Best Practice in Online Survey Research with Sensitive Topics

This chapter addresses the main considerations in online survey research with sensitive topics. Advances in technology have allowed numerous options in addressing survey design, and thus created a need to evaluate and consider best approaches when using online survey research. This chapter identifies subjects such as item non-response in online survey research. In addition, this chapter includes a description of the differences in researching non-sensitive topics versus sensitive topics, and then lists a number of best practice strategies to reduce item non-response and improve the quality of survey data obtained. Included are specific considerations for defining sensitive topics and addressing gender differences when surveying more sensitive material. Additional resources in online survey research design are recommended.

The Co-Creation of the City

Is it possible to imagine novel forms of urban planning and of public policies regulating the ways in which people use city spaces by listening to citizens’ expressions, emotions, desires, and visions, as they ubiquitously emerge in real-time on social networks and on other sources of digital information? This chapter presents the theoretical and methodological approach, the investigation and research phases, the design and prototyping processes constituting the ConnectiCity initiative, a collaborative, multi-disciplinary series of projects in which artists, scientists, anthropologists, engineers, communicators, architects, and institutions participated to the design of innovative ubiquitous and pervasive systems which were able to transform the ways in which the concepts of urban planning and city-wide decision-making are defined. Novel forms of urban life were imagined, in which cities became the time/space continuum for multiple, stratified layers of information expressing the ideas, goals, visions, emotions, and forms of expression for multiple cultures and backgrounds, producing new opportunities for citizenship: more active, aware, and engaged in the production of urban reality, and in the transformation of city spaces into possibilistic frameworks.

Utilising New Media Technology

Utilising emergent media technology for data collection is rapidly advancing. As the technology continues to develop, there is increasing need to understand the practicalities, challenges, and opportunities that it holds for social and business research methods. This chapter presents a practical guide to using one form of new media technology, Web-based diaries, and, in doing so, provides a base on which research practitioners, from Masters students to professors, can build similar empirical research projects. Rationale for choosing this “novel” data collection tool is contextualised in a case study with university student participants with autistic spectrum disorder that explores disability support services. Sampling, ethics, and design are set out, with a step-by-step guide to the diary schedules’ construction. Materials and procedures are supported by screenshots to aid readers’ experience of the Web-based diary interface and critical description of its use. The challenges and opportunities this technique offers are subsequently explored.

Techniques for Analyzing Blogs and Micro-Blogs

The chapter reviews research techniques commonly used in the study of blogs and micro-blogs, including both quantitative and qualitative analyses. Using published studies as illustrations, each section explains the options before the researcher and how he/she might reasonably choose among the many methodological options.

Using Web Surveys for Psychology Experiments

This chapter provides readers with a practical guide about how to use commercial Web survey systems for Internet research. The authors frame their approach in terms of stages in the online research process: (1) ideation, (2) implementation, (3) distribution, (4) collection, (5) analysis, (6) dissemination, and (7) retention. Although they focus on implementing psychology experiments, many of their guidelines also apply to survey research. The authors draw parallels between applied (i.e., therapeutic intervention) and basic online research. One conclusion is that there are many methodological, ethical, and technological issues associated with each stage in the online research process. A second conclusion is that their approach benefits both researchers and participants. Future online researchers should modify the analysis and guidelines in light of the contemporary literature.

The Distinctiveness of Online Research

The proliferation of research investigating online phenomena has pushed scholars to develop and practice new methodological opportunities around an increasingly wider array of contents, tools, and applications hosted and enabled by digital technologies. Yet, this chapter argues, while most studies have focused on online research methods’ ability to offer vast, increasingly real-time data, few have considered the deeper theoretical implications of a fast-changing and fast-expanding digital ecosystem, particularly in respect to the widespread availability of new research objects and new classes of data online. Using three examples from research in online advocacy conducted in the past four years on Kiva.org, the world’s first Web-based person-to-person microfinance platform, the chapter documents how, at the intersection of novel methods, emerging digital affordances, and new classes of data, there lies a possibility to capture and express the distinctiveness of online methods.

Exploring Lived Experience through Ambient Research Methods

The daily realities of lived experience are increasingly mediated by interactions with ambient data—the granular, almost atmospheric mists of media that surround us and enrich our lives. Ambient data is often experienced and generated through literate action—through non-obvious writing work in social software applications, and through composing and sharing images and videos via mobile devices. Contemporary ethnography may attempt to explore lived experience by tracing and accounting for the literate practices of participants across private, semi-public, and public networks. This chapter details methods for researching the ambient data of lived experience within the broader context of ethnographic methodology, offering case histories detailing ambient research methods in both industry and academe.

Methods for Analyzing Computer-Mediated Communication in Educational Sciences

Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) is the process by which individuals can exchange information, communicate with each other in multiple ways, and socially construct knowledge by means of networked information and communication technologies (Gunawerdana et al., 1997). CMC tools record transcripts of messages and interactions and provide researchers with a “ready-made” source of data. Today, researchers are seeking for alternative theories, methods, and software tools in order to better investigate CMC and its effect on different learning outcomes (Garrison, 2000). In order to understand the learning process in CMC, content analysis, and sequential analysis (interaction analysis), Jeong (2005) offers a methodological framework to explore the discussion process, product, and quality. Therefore, in this chapter, the authors aim to provide guidance for scholars and practitioners by referring to the basics of the two complementary methods (content analysis and sequential analysis), pitfalls, challenges, as well as strategies and implications of the methods.

Considering Abductive Thematic Network Analysis with ATLAS-ti 6.2

Social research carried out through the use of new media technologies can generate large volumes of qualitative data. A systematic and rigorous approach is therefore important in analysing large volumes of qualitative data. Computer-aided qualitative data analysis programmes—such as Atlas-ti 6.2—have managed to facilitate the process of data analysis, to some extent. However, researchers remain central in designing and deciding how the qualitative data gathered as evidence from the field are to be analysed, interpreted, and presented. Within this context, this chapter aims to consider Abductive Thematic Network Analysis (ATNA) with Atlas-ti 6.2 as a systematic way of carrying out qualitative data analysis. A data set from a study on Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health is used as an example for facilitating the explanation on the steps in carrying out, and for providing an illustration of the outcome of, ATNA. The objectives of this chapter are to make a brief presentation of abductive approach to social research, describe ATNA, and demonstrate the techniques for such an analysis using Atlas-ti 6.2. The chapter concludes that ATNA can be a useful systematic way to proceed with qualitative data analysis that can be facilitated by the use of Atlas-ti 6.2.

Sampling, Channels, and Contact Strategies in Internet Survey

The global diffusion of the Internet involves economic, political, cultural, and geographical factors, making it a very interesting subject for sociologists and policy makers. In the last few years, big changes in Internet usage have occurred. In particular, during the last decade, new Social Networks have social scientists reconsidering their research methodology and developing new survey techniques (Internet Survey Techniques). One of the main challenges presented by Internet Surveys is the sampling procedure, as it must be reconsidered in order to avoid the risk of bias and a lack of scientific accountability. The main questions are: (1) Are classic sampling methods an effective way to investigate new Web reality? (2) How can we conduct a valid survey using the Internet? In this chapter these questions are addressed with methodological attention, starting with the problem of defining population in Internet Surveys. The authors also illustrate the main channels for the conduct of Internet Surveys and their specific characteristics. Finally, they discuss some sampling procedures and contact strategies used in Internet Surveys, with a particular attention to a new and important channel: Social Networks (especially Facebook and Twitter).