The Role of Social Networks in the Process of Forced Migration: Through the Prism of Life Stories of Ukrainian Migrants Between Ukraine and Germany
Taisiia Ratushna is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at Zaporizhzhia National University. In 2010, she received her PhD in Sociology from the Classical Private University (Zaporizhzhia). Since then, she has been working in the Department of Sociology at the Zaporizhzhia National University and conducts research on communication processes in urban space and in virtual environments. In 2020, she received an MA in Psychology. Taisiia also cooperates with NGOs and advises them on conducting sociological research. Her current research interests are digitalization and the impact of the internet and social media on modern society. Specifically, Taisiia investigates how certain groups use social media content and deal with different types of information in virtual space. Since the internet is self-regulating, and almost uncontrollable, useful and important information coexists with disinformation and manipulative materials that can spread quickly and have a detrimental effect on public opinion. In modern society, people consume large amounts of information. Thus, a problem arises: from this flow of information, useful and not misleading elements must be selected. Taisiia Ratushna is a 2022/2023 Prisma Ukraïna Fellow at the Forum Transregionale Studien.
The Role of Social Networks in the Process of Forced Migration: Through the Prism of Life Stories of Ukrainian Migrants Between Ukraine and Germany
What are the roles of the internet and social media in migration processes and what have they changed? What are their benefits and what are the threats that arise from their use? These questions will be the focus of Taisiia Ratushna’s project. The study will also address how using the internet and social media has influenced the dissemination of information, including about assistance opportunities and residence rights, among migrants. In this case, it asks: which social networks, groups, and questions are users most interested in, how are useful contacts found, and how do communication processes take place? Lastly, it will also investigate the usefulness of such groups, as well as the amount, quality, and types of information that are aggregating in them. Do they really help to solve migrants’ problems or do they act as a kind of chronophage that, on the contrary, creates information noise that increases stress and hinders finding reliable sources?
