Santa Clara University Scholar Commons Communication College of Arts & Sciences 2018 Facebook: Changing the face of communication research Paul A. Soukup Santa Clara University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/comm Part of the Communication Commons Recommended Citation Soukup, P. A. (2018). Facebook: Changing the face of communication research. Communication Research Trends, 37(1), 3–42. CRT allows the authors to retain copyright. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Arts & Sciences at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Communication by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Facebook: Changing the Face of Communication Research Paul A. Soukup, S.J. [email protected] The ubiquitous social networking site, Facebook, Communication Source database. The database registered over one billion active users in 2012 and returned the initial list of articles to a query using the continues to grow (Facebook, 2018a). Not surprisingly, single search term “Facebook.” Subsequent analysis communication researchers around the world noticed grouped the articles into a number of themes. As we this phenomenal shift in communication practice, a will see, much of the published research that involves practice aided by a combination of digital communica- Facebook addresses not Facebook itself but Facebook tion tools—easy to access communication networks, as a source of material or research data on more partic- low cost bandwidth, smartphones, application features, ular communication topics. In a way, Facebook appears and so on. These developments transformed the under- as another medium for communication. standing of “social networks,” turning them from face- After some introductory comments on the histo- to-face interactions among small groups into world ry and prior study of Facebook, this review will pres- spanning digital connections, from networks of busi- ent the key themes that appear in the research. These ness or professional associations supported by ana- include Facebook in theoretical perspectives, logue or “old” communication practices (such as letter Facebook used in interpersonal communication, writing, telephone calls, or conference meetings) into Facebook’s relationship to journalism, Facebook in always-on real-time tracking of people’s activities. education, Facebook in political communication, cor- This review examines 400 articles published porate and organizational use of Facebook, legal and between 2006 and 2017 in peer reviewed communica- ethical issues arising with Facebook, and other areas tion-related journals and listed in the EBSCO of research. 1. Background: History and Prior Reviews A. History admits that he hacked into Harvard’s student resources Historical background on Facebook appears in a for the initial photos and data, but soon, compelled by number of places, from admiring biographies (McGirt, the university, he took down the site in the interests of 2007) to official pages (Facebook, 2018b) to journal student privacy (McGirt, 2007). articles that draw on these and other materials to pro- Facebook did not originate the concept of a social vide a fairly detailed history (Alves Ribeiro Correia & media site, with predecessors like SixDegrees, Rafael Moreira, 2014, 2015). Most retell the basic launched in 1997; LiveJournal, in 1999; and MySpace, story of how Facebook founders Mark Zuckerberg, in 2003. In addition, any number of other social net- Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes, and Eduardo Saverin working sites emerged around the same time: IBM launched Facebook in 2004, expanding it from a col- Buddy, Friendster, Tribe, LinkedIn, and so on (Alves lege-centric web resource at Harvard University to its Ribeiro & Rafael Moreira, 2015). Good (2013) argues public development later in the year. Zuckerberg for an even longer historical time line, comparing key COMMUNICATION RESEARCH TRENDS VOLUME 37 (2018) NO. 1 — 3 features of Facebook to scrapbooking, a print-era B. Past reviews medium dating to the 19th century. She identifies two Several past reviews offer a snapshot of aspects of their common form: “First, a key shared fea- Facebook at particular times; these note, however, that ture is their containment of—and formal dependence the changing nature of Facebook as a platform and as on—diverse streams of personal content. [second] a company makes generalization difficult. Caers, De both are personal media archives, or sites that house Feyter, De Couck, Stough, Vigna, and Du Bois (2013) personal media assemblages within a bounded setting, focus their examination on 114 peer reviewed articles with options for both private viewing and public dis- that address the economic and psychological areas of play” (p. 559). In addition to these formal characteris- Facebook use. After providing a brief history of tics, social media network sites also share functional Facebook (since its opening to the public in 2006) and similarities such as documenting friendship, providing the general operation of a social networking site, they tools, and offering ways to accumulate “cultural capital examine motivations to join Facebook, which include through the expression of class distinctions and per- the playfulness of the site, pressure from others as the sonal taste” (p. 561). Al-Suwaidi (2013) suggests a dif- critical mass of users increased, and the facilitation of ferent historical metaphor to underlie the practices of social identity (pp. 984–985). They distinguish initial Facebook, likening its users to a tribe, drawing on his motivations to join from the motivations to stay on own cultural norms in the United Arab Emirates. This Facebook, which they judge understudied. The understanding of social network users leads to a critical research team summarize studies of user characteris- evaluation of “how social media changes marketing tics, finding gender differences in privacy profiles but strategies, consumer relationships, business models, not in adoption. Not surprisingly studies conducted the rise of e-commerce, the impact on military affairs, between 2006 and 2012 found extroversion and open- legal issues pertaining to copyright violations, the ness to new things positively correlated with social effectiveness of the regulations and policies, and the networking membership but conscientiousness and potential technological developments in the future, emotional stability negatively correlated (pp. including that of social media in shaping society” 985–986). The research team urges caution on this (Priya, 2014, p. 159). since the initial studies had small, mostly convenience Miller (2013) offers another cultural and histori- samples from U.S. universities. They cite other studies cal look at Facebook: from the perspective of Trinidad, that examine the nature of the social networks (size of where he argues that the local culture adapts Facebook networks, similarity of online and offline friends, into existing social networks (reported by Cirucci, social attractiveness, etc.). Other psychological traits 2012). The challenge to the local culture arises not associated with Facebook users include self-disclosure from the tools but from the scope of an expanding net- and what the research team calls “me-marketing” (p. work (p. 698). While not focusing specifically on 988). The prevalence of these behaviors varies with Facebook, Duff (2016) provides a wider historical con- age, with self-conscious self-presentation, and for stu- text of the California Silicon Valley culture to which dents, with the move into professional careers. Some the Facebook founders turned to develop their ideas studies also pair the self-disclosure with privacy con- and company. After a detailed and helpful literature cerns and with other effects of Facebook use, with stu- review of key writing on Silicon Valley culture, Duff dents in the U.S. and Germany reporting jealously and presents interviews with key individuals to provide mixed experiences with social capital. context on the three keys themes of the information Caers and his colleagues then turn to the econom- revolution, the growth of information capitalism, and ic literature and report on how organizations (mostly “the normative crisis of the information society” (p. for-profit) have begun using Facebook for marketing, 1605). This cultural mix has worked to reshape branding, and reputation management. In addition, Facebook and the other Silicon Valley firms even as they note how scholars, libraries, and teachers have those companies have redefined “information.” incorporated Facebook in their work. A few companies A very different approach to Facebook’s history at the time of the review managed online recruiting and focuses on the technical infrastructure that makes it evaluation through Facebook. Caers and his team con- possible to host over one billion users (Farahbakhsh, clude by identifying seven areas for future research: Cuevas, Ortiz, Han, & Crespi, 2015). • why non-users avoid Facebook and former users abandon it 4— VOLUME 37 (2018) NO. 1 COMMUNICATION RESEARCH TRENDS • how Facebook behaviors connect with various per- lack of generalizability), the potential distraction by sonality traits specific features (leading to a loss of focus on the more • how online bullying is perceived by friends’ net- general communication patterns), and the potential works skewing of results based on corporate policy. They also • how users deal with