A Content Analysis of Social Media Interactions in the Facebook Band Directors Group

Abstract

Abstract The authors examine the interactions of music educators within an online social media community, the Band Directors Group on Facebook. Using a quantitative content analysis approach to examine 1,656 unique threads, the authors explore the frequencies of posted topics and general topic interest as measured by user responses. Among the 54 different codes used to categorize topics, repertoire selection, instrument recommendations, and rehearsal strategies emerged as the most frequent topics of discussion. Additionally, the authors explored the application of Wenger, McDermott, and Snyder’s (2002) community of practice theory and found that the group is a functioning community of practice that exhibits many of the common characteristics associated with the theory.