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Methodological Concerns

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Title: Methodological Concerns


1
Methodological Concerns Innovations in New
Media Research
  • New Research for New Media Innovative Research
    Methodologies Symposium
  • Universitat Rovira i Virigili
  • Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain
  • 30 September 2 October 2004
  • Nicholas W. Jankowski
  • Department of Communication
  • University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands
  • nickjan_at_xs4all.nl
  • http//oase.uci.kun.nl/jankow/Jankowski/

2
Introduction
  • Purpose
  • Personal perspective new media methods
  • Methodologically-oriented research agenda
  • Background material
  • Chapter in C. Hine (forthcoming, 2005). Virtual
    Methods Issues in Social Research on the
    Internet. Oxford Berg.

3
Outline
  • History of new media research
  • Illustrations of studies
  • Internet Elections Project
  • Methodology research agenda suggestions

4
New Media New Methods?
  • New methods for new media?
  • Value in tried and true research designs
    methods

5
Methodological InnovationsHistorical highlights
  • Survey research
  • Merton Lazarfeld
  • Unobtrusive measure
  • Webb
  • Content analysis
  • George Laswell Lietes
  • Qualitative turn
  • Sociology (Philips)
  • Communication studies (Jensen Jankowski)

6
Early New Media Research Lang Lang
  • Context early 1950s, Korean conflict
  • Event MacArthurs homecoming
  • Research focus crowd behavior
  • Finding the unexpected difference in mediated
    personal perceptions
  • Research design multiple method, contextualized

7
Recommendations Williams, Rice Rogers (1988)
  • Building on existing methods
  • Simultaneously looking for alternative methods
    designs
  • Triangulating methods
  • Three main paradigms
  • Positivist
  • Interpretative
  • Critical

8
New Media Research Literature
  • Jones (1999)
  • Mann Stewart (2000)
  • Baxtnic, Reips Bosnjak (2002)
  • Markham (1998)
  • Hine (2000)
  • Hine (2005)
  • Johns, Chen Hall (2004)

9
Methodological innovations tentative typology
of levels
  • Macro
  • Epistemological issues
  • Mezzo
  • Research design strategy
  • Micro
  • Specific methods, techniques

10
Illustrations of Innovations
  • Pew Internet American Life
  • http//www.pewinternet.org/index.asp
  • Willnat, L. (2004). Surfing the News The
    Internet and Traditional News Consumption.
  • HomeNet Project
  • http//homenet.hcii.cs.cmu.edu/progress/
  • World Internet Project
  • http//www.worldinternetproject.net

11
Netville
  • Hampton publications
  • http//www.mysocialnetwork.net/
  • Features of Netville study
  • Community study
  • Social network analysis
  • Ethnography
  • An alternative design
  • Howard (2002)

12
Soros Xerox Project
  • Hungary, 1980s
  • Access to copy machines
  • Research project oral history
  • Dányi, E. (2004). Photocopy machines as a
    metaphor for an open society The political
    significance of new communication technologies.

13
Internet Elections Project
  • Background
  • http//oase.uci.kun.nl/jankow/elections/
  • http//www.ntu.edu.sg/home/trkluver/asefhome.html.
  • RQ
  • In what ways and to what extent are online
    structures produced within different political
    systems during electoral campaigns in a manner
    that facilitates political action?
  • Feature analysis of Web sites
  • national elections Asia, Europe, US
  • range of political actors
  • e.g., candidates, parties, media, government,
    NGOs, citizens

14
IE Project Training Workshop
  • Procedures
  • identifying sites
  • coding sites
  • note-taking on sites
  • Issues
  • cross-national comparison
  • academic cultures data quality
  • integration of interpretative quantitative data

15
For the Future link analysis
  • Amsterdam workshop link issue analysis
  • software IssueCrawler
  • http//www.govcom.org/crawler_software.html
  • procedure crawl Web, in-going outgoing links 2
    levels from start page
  • comparable to early days of SPSS
  • RQ for exercise
  • To what degree do Dutch political parties
    candidates in the 2004 EP election link to
    pan-European institutions as compared to Dutch
    institutions?

