Constructing collective meaning about risk on social media

Abstract

This explorative study addresses the themes of immigration, social media and risk perception. It investigates how immigrant women in Norway construct collective meaning about various risks when they participate in online discussions of risk-related topics in a closed Facebook group. Two online discussions about Norwegian Child Welfare Service and about child immunization has been chosen for the analysis in this study. These discussions were interpreted as socially constructed risk discourses, where the risks were presented as complex and multidimensional social constructions. The analysis revealed that those discourses demonstrated nuanced and authentic images of the risks, positioned as a part of perceived social reality of the host country. Therefore, the findings of this study provide with an exceptional insight in how risk is viewed by this group of immigrant women as a socially constructed phenomenon. The empirical findings were examined in the light of two socio-cultural theoretical perspectives on risk: Governmentality and Reflexive Modernity. These theories allowed to view the revealed risk constructions in connection to more general societal perspectives on risk as a part of everyday life in modern society. This research project contributes to the expanding of scientific knowledge about immigrants’ perceptions of risks in Norwegian society and their use of social media as a platform for collective sense making about those risks. The study provides with valuable practical and methodological implications for politicians, representatives of public agencies, managers and risk researchers. Key words: risk perception, immigration, social media, meaning construction, Reflexive modernity, Governmentality, internet research.