A Meta-analysis of Theories and Topics in Social Media Research

This paper offers an extensive meta-analysis of the theoretical evolution of social media as a domain of research. It examines the domain´s current intellectual core with respect to dominant topics and theories of study. Hereto a systematic examination of all 610 articles published between October 2004 and December 2011 was conducted for identifying popular research topics as well as dominant theories. Findings indicate an overall lack of theory as well as a dominance of socio-psychological topics and theories of inquiry. These findings establish a benchmark for tracking the state of the evolution of the social media domain, while focusing the reader´s attention on topics and theories requiring further inquiry.