A Dimensão Epistemológica do Monitoramento Online: Um estudo crítico das técnicas de pesquisa na internet

Epistemological aspects linked to methods, techniques, and tools of online monitoring of the television audience in Brazil. The article presents a reflection on the tools, measurements, and monitoring of materials generated by users and fans in social networks of television fiction. Recent publications propose a critical review of the lack of epistemological reflection on the use of different methods that come from scientific fields. Defend the need to incorporate the epistemological level of procedures and technical instruments in internet studies. By way of illustration, application software on the content generated by communities of fans of three Brazilian telenovelas on social networks. fans* Maria Immacolata Vassallo de Lopes holds a master's degree in Communication Sciences (USP) and a postdoctoral degree from the University of Florence (Italy). She is currently a professor at the School of Communications and Arts at USP. She has experience in the field of Communication, with an emphasis on Communication Epistemology, Communication Theory and Communication Research Methodology. She is the coordinator of the Postgraduate Program in Communication Sciences, of the Telenovela Studies Center and the Communication Field Studies Center (USP). Member of the Board of Curators of INTERCOM as former president of the entity, of the editorial board of national and international journals. Director of MATRIZes, Journal of the Postgraduate Program in Communication Sciences at USP. She is a researcher at CNPq 1A.** Claudia Pontes Freire is a doctoral student at the Graduate Program in Communication Sciences-PPGCom- at the School of Communications and Arts at the University of São Paulo. Area of ​​Concentration: Theory and Research in Communication. Line of Research: Epistemology, Theory and Methodology of Communication. Research Project: Telenovela and Social Networks: longitudinal study of the reception of Brazilian telenovelas on social networks - Facebook, YouTube and Twitter from 2010 to 2013. Social Networks, Reception Studies, Research Methodology in Social Networks.