Towards a Sociological Understanding of Social Media: Theorizing Twitter

• Published in: Sociology (Oxford) Vol. 46; no. 6; pp. 1059 - 1073
• Main Author: Murthy, Dhiraj
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.12.2012; Sage Publications; Cambridge University Press
• Subjects: Algeria; Communications technology; Computer mediated communications; Cultural history; Egypt; Goffman, Erving; Goffman, Erving (1922-1982); Innovations; Interactionism; International; Internet; Libya; Mass Media; Media; News content; Online identity; Online social networking; Social activism; Social identity; Social interaction; Social media; Social Movements; Social networks; Social theory; Sociological theory; Sociologists; Sociology; Sociology of communication and mass media. Sociolinguistics; Sociology of knowledge and sociology of culture; Studies; Telegraph; Telephones; Theory; Tunisia; Websites; Twitter; self-production; Goffman; computer-mediated technology; social media; Technological innovation; Social media; Media; Goffman (E.); Social Interaction; Internet; Communication
• ISSN: 0038-0385; 1469-8684
• DOI: 10.1177/0038038511422553

This article presents the first steps towards a sociological understanding of emergent social media. This article uses Twitter, the most popular social media website, as its focus. Recently, the social media site has been prominently associated with social movements in Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, and Algeria. Rather than rush to breathlessly describe its novel role in shaping contemporary social movements, this article takes a step back and considers Twitter in historical and broad sociological terms. This article is not intended to provide empirical evidence or a fully formed theoretical understanding of Twitter, but rather to provide a selected literature review and a set of directions for sociologists. The article makes connections specifically to Erving Goffman's interactionist work, not only to make the claim that some existing sociological theory can be used to think critically about Twitter, but also to provide some initial thoughts on how such theoretical innovations can be developed.