New book argues national identity increasingly owes debt to interpersonal communication through social media

Personal communication with friends and family – particularly through social media – is one of the most important ways in which people form their national identity, a new book argues.

‘Doing Nation’ in a Digital Age proposes a new theory about the creation of such identities, one that constantly evolves and is sustained through everyday interactions.

It reveals how migrants are especially sensitive to perceived stigmas attached to their country of origin and take to social media to combat these perceptions and portray their nation more favourably.

In so doing, the book – which has been authored by Dr Sanja Vico, a specialist in digital media at the University of Exeter – rejects the popular view that national identity derives from a more abstract sense of belonging to an imagined community.

It also debunks the idea that social media alone has a decisive impact on elections – arguing that people do not accept news and content at face value but filter it through their networks and the beliefs that they in turn shape.

“With this research and the book, I wanted to explore how migrants navigate digital media environments to negotiate their identities,” said Dr Vico, of Exeter’s Department of Communications, Drama and Film. “What I found was how national identities were formed and sustained through communication with ‘important others’ such as family and close friends.”

The book presents a detailed case study of Serbian migrants living in London, whom Dr Vico began to research in 2015. Over an 18-month period, she spent significant time with members of this diaspora, conducting in-depth interviews, and following their daily lives and interactions, both in person at settings such as churches, community centres, homes, and various events, as well as online.

She discovered there was a striking diversity among the Serbian migrants in London she met, with different groups having arrived at various moments in the country’s history, including post Second World War, ‘young adventurers’ who migrated in the 1970s and 80s, people who left during and in the aftermath of the Yugoslav wars, and younger professionals attracted by a desire to gain new professional skills.

“It was not until I came to London in 2012 to study a Masters that I thought of myself in national terms,” Dr Vico said. “This happened because people would always ask me where I was from, and they would then put you in a box, attaching different associations to you, which could have symbolic implications for you. How others perceive you influences the way you identify. I started to see how people were using social media strategically to manage not only their individual self-presentation, but also their national identity and their nation’s image.”

Over the course of its nine chapters, the book explores key themes such as the way that people from nations of more modest global standing are more likely to spontaneously engage in image management on behalf of their nation in much the same way as other people seek to project their own idealised versions of their personal life. This includes differences in the way that people use privately orientated platforms such as WhatsApp, compared to the likes of Instagram and Facebook.

It examines the role that social media plays in helping migrants to feel at home, and how national identity is not a constant for many people, but something that oscillates between the more patriotic and cosmopolitan.

Dr Vico said: “We might live in an increasingly globalised world, but it is still a world of nations, which may still define how others perceive you and what experiences you may have. A seminal scholar of nationalism Benedict Anderson argued back in 1983 that nations were abstract imagined communities.

“But what I found is that, on the contrary, it is through these interpersonal and tangible interactions where people share common experiences that a nation becomes materialised and constructed.”

Dr Vico says she hopes the book prompts debate and discussion around how people perceive their nation and what they aspire for their nations to represent. She adds that because this communication often takes place on and through social media, this might also have implications for our understanding of several key issues including voting behaviour and people’s susceptibility to misinformation.

‘Doing Nation’ in a Digital Age: Banal Nationalism and Cosmopolitanism in Polymedia Environments is published by Routledge.