Toward Ethical Cyberspace Audience Research: Strategies for Using the Internet for Television Audience Studies (original) (raw)
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European Journal of Communication, 2004
Mediated communication is no longer simply or even mainly mass communication ('from one to many') but rather the media now facilitate communication among peers (both 'one to one' and 'many to many'). Does this mean that the concept of the audience is obsolete? Or does the growing talk of 'users', instead of audiences, fall into the hyperbolic discourse of 'the new', neglecting historical continuities and reinventing the wheel of media and communications research? Undoubtedly, the challenge of a moving target, and hence a changing subject matter, faces us all. This article explores the ways in which, although the argument for the active television audience may have been taken as far as possible, new interactive technologies put ordinary people's interpretative activities at the very centre of media design and use. Hence, it considers how far existing theories and methods for researching audiences can be extended to new media and how far some significant rethinking is required.
Internet as a medium for qualitative research
SA Journal of Information Management, 2000
With an estimated 200 million Internet users, the Internet has created communities that would /could not have formed otherwise providing access to interdisciplinary, heterogeneous groups. New modes of contacting research subjects as well as the social mobility provided by the new technologies confronts researchers with the need to revisit concepts such as interview, subject, field site, and informed consent. This paper will identify and elaborate these and other issues around using the Internet as a medium for qualitative research. 2/18 Internet as medium of qualitative research On-line communication with other researchers indicates a split between those who tend to be 'lurkers' using the Internet as an information provider and requesting access to the results of the study and a smaller group keen to share their own work and experiences as well as discuss the topic on-line. The reality testing of the medium confirmed the importance of reliable, stable Internet links and hardware if any form of technology mediated communication is to be sustained effectively. While outcomes of this project indicate that the Internet provides useful potential as a medium for qualitative research, it is important to use on-line technology for what it is good at rather than slavishly to adapt face-to-face models. The approach and medium chosen should suit the research goals and be sensitive to the target group and context. Thereafter the research should be planned to exploit the functionality of the chosen medium and minimise its limitation. With respect to sampling, it is not possible to formalize sampling schemes on-line. Given the presence of a large number of easily accessible pre-existing groups on-line and the ease with which transcripts of communication can be gleaned, it is particularly important to obtain appropriate permission before recruiting participants for studies. Also to bear in mind that pre-existing interest groups may result in over-representation for some biases. Lack of synchronicity and visual cues requires of on-line moderation of focus groups that a fine balance be struck between non-intrusive facilitation and enough structure to limit uncertainly and confusion. It is recommended that the codes of ethics of the discipline(s) in which the research is conducted be rigorously applied. In addition special attention needs to be devoted to consideration of ethical questions specific to the Internet and becoming familiar and keeping up to date with the perceived risks of participation in on-line research is essential. This paper also provides examples of research projects that used the Internet as a medium of qualitative research and compared how their researchers applied ethical principles, coped with on-line focus group moderation and triangulated the data collection methods.
Internet-Mediated Research Using Surveys and Content Analyses
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AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research, 2023
This paper discusses methodological, ethical, and empirical problematics related to forced changes in the research design of a comparative project during the Covid-19 pandemic, and its wider implications for future online audience research. The larger project aims to understand media users’ attitudes towards corporate and state surveillance in countries with different historical surveillance regimes: Estonia, Portugal, and Sweden. In a mixed-methods design, comprising an online survey and focus groups (FGs), we sampled participants from two generational cohorts: born in 1946-1953 and in 1988-1995. In each country, we planned six face-to-face FGs with people from these generational cohorts, divided into three gender-balanced groups with different profiles: higher education; mixed education, living in small cities/countryside; secondary education. The paper discusses the challenges of conducing FGs online, namely the effects of the technological interface on the group size and interaction, the importance of digital skills, and ethics-related considerations. Although we encountered cultural differences between the three countries, our main methodological lessons and suggestions for further audience studies center on the need to consider the subtle facets of inter-generational differences when planning online research. As we witnessed, not all barriers were rooted in access to technology and connectivity. The level of digital skills and self-confidence in use also played a role in participants' possibilities and willingness for taking part in online research. Further research is needed to explore how age and online methods intersect, and the role online settings play, in the experience of focus group and interview participants with various social backgrounds.
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Ethics and information technology, 2002
The paper addresses several ethical issues in online communication research in light of digital ontology as well as the epistemological questions raised by the blurring boundary between fact and theory in this field. The concept of ontology is used in a Heideggerian sense as related to the human capacity of world construction on the basis of the givenness of our being-in-the-world. Ethical dilemmas of Internet research thus arise from the tension between bodily existence and the proper object of research, i.e., online existence. The following issues are being considered: online identity, online language, online consent and confidentiality. We also argue that research ethics in the US follows the utilitarian tradition, while European researchers are deontologically oriented. A guideline of best practice in online research ethics is proposed.
Journal of Computer-mediated Communication, 1996
The Internet has become impossible to ignore in the past two years. Even people who do not own a computer and have no opportunity to "surf the net" could not have missed the news stories about the Internet, many of which speculate about its effects on the ever-increasing number of people who are on line. Why, then, have communications researchers, historically concerned with exploring the effects of mass media, nearly ignored the Internet? With 25 million people estimated to be communicating on the Internet, should communication researchers now consider this network of networks' a mass medium? Until recently, mass communications researchers have overlooked not only the Internet but the entire field of computer-mediated communication, staying instead with the traditional forms of broadcast and print media that fit much more conveniently into models for appropriate research topics and theories of mass communication.
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This chapter seeks to evaluate the attitudes and practices of media participation amongst young Portuguese aged between 12-18 years, with a particular focus on content creation and sharing through media and information and communication technologies (ICT). Audience participation in television and internet will be addressed, having as basis the results and findings of three empirical studies integrated in the PhD research project of the author, namely: an ethnographical study about the usage of media and ICT usage by 10 families conducted at their own domestic contexts, a quantitative survey about the usage of media and ICT by young people aged 12-18 with a total of 962 respondents and, finally, an evaluation study of a participatory media format which was tested and evaluated by 77 teenagers from three different schools. The main objective is to better understand the attitudes and behaviors of young people in Portugal towards the practices of creation and sharing digital content thr...