La ricerca sui media digitali. Una introduzione ad approcci e strumenti di indagine.

In the last few years, the spread of digital data, circulating on different platforms, has contributed to spark a lively debate on the opportunities offered by the contamination between social and computer sciences. The article deals to reconstruct the research approaches that have been adopted for the study of digital media, paying particular attention to the empirical sociological research. This production is between more traditional approaches such as Virtual Methods (that use traditional research techniques in online environments) to the Digital Methods (that emphasize the specificities of digital devices). The idea is that instruments traditionally used by Virtual Methods, by themselves, cannot fully exploit the wealth of social information available on digital platforms.

Negli ultimi anni c’è stata una vera inflazione di indagini sui media digitali, sia in ambito accademico che nel privato. Questo articolo si occupa di ricostruire gli approcci di ricerca (e, quando, possibile le tecniche e gli strumenti) adottati per lo studio dei media digitali, prestando particolare attenzione alla produzione empirica di impronta sociologica.