Transcript Clare Madge - Department of Geography Henrietta O’Connor - Centre for Labour Market Studies Jane Wellens - Teaching and Learning Unit University of.

Clare Madge - Department of Geography
Henrietta O’Connor - Centre for Labour Market Studies
Jane Wellens - Teaching and Learning Unit
University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK
Exploring the Internet as a Medium for
Research
• Introduction
• Researching Online: the Cyberparents Example
- Web-based questionnaire
- Online synchronous interviews
• Some issues arising from using a virtual
methodology
- Access, Sampling and Identity Verification in Web-based
Surveys
- Engagement, Interaction and Communication in
Synchronous Online Interviews
• Conclusions
Introduction
• ICT opens up new possibilities for research:
– adapting existing methodologies to a new medium
– creating new methodological possibilities
• Numerous general advantages of online research
methods have been identified.
• A reflexive discussion of the usefulness of online
research is still important.
Rationale
• Hewson et al. (2003, 1) recently argue that:
`…many issues are just starting to be addressed.’
• Mann and Stewart (2000, 4) observe that
`…it is perhaps surprising that the suitability of the
Internet for conducting research remains relatively
unexplored.’
• This paper will contribute to the emerging debate
about the value of on-line research.
Aims of paper
• Focus on the possibilities and limitations of webbased questionnaire surveys and online
synchronous interviews.
• Discuss some of the implications of conducting
research in the virtual arena, with particular
emphasis on:
– access, sampling and identity verification for web-based
surveys;
– engagement, online interactions and computer mediated
communications for synchronous group interviews.
Researching Online:
the Cyberparents Example
• Increasing number of parenting sites in UK, for
example:
– http://www.babyworld.co.uk
– http://www.ukparents.co.uk
– http://www.boots.co.uk
• Role of the Internet in the lives of new parents.
‘…the immense inner sense of security that comes
with discovering that real people – most of them
parents, some of them nurses, doctors and
midwives are available, around the clock if you need
them…’ (Rheingold, 1994:16).
The Case Study Site:
http://www.babyworld.co.uk
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First UK-based parenting website.
Launched by Radcliffe Medical Press in 1995
Now an independent company.
Aims ‘…to bring accurate and reliable advice to
new parents’.
• Promoted as `the mother of parenting websites’.
• Advertised in NHS publication given to all new
parents.
• Usage figures show it is the largest parenting site
in the UK.
– 160,000 unique visits per month, generating 3 million
page impressions.
‘Babyworld – be part of it’
• Babyworld’s mission is to support a community
where ‘…new and expectant parents can share
experiences and support, women can learn about
their bodies, their baby, and childbirth and parents
can celebrate the joy of a new life’.
• Information, community, shopping.
• http://www.babyworld.co.uk/
The Research Process
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Established contact with site facilitators.
Interviewed key staff members.
Background information.
Access agreed.
Established webpages for the project within the
University website.
• Used University crest and linked only to University
and babyworld.
• http://www.geog.le.ac.uk/baby/
Web-based Questionnaire
• Hypertext link from babyworld homepage and other
popular pages of the babyworld site established to
our web-based questionnaire.
• Web-based questionnaire:
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Simple and quick to complete
Drop down menus
Ranking questions
Open questions
Final question about further participation
Pop up ‘thank you’ once submitted successfully
http://www.geog.le.ac.uk/baby/babyworldform.asp
On-line synchronous interviews
• Sixteen respondents expressed interest in further
interview.
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Respondents geographically widely dispersed.
Many had new babies and/or were pregnant.
All internet/technology users.
Logical progression to interview online.
Hotline Connect conferencing software familiar to
researchers was available.
Hotline Connect
• Used as tool for distance learning students.
• Facilitates real time chat through specific server
address.
• Advantages:
– Easy to install on PC and Apple Mac.
– No need for sophisticated hardware or high
technical ability
– Facilitators have control – confidentiality
– Low cost
– Available from http://www.hotspringsinc.com
Access in Web-based Surveys
• Accessing respondents a key concern in webbased surveys.
• Agreement and co-operation of the website
providers essential to the success of the survey.
– Hotlinks to the survey were created in prime locations in
the Babyworld website
• The significance of having the site providers `on
our side’ cannot be underestimated.
Access in Web-based Surveys
• Access issue increasingly important in web-based
surveys:
– novelty of responding to online surveys wears off;
– online users are becoming wise to the fact that they are
paying for the privilege of being `over-surveyed’;
– Invitations to participate in surveys are increasingly
considered `spamming’;
– online surveys often have lower response rates than
onsite surveys;
• e.g. Witmer et al. (1999) report response rates of
10% or lower being common for online surveys.
