Topic of thesis: My research question concerns the potential of social media as an arena for public debate. In particular, I focus on the European public sphere and on the configuration of EU related debates on Twitter and Facebook. Through the use of social media analysis, my research project aims at pursuing four main tasks: 1) mapping the structure of the online European Public Sphere, identifying the national and international influencers and the way in which different types of actors may interact online; 2) analyzing the online selfrepresentation of those actors in order to see how they differ in terms of development of online identities and behavior; 3) grouping the different online (transnational) publics according to their political preferences and their views about the European project, focusing in particular on our four lines of conflict and their eventual overlapping through the different groups and 4) deeply understanding the dynamics of public opinion formation which take place online and the way in which such dynamics contribute to either the de-conciliation or the re-conciliation of different segments of the public around the identified lines of conflict.

Research interests: SNS, big data, digital methods, public opinion, political communication, electoral behavior

Degree: MA Government and Public Communication

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