Media and Communication Research Facing Social Media

Abstract

It is already a fact that social media are engaged in research activities. Social media may make the object of research studies or an important data source. This chapter addresses issues related to social media research in media and communication studies. The pursued objective is to capture how researchers consider and analyze social media through scientific methods, in their work with academic purposes, in order to present the discussed theories. The ideas addressed by this chapter are case studies arising from the articles in the academic publications, topics related to social media and media and communication fields, outputs of researches, and appropriate methods for studying social media. The conclusions of this chapter show that social media research in media and communication studies, theories, and methods must be transformed or must be used more appropriate to social media. New and social media are faced with other practices and types of communication related to users’ participation and social actions and are based on network studies.