Research inquiries for digital diaspora and digital diasporic media

Abstract

Diaspora and diasporic media have been studied consistently. As research subjects, however, their transition to, or creation on, digital platforms makes it increasingly ambiguous to distinguish digital diaspora from digital diasporic media. This study examines literature on digital diaspora and digital diasporic media and explores this ambiguity by looking at how these two research subjects have been conceptualized and methodologically approached. Referring to Candidatu, Leurs and Ponzanesi’s typology of digital diaspora research, this study concludes that the ambiguity is associated with shifting research paradigms in both internet and digital diaspora studies. The study further offers new insights that digital diaspora and digital diasporic media diverge on the projects each pursues and the nature of content each delivers, but converge on ‘media’ in the age of social media and the increasingly transcultural initiatives of these media. The study also offers the areas of further research that emerge from this ambiguity.