Identity verification in Web-based Surveys
• In our research it was not possible to verify identity
of participants.
• However, the questionnaire was so specific to
being a new parent and a user of the Babyworld
website that it would have been difficult, if not
impossible, to complete the questionnaire without
a detailed working knowledge of the website.
• However, is a possibility that some respondents
were `spoofs’ or indeed may have played with their
online identity in completing the research.
Reliability of Web-based Surveys
• Online research does not enable the researcher to
assess the reliability of responses.
• As Hewson et al. (2003, 44) state:
`…when materials are administered via a computer
terminal rather than in person, the researcher is less
able to judge the extent to which the responses are
sincere and genuine, the conditions under which the
questionnaire was answered and the state of the
participants at the time of participation (for example,
intoxicated, distracted, and so on)…’
• These problems not unique to virtual methods.
Is it necessary to `prove’ the offline
identity of the participants?
• Taylor (1999, 443) argues that this depends on the initial
research question and that:
`…the acceptance of online life as a thing in itself is important’.
• (Valentine, 2001, 56) considers that:
‘…online textual persona cannot be separated from the offline
physical person who constructs them and they are commonly
based on offline identities in any case.’
• Anonymity of participants can play a positive role in the
research process, reducing researcher bias and being
particularly useful for embarrassing and sensitive topics
(Hewson et al., 2003)
Sampling in Web-based Surveys
• Massive literature/debate surrounding this issue.
• Non-random sampling is not possible:
– no access to a central registry from which to create an
accurate sampling frame
– no way of discerning how many users are logging on
from a particular computer;
– Individuals may have multiple accounts and
memberships.
• Self-selection is suitable in certain cases and can
connect with common interest groups, those
difficult to reach and specific online communities.
Sampling in Web-based Surveys
• Divergent opinion as to whether the Internet
provides an inherently biased sample population.
– In early years of its inception, those using the Internet
tended to be predominately male, white, first world
residents under 35 years old.
• Some argue access to the Internet is still highly
unevenly distributed both socially and spatially:
– Silver (2000), considers that the digital divide has
continued to grow in America, and this divide is fast
becoming a `racial ravine’, suggesting a biased Internet
user sample population.
Sampling in Web-based Surveys
• Others are more optimistic:
– Hewson et al. (2003) consider that Internet users now
represent a vast and diverse section of general
population and rapidly moving beyond select group of
technological proficient male professionals.
– Dodd (1998, 63) argues that the Internet’s broad scope
can actually improve representativeness, as many
population groups usually difficult to contact may be
easier to access via the Internet.
– Litvin and Kar (2001) show sample characteristics of
conventional methods and electronic methods are
converging, with electronically solicited samples
becoming more like random paper-based samples, as
technological uptake of the Internet increases.
Engagement, Interaction and Communication
in Synchronous Online Interviews
• Virtual interviews challenge conventional
interviewing practices, in particular:
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Rapport building (e.g. lack of visual/physical pointers)
Interview design
Language use
Virtual interface
‘Insiders and outsiders’
• However, ‘the vast majority of social spaces on the
internet bear a remarkable resemblance to real
world locales’ (Kitchin 1998, 395).
Engagement and Rapport in
Synchronous Online Interviews
• ‘…a stranger wanting to do academic research into
on-line communities is often viewed as an
unwelcome arbitrary intrusion (Paccagnella 1997,
3).
• In our research our `insider’ status as users of the
website and our commonality of identity both as
women and as new mothers facilitated these
mother-to-mother interviews and dispensed with
the need for any cultural gatekeepers.
• We did not encounter the much written about
`…aura of suspicion’ surrounding `…stranger-tostranger communication in cyberspace’ (Smith
1997, 40).
•
First of all we thought it would be a
good idea to introduce ourselves
Hi, I’m Henrietta. I have a daughter called
Alicia who will be 2 in July. I am 30 years old
and work at Leicester University as a lecturer on
a distance learning course. I came back to work
when Alicia was 3 months old and she has gone to
the nearby nursery full-time since then. At work
we rely on the internet a great deal. Many of the
students live in different parts of the world and
use email to communicate and we also use Hotline
to talk to them. When I first came back to work
I found that I also used the internet a lot to
look for information and advice about being a new
parent.
Julia:
Hi, I am 34 on Sunday (!!) with a daughter,
Anabelle aged 10 months. I am a full time mother
and am loving avery minute of it.
Jane:
Hi, I'm Jane, I'm 29 years old, 30 in September.
I'm a new mum, with a daughter , Joy who was born
on March 15th, so coming up for 3 months now. I'm
a stay at home mum, and about to go crazy at
times, as she's had colic, and screams like mad..
