| Summary: | Authors: Edina Hrustic & Maria Iverbo Title: Facebook – a virtual meetingplace and a gossipcave Level: BA Thesis in Journalism Location: Linnaeus University Language: Swedish Number of pages: 72 Abstract The aim of our study was to examine the meaning of the social media Facebook for young people who are in the age of 16 to 25 years. We wanted to gain an understanding in the youths´ thoughts and beliefs of how Facebook exists and plays a role in their lives. As a result from this research, we discussed how social media might affect the future of journalism. We formed our thesis based on research of the digital network society, social networks, the youth culture, and how the target group; the young people use and experience social media. We made a questionnaire for 36 high school students, and three of these participated in a focusgroup-discussion. We combined and analyzed the response from the questionnaire and the focus group in our final result, and discussed patterns and relations between the youngsters´ answers. Our result shows that Facebook mostly is regarded to be a virtual meetingplace, where these young people can interact and communicate with each other. They mostly communicate with their friends from the real-life, and youths´ use Facebook as a tool when they want to find out what people in their surrounding do. The questionnaire result also shows that Facebook can be seen as an information channel, where the young people can get gossip and offer each other invitations to common events. From this study, we can point out that the social network is practically of great importance in young peoples’ lives. The questionnaire of Facebook and how young people´s habits are affected implies that it is important to use the social network discussion while analysing the convergence between so called; "old" and "new media". Young people steer and direct the use of media, and that is the reason why the understanding about their thoughts of social media is significantly important. One could practically say that youngsters can affect the future of journalism, and the design and development of media. Key words: young people, Facebook, social media, virtual communication, the convergence of media, digital network society, journalism
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