Title: Methodological Concerns
1Methodological 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/
2Introduction
- 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.
3Outline
- History of new media research
- Illustrations of studies
- Internet Elections Project
- Methodology research agenda suggestions
4New Media New Methods?
- New methods for new media?
- Value in tried and true research designs
methods
5Methodological InnovationsHistorical highlights
- Survey research
- Merton Lazarfeld
- Unobtrusive measure
- Webb
- Content analysis
- George Laswell Lietes
- Qualitative turn
- Sociology (Philips)
- Communication studies (Jensen Jankowski)
6Early 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
7Recommendations Williams, Rice Rogers (1988)
- Building on existing methods
- Simultaneously looking for alternative methods
designs - Triangulating methods
- Three main paradigms
- Positivist
- Interpretative
- Critical
8New Media Research Literature
- Jones (1999)
- Mann Stewart (2000)
- Baxtnic, Reips Bosnjak (2002)
- Markham (1998)
- Hine (2000)
- Hine (2005)
- Johns, Chen Hall (2004)
9Methodological innovations tentative typology
of levels
- Macro
- Epistemological issues
- Mezzo
- Research design strategy
- Micro
- Specific methods, techniques
10Illustrations 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
11Netville
- Hampton publications
- http//www.mysocialnetwork.net/
- Features of Netville study
- Community study
- Social network analysis
- Ethnography
- An alternative design
- Howard (2002)
12Soros 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.
13Internet 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
14IE 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
15For 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?
16Link analysis map
17For 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
18Issue analysis illustrative map
19Towards 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
20Conclusion
- 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/
21Suggestions 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
22Question for Discussion
- What issues / concerns / topics merit inclusion
in a methodologically-oriented research agenda
for new media?
23Selected 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.