Edizioni FrancoAngeli - Last issue of SOCIOLOGIA DELLA COMUNICAZIONE (41/2011)

Editoriale

Wed, 15 May 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Lella Mazzoli

Sociable networks. An Introduction

Wed, 15 May 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Roberta Bartoletti, Franca Faccioli
The special topic of this issue refers to the sociable networks. Research in / on the social web means selecting theoretical and empirical papers on sociability - as defined by Georg Simmel - and on the networked sociability in social media. These works were presented at the conference in Urbino organized by the Processes and cultural institutions section - Italian Association of Sociology - in the period 2008-2011.

Sociability and public sphere. Types of conversation in so-called "third places"

Wed, 15 May 2012 8:00:00 GMT

The article offers a new reading of sociability and of public sphere as they were conceived respectively by Georg Simmel and by Jürgen Habermas: types of conversations that interweave with each other in the ordinary communicative practices and are common in the "third places" described by Ray Oldenburg when dealing with an informal sociability. The text focuses on coffee-house gatherings, that were the first "third places" in the modern Europe. Then it considers their transformations and the birth of communicative practices related to the sociability and to the public sphere on the web. Several authors point out a "virtual coffee culture", but if this culture does exist, the history of coffee houses represents its past and helps read and understand forms and functions of communicative interactions taking place on the web.

Sociability 2.0. Social ties in the network society

Wed, 15 May 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Alberto Marinelli
The object of this paper is the virtualization of social ties that is experienced in Social Network Sites. Both in sociological theory and in communication theory we can no longer distinguish the analysis of computer-mediated communication from the observation of the new forms of sociability that are embedded in network society. These new forms of relations, specifically enabled by social media, are characterized by the "privatization of sociability" and by the possibility of easily swit ching between different social networks. From this theoretical perspective, the construction of social ties is the ongoing actualization of connections.

Forms and practices of web sociability. Publicly connected

Wed, 15 May 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Giovanni Boccia Artieri
The article investigates the development of the relationship between society and individuals in terms of communication and related technologies. Here, and especially in the social web, the word contingency becomes increasingly visible and characterizes social ties. The core of this change refers to the creation of mass interpersonal communication forms such as blogs, SNSs. They have changed the experience of the individuals that now become aware of being a potential "subject" of a conversation, while their audience becomes the networked publics. Therefore the social bond should be seen as a "connection status" in the context of network dynamics, as a bond that absorbed the contingency.

The users in the middle. The librarians between voluntarism and entropy

Wed, 15 May 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Antonio Di Stefano
The Librarians are a particular type of aNobii’s users whose solidaristic and voluntaristic dimension confirms optimistic readings on horizontal participation in the Web 2.0 environment, by showing how organizational practice constitutes a central part of environments typically characterized by sociability. At the same time, however, our survey highlights the degree of sophistication embodied by such practices, by identifying, within the specific social network site, particular action patterns stemming from symbolic in-fightings aimed at achieving their legitimacy. But such an "outcome" seems to be provisional in an online social system which is paradoxically weak in its own organizational structure.

New listening strategies for Public Administration. Monitoring citizens’ satisfaction through social network sites

Wed, 15 May 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Alessandro Lovari, Lorenza Parisi
This paper aims to analyze the opportunities offered by the social network sites (SNS) as tools for public administrations to listen to citizens’ voices. For this purpose a web survey delivered via Facebook took place in Spello, a municipality located in Central Italy, involving young citizens (18-24 years old) and analyzing their satisfaction as customers. The research has highlighted how SNS can help and become useful and strategic channels for public administrations by monitoring citizen satisfaction toward services provided by local governments and by identifying citizens’ relational needs and communicative consumptions, above all those of the youngest members of the population.

"Just we know the reasons why we do not have children": the second demographic transition in women’s social network

Wed, 15 May 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Vincenza Pellegrino
This paper deals with the opinions of young adult women about the possibility or not to become mothers. In particular, the essay investigates if the "forums.net" around this theme are places where to take a much clearer position on "parenting". The survey is based on the text analysis of the recorded conversations within various forum.net characterized by the form "one questions Proposer - many Responders". These communicative spaces seems to encourage the sharing of «common thoughts but commonly removed», as one of the participants says. It generates a particular context in which the presence of women perceived as «similar but not close» allows the explanation of unpopular positions about women’s life, and shows a complex collective imagination in which the idea of "good female life" has changed and hardly goes with the idea of "good motherhood" which seems very stable, "traditional".

A new way of being parents. The web as a meeting space for new families

Wed, 15 May 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Stefania Carulli
The spread of new family models and the growth of associations, especially those connected with family business, have become effective tools in recent years to give voice to different instances of the civil society. Both these factors, together with the ability of the web to transmit contents and create social networks produce a synergy that offers room for contact between apparently distant realities. This paper shows the online activities of some organizations that deal with family, especially those associations that deal with parenting, highlighting their life between online and offline.

The failed communication about Italian Unification. 1911,1961,2011

Wed, 15 May 2012 8:00:00 GMT

The article analyzes the 150 years after the Unification of Italy through the coevolution of society and media. It goes from the first newspapers to television, photography, film and radio: broadcast media by nature that seem to have lost their power of penetration by the audience after the introduction of Internet Web 2.0 and the social-networking sites. The analysis leads to the conclusion that communication strategies used in the 50, 100 and 150-year celebrations of the Italian Unifica- tion failed to strengthen a feeling of national unity in the public perception. The study reports data analyzed by means of the communication theories and refers to the McLuhan’s ones whose 100 birthday has been celebrated in 2011.

Working in the Radio in the age of social networks. How new media are modifying an old medium

Wed, 15 May 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Giorgio Zanchini
Written by an author who is a radio journalist and a long-time host of radio programs, the article is an empirical overview on how the so-called new media are affecting an old medium as radio. In particular it analyses how sms, mails, Facebook and Twitter modify the form and the contents of on-air programmes. The results in terms of pros and cons are controversial, but it is undeniable that they open up the area of public debate and strengthen the participation of the public, as some great scholars - Benjamin, Brecht, Kracauer - of the 20th century had hoped.

Enrico Rossi, President of Tuscany. Communication, storytelling and new media: an "integrated" campaign

Wed, 15 May 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Antonio Sofi
The article describes the features of the new form of election campaigns based on the use of different media and on the storytelling that are possible thanks to the new technologies. The article contains an analysis of the successful campaign of Enrico Rossi, the President of Tuscany: it was written by th person who planned and managed it. This campaign has shown how a change is possible and how transparency and content can be the focus of the campaign, having the web as great ally for the stakeholders of this kind of communication.

Football in the dynamics of consumption: the forms of marketing and the building of a shared identity

Wed, 15 May 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Michele Bonazzi
To identify oneself with a football team is a process capable of building a community that encompasses and distinguishes at the same time those who adhere to it. A shared identity also manifests itself in the ownership of goods that are an undeniable sign of belonging. The promotion of these objects takes place through traditional marketing practices and those forms of unconventional marketing that allow the consumer to play an active role in the productive mechanism. Football is a part of this new dynamics involving producers and consumers to sell the productfootball and the whole universe of consumption that revolves around it.

Intervista a Nancy Baym

Wed, 15 May 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Agnese Vellar

Recensioni

Wed, 15 May 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Abstract

Wed, 15 May 2012 8:00:00 GMT