Inna F. Deviatko. From “Virtual Lab” to “Social Telescope”: Metaphors of Theoretical and Methodological Innovations in Online Research

Abstract

The key trends and publications in social sciences are reviewed in the paper in order to reveal and present in a systematic way the changes in dominant research topics and methods of Internet research taking place since early 2000s as well as concomitant modifications in types of available data and in our understanding of the nature of Internet communications. Particular attention is paid to leading methodological innovations and to possibilities and challenges which arise as a leading function of online research shifts from an auxiliary “mirror” of conventional lab experiments, surveys and participant observations to a prevalent mode of research of global effects of microinteractions and source of new “social phenomenology” for many research 546 Онлайн-исследования в России: тенденции и перспективы fields, including large scale experiments on the topics of social influence and cultural diffusion, political mobilization, etc.