Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.22572/mi.30.2.3
Local Identity Communities on Facebook. Exploring “Digital Homeland – jakovlje.com
Daria Marjanović
orcid.org/0009-0004-9235-5972
; Ph.D., retired Croatian Radio Television journalist, lecturer at the Depar tment of Media and Communication, Faculty of Political Science, Zagreb University, Croatia
Abstract
The systematic emergence of Facebook communities dedicated to local identities has been visible in the last decades in Croatia and worldwide. This work aims to examine social network communication reflecting a specific collective local micro-identity inside the region with a massive diaspora and its power to overlap generations, digital literacy, and time and space gaps, making a tangible impact on physical community life and creating a significant online database on the shared place of origin. The study relates to the Facebook community under the overall name “Digital Homeland – jakovlje.com” (original title: ”Digitalni zavičaj – jakovlje.com”) with nearly a thousand members spread over several interaction channels. The mixed-method research approach, including quantitative and qualitative communication methods procedures, was used, with in-depth, semi-structured, and structured interviews. Methodology tools included an online survey with 24.9% central Facebook group participants over two months with simultaneous thorough quantitative and qualitative analysis of the posts’ content, online and field interviews during a previous five-year observation, and finally, comparative analysis with three similar Facebook communities in Croatia. Along with presenting content features and ways of social network group communication, findings reveal that, unlike larger virtual communities dedicated to national identity, the ones based on a local identity present more impact as an extension of the municipal activities for the people living close to the place of origin than a real cohesion with their digital diaspora. The study also shows that Facebook wall can provide valuable amateur media products disseminating relevant information, which makes it a resource for broader social and scientific use and a part of the bigger heritage database in preserving local micro-identities.
Keywords
Social networks; Facebook; homeland; micro-identity; online communication; local community; virtual community, digital culture
Hrčak ID:
342309
URI
Publication date:
23.12.2025.
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