Researching online populations: the use of online focus groups for social research
By Kate Stewart, Matthew Leighton Williams. 2005
399 citations recorded by the source corpus.
The survivability of ‘traditional’ methods within computer-mediated settings is dependent upon their capacity to be utilized and adapted to the technology that mediates human interaction online. This article addresses the established focus group method and evaluates its success in online applications, using as examples two quite different research projects. The first, drawn from research into the employment experiences of inflammatory bowel disease sufferers exemplifies the use of asynchronous online focus groups, identifying key practical issues such as online moderation and the analysis of digital data. In contrast the second study, into deviance within online communities, provides an example of how synchronous forms of online focus groups, held within 3D graphical environments, create further challenges for the researcher, highlighting unique ethical considerations of conducting fieldwork in cyberspace. The article draws together the authors’ experiences of applying the method to offer insights into the viability and practicability of online focus groups.
Subfields: Communication, Gender Studies, Sociology and Political Science
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/bec5a371d4fe3953ddf9f405e82a8b77df3b56f4
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In Communication
In Gender Studies
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Citations in the corpus
- A Case for Using Online Discussion Forums in Critical Psychological Research (2015, background): “…for critical psychologists, the Internet also functions as a site for the cultural contestation of meaning, providing a virtual space for social phenomena to be constructed through language and for discourses to be (re)produced and resisted (Stainton Rogers 2009) through discussion and debate.”
- Qualitative methods overview (2011, neutral): “As with interviews, the popularity of internet-based focus groups is spreading (Stewart and Williams 2005; Fox et al. 2007; Tates et al. 2009).”