I love being a mum!!
Jo:
Hello everyone! I am 33 years old, married and
have a 21 month old daughter who I'm sure is
starting the terrible twos early! I work part
time (reluctantly) but love being a mum.
Interaction in Synchronous Online Interviews
• Tendency to be more open, even to strangers, than
there would be in offline encounters:
• ‘It is so easy to email and say what we think by typing a letter
… when it’s face to face it’s harder’ (Sally, cybermother).
• ‘Without visual cues about gender, age, ethnicity
and social status conversations open up in
directions which might otherwise be avoided.
Participants in these virtual communities often
express themselves with little inhibition and
dialogues flourish and develop quickly’ (Poster,
1995, 90).
Kerry:
Being anon means that you don't get embarassed
asking about a little point or something personal
Hen and Clare:
is it also that you can ask a Q/get an immediate
response at any time time of the day?
Kerry:
I also find that the HV advice sometimes sounds
like it is coming from a text book as mt HV's
children are grown up
Amy:
The timing does help. I wouldn't want to troubel
the HV/GP in the Night unless ti was important,
but knowing there's someone there is reassuring,
Even though I haven't had to.
• Chen and Hinton (1999, 13.2) consider this can
result in the potential of the virtual interview to
become the `great equaliser’ with the interviewer
having less control over the interview process and
the researcher potentially becoming a `participant
researcher’ (Seymour, 2001).
• But this is a rather utopian vision:
– clues’ to bodily identities;
– mannered behaviours `visible’ during online
conversations;
– structural power hierarchies that enable researchers to
set the agenda;
– speed of typing dominates the interaction.
• Online interviews can promote some levels of
equality as:
– harder for someone to dominate the group and
participation levels more uniform online;
– Interviews can be conducted at `home’.
– `There are many people who ‘don’t do well in
spontaneous spoken conversation but turn out to have
valuable contributions to make …These people …can
find written communication more authentic than the face
to face kind’ (Rheingold, 1994, 23-24).
Computer-mediated conversation in
Synchronous Online Interviews• Changed interview conversation
• Supportive interactions
• Written conversation
Changed interview conversation
• Michaelson (1996, 58) notes that: `The relative
anonymity that IT provides also changes the rules
of discourse.’
• Dependent on written rather than spoken language:
– ‘You are accepted on the basis of your written
words, not what you look like or sound like of where
you live’ (Kitchin 1998, 387).
• Interrupting a virtual conversation somehow felt
more acceptable in the written word than in the
spoken F2F context.
• Lack of visual and tactile communication replaced
by specific Internet language:
– Paralinguistic expressions such as lol (laugh out
loud).
– Emoticons (emotional icons used to express
feelings, for example ;-) which represents a wink)
were used by the interviewees a lot to replace facial
expressions and voice quality.
– Absence of audio/visual cues (or clues) meant that
often the empathy we held with the woman had to
be explicit rather than through utterances and
gestures.
Hen and Clare:
so are you both happy with the info you receive
from BW? do you think it favourably compares with
info from elsewhere, mother, health visitor, gp,
neighbours, books?
Kim:
;-)
Elin:
I suffered from Pre-eclampsia and had an
emergency caesarean. I found this difficult to
deal with what I learnt from the internet helped
greatly
Hen and Clare:
that must have been hard
Elin:
It was a bit, being able to log on and just read
other peoples stories to start with helped. I
didn't join in until later
Supportive interactions
• Recognition of the gendered nature of on-line
communication with gender bias in dominance of
discussions, misogynistic attitudes and language
and message content (Herring 1999).
• On-line utterances tend to be male orientated and
male dominated, with sexual harassment and
flaming (abusive, rude or dismissive comments)
being common (Herring 1996).
• On-line interactions were supportive and sensitive
with a high degree of trust and intimacy.
• This is probably partly owing to our sample
population, being Babyworld users, which is
predominately a woman-centred website based on
knowledge sharing and support.
Mandy:
When I first became a mum I found the enormity of it
all very overwhelming
Marianne:
I spent ages worrying that I didn't have the
"telepathy" all mums are supposed to have. I did in
the end, but I was too busy panicking to realise!
Mandy:
I hope all new mums panic cause I still do sometimes
Hen and Clare:
we still do too
Mandy:
I know that feeling
Marianne:
God, yes!!! Every sniff is a major illness, if he's
sleeping noisily I'm worried that he's uncomfortable
and if he's sleeping quietly - it worries me even
more!!!
Mandy:
I'm glad I'm not the only one
Written conversation
• Data attained from this method is `…distinctly
different from that of a transcribed conversation’
(Chen and Hinton 1999, 9.1).
