Facebook and politics in perspective: analysis on the profile of studies in this research field

Abstract

This paper aims to make a iventory of researchs regarding Facebook and politics, taking into acount many dimensions of what politics means. The main goal is to provide insights about research agendas, identify standarts of investigation and stablish gaps in existing literature – work done by analyzing a sample of published papers in leading journals concerning social sciences, political science and communication. In the end, 108 papers were analyzed and then categorised into predefined parameters in order to offer data for evaluation in terms of agendas, standarts and gaps. The results, among other things, are: concentration of empirical studies, a considerable amount of work on electoral periods, a preference for adopting the citizen as the focus of analysis and a majority of investigations done by survey.