Online social networks (OSNs), comprised of varying types of relations among actors that interact through social technologies, are widespread in today’s media environment. However, questions remain whether we are moving towards convergence within the sub-disciplines of communication and with other disciplines in OSN research. This article pursues two interrelated goals. First, it performs a bibliometric analysis of existing scholarship on OSNs in the past 20 years, highlighting both the convergence and divergence of inquiry on OSNs in computer-mediated communication (CMC) research. Second, based on the results of the bibliometric analysis, it articulates an agenda for future CMC research. Specifically, we advocate for a social network approach that will bridge various theoretical frameworks and disciplinary/sub-disciplinary boundaries, for employing the communication network taxonomy, for greater effort to integrate traditional and computational approaches within and beyond social network analysis, and for addressing a greater diversity of institutional contexts.

中文翻译：

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我们正在走向融合还是分歧？绘制在线社交网络研究的知识结构和根源1997–2017

在线社交网络（OSN）由通过社交技术进行交互的参与者之间的不同类型的关系组成，在当今的媒体环境中非常普遍。但是，仍然存在问题，我们是否正在朝着通信的子学科以及与OSN研究中的其他学科融合。本文追求两个相互关联的目标。首先，它对过去20年中有关OSN的现有奖学金进行了文献计量分析，强调了计算机介导通信（CMC）研究中对OSN的询问的趋同和分歧。其次，根据文献计量分析的结果，它阐明了未来CMC研究的议程。具体来说，我们提倡一种社交网络方法，该方法将桥接各种理论框架和学科/副学科界限，