KON_F_03 Dynamics of Social Closure on Social Media Platforms: Comparative International and Transnational Perspectives on Fragmented Audiences

Objective / Research Question

Social media are characterized by hierarchies and inequality. Strong positions depend on the laborious acquisition of skills. Participation in social media goes hand in hand with demands placed on the participants, with access barriers and demarcation processes. In this way, the pluralized audiences in social media develop into fragmented (counter)audiences, which are each characterized by specific exclusions, and it is precisely through this that they can make themselves heard. The project enquires into the dynamics of closure that compartmentalize in the course of media practices, not only in close interaction but also contrary to the logic of the connectivity of social media. The main question focuses on the connection between the possibilities for participation on and mediated through social media platforms and such closure practices. The initial hypothesis is that gestures of (self-)exclusion – that is to say, inward and outward marginalization – are central hallmarks of network communities, which at the same time guarantee their power and outreach. From the perspective of media and cultural studies, the project pursues the question of the extent to which social cohesion is strengthened or challenged by closure dynamics in social media.

It combines methods from practice theory and discourse analysis and additionally uses digital methods to explore social media platforms empirically. In line with the approach of media and cultural studies, the focus lies on media ethnographic and qualitative methods for analysing practices. In this analysis-based project, selected social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) and German-speaking groups, which assemble on these platforms in particular gestures of compartmentalization, are examined and compared in terms of their dynamics of social closure. This takes place in close exchange with external collaboration partners who have already conducted comparative social media research at international level. On this basis, it is possible to determine more precisely the specific characteristics of the communities studied and the potential risk for social cohesion.