16
Link analysis map
17
For the Future issue analysis
  • RQ for exercise
  • What issues noted in Dutch political party
    statements during 2004 EP election are similar?
  • Procedures software
  • party election statements word frequencies
  • WordSmith (OUP)
  • http//www.oup.com/elt/global/isbn/6890/?viewget
  • Excel data set
  • Mapping software ReseauLu
  • http//www.aguidel.com

18
Issue analysis illustrative map
19
Towards an Agenda for Methodological Innovation
  • Macro level
  • value in all 3 social science paradigms
  • approaches from humanities social science
  • Mezzo level
  • research designs integrating 3 paradigms
  • International collaborative projects
  • going beyond isolated case study design
  • designs of engagement action participatory
    research

20
Conclusion
  • General comment
  • importance of initiative
  • need to continue organizational structure
  • publications
  • online surveys Journal of Official Statistics
  • ethics Ethics Information Technology
  • themed section New Media Society
  • overview new media journals http//www.theorycomm
    ons.org/

21
Suggestions Research Agenda
  • Already adequately covered
  • virtual ethnography
  • ethical issues
  • Web email surveys
  • Specific research agenda topics
  • Web archiving sampling
  • log data access analysis
  • mapping techniques for link issue analysis
  • integrating methods (triangulation)
  • in-depth online interviewing

22
Question for Discussion
  • What issues / concerns / topics merit inclusion
    in a methodologically-oriented research agenda
    for new media?

23
Selected References
  • Batinic, B., Reips, U. D., Bosnjak, M. (eds.)
    (2002), Online Social Sciences. Göttingen
    Hogrefe Huber.
  • Dányi, E. (2004). Photocopy machines as a
    metaphor for an open society The political
    significance of new communication technologies.
    Paper presented at conference E-Campaigning.
    Governments, Parties, Social Movements,
    Institute of Political Science, Hungarian
    Academy of Sciences, Budapest, 10-11 September.
  • Hine, C. (2000), Virtual Ethnography, London
    Sage.
  • Howard, P. (2002). Network ethnography and the
    hypermedia organization new media, new
    organizations, new methods. New Media Society,
    4(4) 550-574.
  • Jankowski, N. W. (1999), In Search of
    Methodological Innovation in New Media Research,
    Communications The European Journal of
    Communication Research, 24(3) 367-374.
  • Jensen, K. B., Jankowski, N. W. (eds) (1991), A
    Handbook for Qualitative Methods for Mass
    Communication Research, London Routledge.
  • Johns, M. D., Chen, S. S., Hall, G. J. (eds.)
    (2004). Online Social Research Methods, Issues,
    and Ethics. New York Peter Lang.
  • Jones, S. (ed.) (1999), Doing Internet Research.
    Critical Issues and Methods for Examining the
    Net, Thousand Oaks, CA Sage.
  • Mann, C. Stewart, F. (2000), Internet
    Communication and Qualitative Research. A
    Handbook for Researching Online, London Sage.
  • Markham, A. (1998). Life Online Researching Real
    Experience in Virtual Space, Walnut Creek, CA
    Altamira Press.
  • Marvin, C. (1988) When Old Technologies Were New.
    Oxford Oxford University Press.
  • Philips, D. (1973), Abandoning Method.
    Sociological Studies in Methodology, London
    Jossey-Bass.
  • Schneider, S.M., Foot, K.A. (2004). The Web as
    an object of study. New Media Society, 6(1)
    114-122.
  • Walther, J. B. (2002), Research Ethics in
    Internet-enabled Research Human Subjects Issues
    and Methodological Myopia, Ethics and
    Information Technology, 4(3) 205-216.
  • Williams, F., Rice, R., Rogers, E. (1988),
    Research Methods and the New Media, New York
    Free Press.
  • Willnat, L. (2004). Surfing the News The
    Internet and Traditional News Consumption. Paper
    presented at International Conference in
    Internet Communication in Intelligent Societies,
    The Chinese University of Hong Kong, July.
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