"Redes dentro de Redes: dinâmicas sociais baseadas na técnica" > Comunicação apresentada no III Congresso Internacional de Ciberjornalismo - 6 e 7 de Dezembro - Universidade do Porto

1. III International Conference on Cyberjournalism
Convergence
December 6th / 7th , 2012
University of Porto
Networks within Networks: Social
Dynamics based on Technique
Inês Amaral – CECS: University of Minho / Instituto Superior
Miguel Torga
ciberesfera.com / inesamaral@gmail.com

2. Online Social Networks: Emergent
Sociabilities

3. Introduction
Thesis/Assumption: new sociability based on a constantly changing model of
communication that has transformed the concept of the regular user to a
Consumer 2.0 and enabled to the receivers the possibility of publishing for a
global audience.
- BEING ONLINE > people are changing their behaviours: they work, live and
think connectedly.
- COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE > the new digital environment promotes
collective action, consumers 2.0 and prosumers.
- ‘GLOCALIZATION’ > we are globalizing the local through the Internet.

4. Introduction
Aim: to understand whether new forms of sociability emerge with the new
practices and social relations that represent an unterritorialized thermometer
of society.
Research Question: network environments promote a new kind of citizenship
and consequently sociability with new relationships and practices?
Hypothesis: Internet’s collaborative potential establishes spaces for public
engagement and network participation that describe the emergence of new
sociabilities.
Empirical Study: triangular method > draw social networks on microblogging
service Twitter based on ‘folksonomy’ – semantic indexation > content
analysis, statistical method, social networks analysis

5. Context: New Communication Ecosystem
– Dynamic model of communication
– New ecosystem, new concepts of community and society
– Metamorphic idea of territoriality
– Social Web
– Web 2.0 as a ‘social amplifier’
Cyberspace is the displacement of sociability where collective intelligence is
promoted by a new communication ecosystem.

6. Networks within the Network: theoretical
studies
 Web 2.0 and the new communication paradigm (2008)
 Self media Era (2009)
 Society 2.0: the emergence of a new sociability? (2009)
 Society and Communities 2.0: a proposal for equate
communication models in a "moving target" (2010)
 Social Networks on Twitter: the emergence of a new
sociability in a new communication ecosystem? (2010)

7. Networks within the Network: exploratory
studies

8. Empirical Study: Social Networks on Twitter >
2009 and 2010 on Twitter > #cablegate

9. Main conclusions: Hashtag Networks reveals
• an emergence of new forms of sociability
• the mobilization of various modes of social capital
• a pattern of “network individualism”
• potencial collective action and virality
• speed of information transmission
• integration of different audiences of audiences with multiple networks
• streams of streams of contents
• spheres of influence, authority and popularity

10. Main conclusions: Hashtag Networks reveals
• Semantic indexation: viral information, distributed production and
collective consumption of various streams
• new publics, new gatekeepers but still the centrality of professional
media
• from citizen journalism to social journalism within streams of streams
• social and thematic streams
• asymmetric social networks
• weak bonds between different streams of users and content
• social and deterritorialized thermometer of the global society

11. Therefore…
– social networks
– networks of networks
– networks of contetns
– streams of networks
– streams of contents
– streams of streams

12. What about journalism?
 CONVERGENCE OF MEDIA
 CONVERGENCE OF CONTENTS
 CONVERGENCE OF USERS
 CONVERGENCE OF STREAMS
 CONVERGENCE AS A SPHERE
 CONVERGENCE AS JOURNALISM?
USERS, NETWORKS, CONTENT STREAMS AND JOURNALISM

13. Perspectives for a conceptual model
– Content as relational bond and the appropriation of technology as
support
– Content consumption frames users in multiple networks
– Appropriation of content and technique as the basis and construction of
the interaction of social groups

14. Perspectives for a conceptual model
– Propagation of structures of semantic indexing?
– Potential for social disaggregation?
– Networks of Content Distribution?
– Content as a key element of sociability?

15. The need for a conceptual model. Why?
Cyberspace tends to transform itself into a sphere where
consumption information will frame the users,
through their choices, in multiple network structures
(streams of information indexed) which will overcome
the logic of social relations as a central element of
sociability and focus on practices of appropriation of
content and technology as the foundation of
interaction and the construction of social groups.

16. The need for a conceptual model. Why?
Consumption of information in multiple and
unterritorialized streams of information indexed by
users.
Who is the journalist?

17. Conclusion
Streams of contents enhance the emergence of different
sociabilities, which enable the construction of a social
reality and reflect an unterritorialized thermometer of
the info-included societies.

18. INÊS AMARAL
[http://ciberesfera.com]