Building Collective Memories Online

My research focuses on collective memory in the digital realm, in particular examining how individuals, institutions, and national governments produce and interact with materials online, and in turn shape national collective memories. Exploring cultural and sociological issues in the online world of politics will contribute to better understanding, informing, and shaping of law and policies about transnational Internet governance.

In particular, my work involves partnership with civil society organizations in Russia and Hungary, which are active in reporting and documenting human rights issues in the Eastern European block, as well as archiving historical and literary collections from the Cold War era time period. While my past research concentrated on trust, privacy and access to these materials, the final Master project focuses on increasing user engagement and participation with such digitized content. My research domain includes:

• examining how the Russian public views politics and history through evaluation of popular search engine terms
• reviewing English and Russian Wikipedia political entries
• looking at public blogs and forum space discussions
• investigating web linking interaction
• exploring literature reviews about politics and social media

The final Master thesis will propose the following guidelines for the civil society organizations:

• strategic suggestions
• user engagement recommendations
• technical specifications