Ethnography
What kind of descriptions are the most typical in ethnography?
Thick descriptions.
What is the body at the university that governs whether a researcher can conduct research (esp. if it involves humans)?
Ethics committee or the Board of ethical review
What is the best source of netnographic data?
Online communities.
What is the word used to define a researcher's understanding of the nature of reality?
A paradigm.
Explain the difference between public and private social media data.
Public data - the author generated it with the purpose to reach vast audiences. Can be used for research.
Private data - usually personal, not intended to reach vast audiences. Should not be used for research unless informed consent is obtained.
Robert Kozinets mentioned one of the biggest issues when conducting netnographic research. What is it?
The researcher is swamped with data - there is more information, discussions, etc. than s/he can handle.
Name three issues that make ethnographic data collection complicated.
The researcher's position within the community, getting into the community, a lot of data in diverse formats, interview transcription takes a long time, need in-depth qualitative analysis, obtain informed consent, etc.
Name three examples of scandals on unethical use of social media data.
For instance, Facebook emotional contagion study, Samaritans radar app, Wikileaks, etc.
Name three advantages that netnography has over traditional ethnography.
Data can be accessed anywhere, anytime, there is vast information, it can be collected easily and quickly, brings the cost down, no transcriptions are needed, etc.
Explain positivism and constructionism.
Positivism is a researcher's stance that knowledge must be based on what we can observe, measure, and quantify.
Constructionism is a researcher's stance that reality is constructed by social and cultural interactions.
Context: A researcher wishes to study pro-legalisation narratives on marijuana use. The data will be collected from Twitter. The researcher will gather data over the last 7 days posted with the hashtags #cannabis, #legalize and #ismokeit. What are the main ethical considerations regarding (1) public/private data decision, (2) sensitivity of the topic, (3) ensuring anonymity.
(1) Data is public, because it is posted on Twitter, a platform on which the default setting for posts is public; most profiles are set to public and can be viewed and followed by anyone. Furthermore the use of hashtags implies that platform users are keen to contribute to a community or debate and therefore expect an even greater number of people to see their data.
(2) The subject matter is sensitive, and there could be children contributing data, so there is considerable risk of harm.
(3) It is ok to access the data and present results from aggregate data, but it is not ok to publish a data set (prohibited by Twitter anyhow) or republish direct quotes which will lead interested parties to the user’s profile, hence compromising anonymity. The researcher can therefore present paraphrased quotes (removing ID handles) to reflect the themes that emerge, and provide details on how interested parties might recreate the data search for themselves. Some direct quotes may be used with informed consent from the platform user, but the researcher knows he must take steps to ensure that the user is over the age of 18
Razi Imam speaks about compensating behaviors. Explain what they are and what the potential benefits of doing research on them might be.
They are hacks that consumers use when a product does not do what it's supposed to do.
Information on them can help develop products that solve those compensating behaviors.
Name five methods of ethnographic data collection.
Participant observation, interviews, fieldnotes, surveys, and analysis of documents.
Name five principles of ethics.
Integrity, competence, non-maleficence, beneficence, justice, dignity, autonomy, confidentiality, privacy, honesty, responsibility.
Name five features of netnographic data.
Naturally occuring, relevant, timely, unforced, creative, raw, effective, indigenous,detailed, involved, unobtrusive, authentic, unelicited, powerful, efficient, spontaneous, unadorned.