ABSTRACT
In order to undertake a qualitative research project that studies cultures, discourses and interaction among users in the context of Web 2.0, the researcher has to become familiar with the specific forms of sociality inhabiting the Web, and know what kind of principles pertain to these in relation to the social environment or platform studied. Defining online social formations is therefore crucial in order to contextualise digital data and, in addition, to properly interpret their social meaning and uses. For instance, a Twitter hashtag could take very different social meanings depending on whether it is produced within a community or a crowd – which, as we are about to see, come together as social aggregations with specific, distinguishing features. In the case of a community, the hashtag functions as a means to organise a collective debate; in the case of a crowd, it is a sort of device that serves as a catalyst for a collective, affective-based dynamic of interaction. This knowledge is foundational to the construction of a research question and influences the design of an entire project as well as its prospective outcomes.
