Social media through mobile devices in the service of archival ethnographic research: The roads & places of Greek (Magnesia) migration to the USA

Abstract

This publication is carried out in the context of the research "Archival Ethnography with the Perspective of New Technologies: From the Land of Magnets to the Promised Land - Following Overseas Migration to the USA from the Late 19th Century to the Present" as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Department of Political Science and International Relations of the University of Peloponnese. In particular, the social media and the group entitled "The roads \& places of migration of residents of Greece (Magnesia) to the USA" on Facebook constituted another research tool. The interested members (relatives of immigrants and citizens of Magnesia in Greece) posted documents for investigation (photographs, letters, newspaper clippings, advertising brochures of the time, birth certificates, manuscripts, letters, etc). The group members quickly posted relevant material via mobile devices (smartphones). At the same time, via messenger, some conversations resulted in oral testimonies (interviews in phases). Social media and the corresponding groups that can be created can be used in humanities research (history, folklore, archival ethnography) as digital notebooks using smartphones at any time and from various parts of a country. This article presents social media as internet technologies that can be used in collecting and digitizing evidence that can be useful in the analysis and elaboration of evidence-based research (archival ethnography).