Paper short abstract:

Online social networks have become a crucial platform where various news and debates regarding COVID 19 are formed, transmitted and questioned. In our paper, we will address the question of how to ethnographically approach social networks such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter in times of pandemic.

Paper long abstract:

One consequence of the pandemic situation is that numerous everyday practices have moved to the online environment. Digital social networks have become a crucial platform where various news and debates regarding COVID 19 are generated, spread and questioned. These networks not only serve as a realm where the aspects of 'offline reality’ are communicated but also influence the wider, 'analogue' social and cultural practices. How to ethnographically approach social networks such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter in times of pandemic? How can digital ethnography and the ethnography of the digital (e.g. Miller and Horst 2012; Podjed and Pretnar 2019) as well as the anthropological insights into social media (Miller 2011) methodologically and epistemologically help to grasp the social and cultural dimensions of the current situation? Apart from these questions, we will also shed light on the three main Slovenian ethnological institutions as all of them actively use digital social networks in new and divergent ways.