Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of the existing literature on social networks in Ibero-America, with the objective of organizing the main topics covered, highlighting findings, and proposing future research paths. The four thematic areas that stand out are political communication and electronic government; journalism and traditional media; social groups (including adolescents and young people, those marginalized, women, entrepreneurs and influencers, students, and older adults) and areas of use (including commerce, tourism, education, health, professional communication); and political and civic participation. In addition, we review the literature from the perspective of the platforms (Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat) and from the geographical regions and countries that make up Ibero-America, to observe similarities and differences. We conclude with the mention and analysis of the two most outstanding patterns of the studies examined: 1) a tendency to expect from the networks a transformative potential that is not necessarily proven, especially in the case of political communication and journalism; 2) transformative capacity of networks in the areas of tourism, education and health, in which traditional media have not been characterized by having a prominent role. Finally, we propose some paths for future studies, among them the pursuit of comparative works, the incorporation of relational perspectives in the treatment of networks, the addition of mixed, experimental and computational methodologies, and the consideration, from the research design standpoint, of the acceleration of technological change and the need to generate questions and conceptualizations capable of surviving the passage of time.