Digital Media and the Greek Crisis by Ioanna Ferra

Author:Ioanna Ferra [Ferra, Ioanna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Media Studies, General, Regional Studies, Business & Economics, Industries, Media & Communications, Computers & Information Technology
ISBN: 9781787693296
Google: vIq5DwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
Published: 2019-11-08T05:15:12+00:00

Methods, Sampling and Analysis

For the study of the use of Facebook, the online data were collected and analysed using Netvizz and Gephi (see Chapter 4). In both the examined cases, Aganaktismenoi and SYRIZA, a page-like network, was identified and discussed through a Social Network Analysis (SNA) approach. The selection of the FB pages was completed after searching on Facebook for the keywords/phrase ‘Αγανακτισμένοι στο Σύνταγμα’/’Aganaktismenoi sto Syntagma’, in the case of the Greek Indignados, and ‘Σύριζα/SYRIZA’, in the case of the SYRIZA Online Diaspora, using both Greek and Latin characters. Then, after the detection of the relevant pages and due to the high volume of detected pages, pages with more than one hundred likes/followers were included in the corpus. This was a factor that allowed the examination of pages, which were used to coordinate actions in different locations, or between actors and therefore, pages that were not active enough were excluded from the sample. The data extraction developed in three phases, starting from December 2014 to August 2015. Starting from December 2014 to January 2015, the data extraction concentrated on Aganaktismenoi network. At the same period, a second round of extraction concentrated on the SYRIZA online diaspora, focusing primarily and the transnational online SYRIZA Diaspora and secondarily on the SYRIZA online diaspora in national level (branches in Greece), from December 2014 to February 2015. Finally, a third round of extraction conducted from May to August 2015, fulfilling the national SYRIZA online diaspora (branches in Greece).

Then, based on this corpus, the page-like network included pages that were followed by other examined pages (depth 1), concentrating on the online coalitions, linkages and relationships between groups and pages. These Facebook pages acted more as websites in terms of why people read/follow and like them, rather than as typical examples of FB pages, in terms of individual use and social media features. Therefore, in this study, the examined pages are understood as nodes or actors, which represent different institutions and ideologies. The page-like network was examined through the detection of a cluster of pages (Gephi, Modularity Clustering), indicating main themes and linkages among them, online coalitions, etc. While the development of the page-like network indicated which pages each of the examined page likes/follows, it is indeed an important consideration whether these links/likes are a personal choice of the page’s administration or indeed denote linkages between pages, groups, actors, identities and so on. However, even in the case that these links/likes are just personal/random choices of the page’s administration, this is still a process which influences the production of online material as well as the communication process. Going back to the tools used in this study, Netvizz provides two different options as regards the depth of the collection of the online material. Starting from the examined page, the ‘seed’, Netvizz either retrieves all the pages that the pages liked (depth 1) or will continue trawling the links/likes between the liked pages and the pages that these pages like (depth 2). Thus, by trawling data at

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.