people and will use Social Network Sites (SNS) as selected online environment for observation. Research methodology will be based on an advanced interdisciplinary approach based both on quantitative computer-driven analysis and on qualitative sociological analysis. This is obviously where all the expertise we’ve collected within the SIGNSA group will be most valuable.
The main research questions of the project are:
– What kinds of communication practices support social relationships in SNSs?
– What is the role of media production, fruition and sharing in this context?
– What kinds of practices support the public self-narration of users’ identity in SNSS?
– How is the distinction between private and public space being reshaped in SNSs? How this distinction in strategically used by users?
– How emotional relations (such as friendships or family) are redefined in SNSs?
In addition to that, since the research will use a large amount of automatically extracted data form SNS, a methodological question will be risen:
– What is an effective way to combine computer-based analysis of large quantity of SNS data with in-depth sociological interviews?
While ad ad hoc web site of the project will be established soon, we’re keeping publishing any relevant update also here.