Is there any specific theory that provides theoretical foundation for studies regarding the effects of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter etc?
It will be efficient to collect a raw data from social networks and analytically analyze based on your required indicators.
It should be effective method. On my research, we have some infrastructure to process such kind of data or content. InternetScopy is a tool for such studies.
Hi there. I haven't used it myself but Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) is often recommended as a theoretical framework for social network analysis. If you want something a little more "modern", you could also look at Connectivism.
In organizational and policy theory there is something called "garbage cans" (see Cohen March and Olsen) that I think should be looked at more closely, but all this depends on what you think social media effects (consumer behavior? website design? organizational compliance? activism? etc.).
Mmmh, you will be surprised, that the "Social Network Theory" itself might be a good starting point. Literature dealing/using this theory, plus their empriical conrtibutions might help you navigate well around various SNS related studies, etc.
Some good articles and text books references are:
Burkhardt, M.E. (1994). Social interaction effects following a technological change: a longitudinal investigation. Academy of Management Journal, 37, 869-898.
Freeman, L. C. (1979). Centrality in Social Networks: Conceptual clarification. Social Networks,1, 215-239.
Freeman, L.C., White, D.R., & Romney, A.K. (1992). Research methods in social network analysis. New Brunswick, NJ.: Transaction Publishers.
M.S. Granovetter., "The strength of weak ties: A network theory revisited," Social Structure and Network Analysis (P.V. Marsden and N. Lin, Eds.). Sage, Beverly Hills CA, 1982, pp. 105-130.
Ibarra, H., & Andrews, S. B. (1993). Power, social influence, and sense making: Effects of network centrality and proximity on employee perceptions. Administrative Science Quarterly, 38, 277-303.
Meyer, G.W. (1994). Social information processing and social networks: A test of social influence mechanisms. Human Relations, 47, 1013-1048.
This paper is a good start: boyd, d., & Ellison, N. B. (2008b). Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, 13(1), 210-230.
Also you need to explain / think more about what is the point of the research. There could be multiple ways to look at the SNS data. For example:
Structure of networks
Golder, S. A., Wilkinson, D., & Huberman, B. A. (2007). Rhythms of social interaction: Messaging within a massive online network. In C. Steinfield, B. Pentland, M. Ackerman, & N. Contractor (Eds.), Proceedings of Third International Conference on Communities and Technologies (pp. 41 –66). London: Springer.
And some of the other SNS research Freddie mentioned.
Knowledge sharing (Coenen, 2006),
Coenen, T. (2006). Structural aspects of online social networking systems and their influence on knowledge sharing'. Paper presented at the IADIS International Conference on Web Based Community, San Sebastian.
Coenen T, Kenis D., Damme CV, & Matthys E. (2006) Knowledge sharing over social networking systems: architecture, usage patterns and their application, In On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2006: OTM 2006 Workshops, Series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 4277. Springer Berlin
Identity formation (Marwick, 2005, Boyd, 2006),
Marwick, A. (2005). ‘‘I’m a lot more interesting than a Friendster profile:’’ Identity presentation, authenticity, and power in social networking services. Paper presented at Internet Research 6.0, Chicago, IL.
Community (Boyd, 2006),
boyd, d. (2006). Friends, Friendsters, and MySpace Top 8: Writing community into being on social network sites. First Monday, 11(12). http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/viewArticle/1418/1336
boyd, d. (2008a) Taken Out of Context: American Teen Sociality in Networked Publics. Dissertation
Lange, P. G. (2008). Publicly Private and Privately Public: Social Networking on YouTube. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), 361-380.
van Manen M. (2010). The pedagogy of Momus technologies: Facebook, privacy, and online intimacy. Qualitative Health Research 2010 Aug; 20(8):1023-32.
Democracy
My study is especially on everyday education through health SNS. So depends on what you are trying to get at. Can help more if I know what the point of the research study is.
I think you have a lot of good biography here; just to say that in my work I've been used Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) as already mentioned above as theoretical framework.