Theme 6: Qualitative and case study research

I have chosen the article Publicly Private and Privately Public: Social Networking on YouTube written by Patricia G. Lange from the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication with an impact factor of  2.019.

This research paper examines the Social networking site (SNS) Youtube and how video sharing affects youths different social relationships in between. Youtube is not only a video sharing SNS, it is also a site that has a “friending” function, similar to Facebook. During one year, they did an ethnopraphic qualitative study where the majority of respondents were in their early 20s and came from the United States. They also examined the “publicness” in video sharing. The term “ publicly private” were applied to the respondents who revealed their identity when publishing videos, but instead, the videos where more private and not easily accessed. The other term which plays a big role in the article is “privately public” meaning videos has a wide distribution area and many Youtube viewers but information about the producers and their identities are limited accessed.

1. Which qualitative method or methods are used in the paper? Which are the benefits and limitations of using these methods?

The research consists of several different qualitative methods. I think Patricia G. Lange examines the publicity private and privately private very thoroughly and the research extends over a whole year. She uses a combination of ethnographic methods which means that she collects data through the target groups essential, real-world environment and not in a rigged environment such a lab or focus groups. This results in that Patricia collected genuine data of how people actually behaves and performs in their real life (1). The ethnographic methods she used in the research was through observation: analyses of videos, comments,  and videoresponses. And also through semi-structured, formal interviews. Total, the researcher held 54 interviews with people all across the United States, and the interview methods were face-to-face, telephone, and instant messaging interviews. She recruited interviewees in different ways, such as asking the research team’s personal networks, friends of the project members, sending email to Youtube users etc. She also did an analysis of the most popular youtube videos that occurred on the main webpage, reading video comments and youtube video blog, analysing and observing how participants corresponded to comments, attending event in three different cities and by watching videos of the interviewees.

The benefits of using this qualitative method is that one gains valuable abundant information about the individual persons habits and behavior (2). Because Youtube was a developing and new SNS in 2007, this qualitative method gives an understanding of the users (target groups) needs and goals by using this SNS. You get a broader understanding of a phenomenon by investigating the SNS very thoroughly and in an early developing stage, of the site.

Limitations of using this kind of qualitative method is that it can be time consuming because of collecting and analysing data over a long period of time. It can also be expensive. Another limitation is due to Patricia examines the social networking site Youtube over a whole year, their is a possibility that the functions (such as commenting), terms of use and setup of the site may change. Though SNS is a dynamic developing platform, it can be difficult to observe and find repetitive patterns of users habits and use of the site.

2. What did you learn about qualitative methods from reading the paper?

I learned that qualitative methods can be very time consuming and you need to have patients when you investigate a problem during a long period of time. From earlier experiences I have always thought about qualitative methods as interviews, focus groups or an environmental setup where the researchers investigate the participants habits. Though I have never thought about that a qualitative method can consist such a variety of methods, and my reflections are that it might be hard to actually know, which methods are the most suitable to combine, to get as rich, specific and thoroughly data as possible. I have also learned that an ethnographic qualitative method is good to use in an early stage of a design/activity/task.  

3. Which are the main methodological problems of the study? How could the use of the qualitative method or methods have been improved?

In this study, I think she practiced the best method for the investigation. I could not think of any disadvantages with the methods she used and due to a combination of observation of Youtube, interviews with participants I think she received the best result. The only methodological problem I can come up with was the interview setup. Due to that the interviews were divided between telephone-,face to face-, and messaginginterviews the circumstances between them were different. When messaging, the participant or researcher, can easily misunderstand or interpret the question/answer wrong (also known as flaming) because they are not hearing or seeing each other. Maybe the interviews would become more solid if they all were classified in the same way.   

(1) (https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/user-centred-design/user-research/ethnographic-research.html)
(2) Ibid.

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1. Briefly explain to a first year university student what a case study is.

A case study is a qualitative, quantitative or combined analysis method that investigates a phenomenon more thoroughly to receive more precise and detailed information about the phenomenon. A case study specifies in only one study to gather as much rich information and data as possible. By investigating one study one can variegate, make accurate and expand concepts and theories (3). According to the text Building Theories from Case Study Research. Academy of Management Review a case study is a research strategy and one can build theories by analyzing the data from it.  In a case study one can combine different methods to gather data. One can for example gather data by archives, interviews, questionnaires and observation. (4) 

2.Use the "Process of Building Theory from Case Study Research" (Eisenhardt, summarized in Table 1) to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of your selected paper.

I have chosen the article The tweets that killed a university: A case study investigating the use of traditional and social media in the closure of a state university written by Nicholas J. Kelling, Angela S. Kelling, John F. Lennon and you can find the article in the Journal of Computers in Human Behavior which has an impact factor of 2.273.

I think that the case study was well constructed and it applies to the Table 1 Process of building theory from case studies very well.

Here are some examples:

Getting started: In the beginning of the text, they define the problem by explaining the theory behind it. They also mentioned that the tests were a priori.

Selecting cases: In the paper they selected two different cases (or experiments) that they would come to investigate. The first method was a questionnaire which was distributed through email, flyers or word of mouth at the University of South Florida Polytechnic. To investigate how well informed students at the University were. The result indicates that the two main information sources was watching the news and reading the newspapers. The second experiment was collecting social media data where they focused on analysing the social website Twitter. The result indicates that Twitter is a medium students use for discussion.

The strengths with my selected paper is that the case study is well presented and has a good structure. One weakness I think it that there is no concrete research questions or hypothesis with this paper. From the "theory" section, they describe facts as a base for the two different case studies.

   

(3)(http://www.hsv.se/densvenskahogskolan/sveengordbok/termer/f/fallstudie.4.7852b29111e5fd61e597ffe299.html)
(4) Eisenhardt, K. M. (1989). Building Theories from Case Study Research. Academy of Management Review