Advancing Social Media Studies

The aim of the project “Advancing Social Media Studies” is to contribute to shaping social media studies as a comprehensive research field. The project will consist of exchange programs for MA students, PhD students, teachers and researchers, as well as of a series of workshops and conferences.Professor Simon Lindgren is head of this project which interconnects two internationally leading nodes within this research area. CSMR have already started an international MA programme in Social Media, and have appointed Social Media professors. HUMlab, on the other hand is ahead in terms of technological infrastructure and physical lab environments for students and researchers.— This project is an excellent addition to our long-running collaboration with Simon Lindgren’s research group at the Department of Sociology. It also converges well with our ambition to connect with strong partners internationally around important research challenges, says Patrik Svensson, head of HUMlab.Professor David Gauntlett, University of Westminster, is head of CSMR and will run “Advancing Social Media Studies” together with Simon Lindgren.— We are very much looking forward to the opportunity to develop our collaboration through this project. I see huge potentials in bringing CSMR and the Umeå group together, he says.The project group also includes professor Mikael Wiberg, Informatics, Umeå University and professor Christian Fuchs who is a professor of Social Media at the University of Westminster, and Christian says:— This collaborative project between Umeå University and the University of Westminster is a great opportunity for developing the interdisciplinary field of social media studies and involving researchers and our doctoral and postgraduate students and the international research community in it. Both universities have research groups and environments that are at the forefront of studying social media and the Internet's implications for society, economy, culture and politics. Also Sweden and the UK are two countries where controversies around the Internet play a very important role, which makes them excellent environments for such a collaboration. People at the University of Westminster look much forward to the collaboration.Workshops will be held alternating between London and Umeå, and the project will conclude in 2017 with a large international conference to be held at CSMR. Before that, there will also be a project conference with invited prominent keynotes at HUMlab in 2016. Part of the project is about bridging the gap between research and innovation, which is expressed through collaborations with British Library, TATE and others.
— Another long term goal is to also bring other international partners into the network to establish an international research school for Social Media Studies, says Simon Lindgren.