Hierarchical Vs. sequential web forums. Methodological issues in interaction analysis

The wide spread of Social Network Analysis in the field of online interactions is developing interesting lines of research regarding methodologies to be adopted in encoding data and interpretation of results. Many important methodological implications in the application of SNA are becoming central in the comparison between automated systems versus non-automatic procedures. The paper investigates the attribution of addressees role in sequential and hierarchical web forums. Specific empirical issues are presented about generic messages (no addressee is selected), regards and coding procedures in different online environments. The authors also present some developments in the semantic analysis combined with structural analysis potentiated (S/SC), together with some operational proposals suitable for different kinds of communication contexts.