Research Methods…

The purpose of my dissertation will be to observe incoming “traditional freshmen” (e.g. 18- to-20 year old students coming to college for the first time) at three Midwestern universities whose hometowns are small towns, where the population is less than 5,000 residents, and see how those freshmen use Facebook as a coping mechanism. Facebook is “online social networking engine” (Facebook, 2007) designed to link users based on the location (i.e. university, region, workplace) through the presentation of personal information online (“profile”), the creation of nodes (“groups”), the posting of offline events and the access to online activities (“applications”). I believe that a triangulation study involving a survey, a series of interviews and a virtual ethnography of the Facebook environment would be the best method of resolving the research questions.

Before answering the question on why the triangulation method will best help me with the questions I wish to explore in my dissertation, it is important to talk about qualitative and quantitative research methods in whole will advance my understanding of this critical problem. Qualitative research allows the researcher to create an exploratory and in-depth method of analysis with regards to social interaction (Lindlof & Taylor, 2002). Many of the research methods allow the researcher to take in a large variety of artifacts to examine and analyze. In the field of Telecommunications and Mass Communication, it is common to use artifacts present in the field.

For example, I have used lyrics from Tori Amos to explore her online fan community, “Ears with Feet” (Tilton, 1999). I conducted a textual analysis of her music and presented the information I observed back the community for feedback. This presentation of information allowed me to conduct participant observation without being a “fink” and subverting my purpose for being in the community (G.A. Fine, 2002). Qualitative research allows a researcher to explore the why and how of social phenomenology, without being caught up in trying to answer the what, where and how of social phenomenology (Deetz, 1973).

Also, my research allowed me to create a bricolage from those fragments I have gathered from the artifacts to create a coherent thesis for my reader. The first method I decided to use for this research would have been to begin with a series of surveys given to randomly selected users of Facebook fitting the research criteria. Then, I would have conducted an online social network analysis (adapted from Barnes, 1972) to observe the creation of nodes within Facebook and map out the internal superstructure of the online social network to see where those who conducted the survey fit into the constructed network.

To finalize this portion of the study, I would have looked at dynamics with the “Facebook groups” and noted what information those selected users posted to the group. This would have shown “concrete” information showing that Facebook users have some connection to their online peers and could have documented through the surveys the offline ramifications of such online interaction. I have already conducted research looking at similar phenomenon on Facebook. One of my previous research projects was to look how alcohol was presented on Facebook profiles and Facebook groups by those who attended Ohio University (Tilton, 2005).

Originally I felt the limitation of such a study would have been that I did not have the time or the resources to fully analyze the groups and profiles to see if this presentation represented a deeper problem on campus or if this was merely for show and represented what Sherry Turkle would call a “second self” online (Turkle, 2000). However, I decided that this method can be used in conjunction with the next two methods to fill in the gaps of analysis and the survey results would strengthen the analysis provided by the interviews and the virtual ethnography. There will be a sample survey instrument at the end of this proposal. The second research method will be a series of interviews. The interview pool will be selected from those students who completed the survey and would be interested in being interviewed. This research must be deconstructed into its three key elements. This first element is looking at the transition between high school and college for traditional first-year students. There is a body of research in this field.

From what I have gathered, it seems that interviews are a common method of conducting research. So, one of the advantages would be that I could adapt the interview protocols from other researchers to fit the needs of my research. In this case, I would look at socialization patterns of the user in high school and note how they have changed in college. The second element is the broader concept of coping. My working definition of coping is the use of resources to maintain social interaction within society. The working definition of coping that I am using for my research would look at the condition that results when interactions between a person and other people or the overall environment leads the person to perceive a discrepancy, whether real or not, between the demands of a situation and the resources of the person’s biological, psychological or social systems.

My working definition will permit me right now to create a review of literature that will allow me to strengthen this definition to become a concrete definition. Once that definition is worked out, I can fit it into the interview protocols. The third and final element is the online social networking itself. Since I am hoping to conduct a majority of these interviews face-to-face, I believe I will be able to create a clear thesis regarding the online-offline dynamic that is present in Facebook. I will be able to sit in the “public arenas” (Habermas, 1980) that were discussed online and use the information to present a thick description of the overall environment of the user through the course of the interview (Geertz, 1969). The limitation for this method will be that I am limited to conducting the face-to-face interviews with students that are in Ohio. To account for this limitation, I will be clear in representing information gathered by the interview as reflecting the experience at large Ohio colleges. I hope also to have a subject pool from a diversity of experiences and backgrounds, which may help balance out this limitation.

The final research method that I will use for my dissertation will be virtual ethnography. Christine Hine leads this method of research and documented in her book “Virtual Ethnography” (2002). Her work looked at the case of Louise Woodward, a British au-pair, accused of killing the child that was in her care. Her research observed the online communities that revolved around the case and noted the connection create between community members. This is different than online social networking analysis for two reasons. The first reason is that a majority of her work dealt with participant observation, as opposed to the calculation of nodes within the system. Hine attempts to bring in the traditions and methods used by ethnographer to the online words. She explores what constitutes participant observation to an online environment. Her conclusion is that it based on the time, space and location of the research in relationship to the majority of the online community. The second reason is that virtual ethnography is different from online social networking analysis is that virtual ethnography looks beyond the “pathways” that people and groups use to connect with each other online; it looks at the actual methods, words, and media used between the actors in the network. During the time of Hine’s research, she looked and responded to the messages posted on the bulletin board for the community. Those messages where primary textual.

On Facebook, there the option to post pictures, audio clips, video clips and other webpages. It lets the researcher describe the community with rich details and web citations to the artifacts left by the group. It is this content that allows researchers to create a thick description of the community. The drawback is not knowing how much of this information represents the actor in real life. The solution is using the virtual ethnography with the information gathered from the interviews to create a snapshot of the environment based on my viewpoint and letting the readers know that fact. I hope that three goals are met with this project. The first goal is that this research will show that incoming freshmen use Facebook as a starting point to connect with the larger university setting. I believe that I have discussed how the methods I will use will show this. I believe that interviewing and virtual ethnography will be good methods to use for this analysis. The second goal is to show that students are using Facebook as an effective means of socialization and it helps them connect with their fellow students. I believe that my discussion of the online-offline dynamic in the interview process will show that Facebook is more than a timewaster and allows students to connect in ways that were not possible before Facebook. Finally, I hope to show the collective intelligence that is present on campus (Levy, 2004). The one example that I may use for my dissertation is the presence of “Humans vs. Zombies” on campus. This is a simple live-action game with two teams; humans, whose goal is to destroy the zombies, and the zombies, whose goal is to infect the humans and turn them into zombies (if any of you were wondering why people were carrying nerf guns around or had bandanas around their arms, this is why). I believe that this would connect the point of collective intelligence on campus and show how Facebook is used as the central point of information for the game, a la a “smartmob” (Rheingold, 2006).