• Less structured and more interactive than F2F
interview transcript.
• Questions and responses were posted in `rounds’
with time lags, so final interview text is littered with
interruptions and non-sequesters, resembling a
conversation not a linear written word.
• `Silences’ .
• Virtual interview bridged the oral/written divide.
Although clearly in written format, the type of
interventions were very oral in nature, little
attention to spelling and grammar, as the nature
and meaning of the conversation took precedence
over the correctly written word.
• Transcript resembles a ‘written conversation’.
Hen and Clare:
so has joining BW made you feel like you are part
of a virtual mother and toddler group?
Have you
made any friend ships through the website?
Hen and Clare:
and in what way are the friendships different from
'real life' ones?
Mandy:
On the net you talk more to the point about
something as there are no distractions
Marianne:
All my friends on the net are people I knew before
I got online, so I can't compare. I've chatted with
other people, btu not got in deep, as it were...
Hen and Clare:
Mandy - do you mean child type distractions or that
it is easier to be straight when people can't see
you face to face?
Mandy:
both
Conclusions- the potentials…
• Aid interaction with formerly unapproachable
groups.
• Access to group with shared, narrowly defined
interests.
• Provide previously unobtainable information and
perspectives.
• Although sampling problems remain, the
indicative data gained from on-line research may
be useful for research on population sub-groups
and for exploratory analysis.
• Savings of time and money.
• As on-line research is still in its infancy, many of
its potentials are still to be discovered and
evaluated.
…and the limitations
• Novel techniques so while some of their limitations
may therefore be solved in time, others may never
be remedied.
• Indeed although the data collected by virtual
interviews, in particular, can be rich and valuable to
the researcher, the potential of on-line research
should not be exaggerated: many of the issues and
problems of conventional research methods still
apply in the virtual venue.
• While online methodological frameworks are in
constant flux, change is not necessarily always
progressive: faster and cheaper is not necessarily
synonymous with `better’.
So….
• As Dodd (1998, 60) argues, we must ensure that
‘…cheap entry costs and glowing attractiveness of
Internet fieldwork do not result in shoddy `cowboy’
research.’
• There is a need for online researchers to practice
their ‘craft’ with reflexivity.
• It is unlikely that online research is going to
replace onsite research but rather it is another
option in the researchers’ methodological `toolkit’.
• Therefore the use of online research methods must
themselves be carefully considered.
• As Illingworth (2001, abstract) suggests, we should
avoid the use of the Internet as an `easy option’
and
‘…encourage a more developed focus on the
justification, applicability and benefits of Internet
research to a particular project. What has become
apparent is that the effectiveness of CMC is much
dependent on who is being researched, what is
being researched and why.’
• The long-term success of online research in the
end will ultimately depend on the quality and
credibility of the information that it generates.
The Future?
• Communication technologies are constantly
developing and changing, as are delivery devices,
web interfaces, hardware and software tools. The
digital design of online technologies will inform
the types of interaction and methodological
choices that are possible in future online research.
• Likely to see an increase in the use of ‘mixed
method triangulation’ with onsite and online
methods both used to interrogate and verify the
intersections between real and virtual
infrastructures, enabling research to take place
across a variety of online/offline domains.
• This will challenge the boundaries of traditional
fieldwork, which is usually located in a particular
place.
• The development of wireless technologies, such as
mobile phones, for example, will separate the
Internet from the computer and are likely to have,
as yet, unforeseen methodological consequences,
as will interactive television and speech
recognition software.
Tools for Constructing Online
Questionnaires
• Wide range of sites offering online questionnaire
hosting eg http://www.free-online-surveys.co.uk
– Allows creation and hosting of web based questionnaires
– User doesn’t require software or server
– Free service gives 20 questions and allows 50
responses
– Upgraded service costs $9.99/month for
students/teachers and gives unlimited questions and up
to 1,000 responses
• Web-editing software e.g Microsoft Frontpage,
Dreamweaver
– Most have functions to readily create forms and surveys
– Require the user to have access to a web server
Tools for Constructing Online
Questionnaires
• Specialist software enabling use of online
questionnaires
– E.g. Blackboard Virtual Learning Environment.
Questionmark Perception
– May require users to have accounts
– Requires access to both servers and software
– Provide the greatest range of question types and
facilitate automatic collation of results
Tools for Carrying out Online Interviews
• Widely available online chatting software e.g.
Hotline Connect, MSN messenger, Yahoo
messenger
– Familiar to wide range of users
– Easy to install
– Pictures and images can be included using webcams
• Blackboard VLE offers synchronous discussion in
the Virtual Classroom
– Requires users to be registered for an account by the
researcher/their institution
– Archive of discussion automatically saved