[Air-L] Viral email dissemination as a sociological research methodology - some questions

[Ben Anderson]

Taryn,

A grad student of mine has done something rather similar to recruit a  
sample of highly active bloggers/blog readers, as has Fernanda B.  
Viégas (see http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue3/viegas.html#methods).

My student asked a few active bloggers he knew to post a url to his  
survey on their blogs. He got a sizeable sample almost overnight  
(allowing for timezones!). From the sub-sample who signed up for  
follow-up he then selected a range for qualitative interviews. By  
comparing with survey demographic & blogging behaviour data from other  
studies - e.g. using forms of random selection amongst internet users  
- we think his survey sample looks 'representative' enough to make  
some generalisations.

the research is currently in write-up mode.

Ben

On 11 May 2008, at 14:31, Taryn Ferris wrote:

> Hi there.
>
> I'm
> quite new to this listserv and have never posted, but I've been  
> quietly
> imbibing posts for a couple of weeks, and I'd now like to stick my  
> head
> out and ask a few questions...
>
> I'm currently analysing the
> results from a small (pilot) online research project I have conducted,
> and to date, I have not been able to locate anyone within the field of
> sociology in particular who is using similar online methodologies. I'm
> wondering if there's any of you out there who can point me in the  
> right
> (or any!) direction...
>
> Broadly, I have utilised viral or
> community email dissemination to recruit research participants, and in
> doing so have tried to go some way to addressing issues of
> researcher/researched power relations (in theory!) by relying on
> participant-led take-up. I have created a survey via Survey Monkey and
> have placed the link in an email that I have sent to all those within
> my social network. I have then asked individuals to pass on the email
> (viral or community marketing-style) within their social networks (and
> beyond if possible). Within the survey participants are asked if they
> would like to participate in a further stage of the study which
> requires them to supply an image pertaining to a question posed in the
> survey. Take-up of this second stage, is of course, once again,
> entirely optional and participant-led.

----
Dr Ben Anderson
Technology & Social Change Research
University of Essex
http://chimeraweb.essex.ac.uk/tasc