[Air-L] Missing Data in Qualitative and Online Research

Sharon Haleva Amir sharon at trebcon.com
Mon Aug 9 02:12:34 PDT 2010


Hi everybody, this thread is really very very interesting and I enjoy
reading everyone's perspectives. I would like to comment in a more
philosophical ontological level:

Qualitative research doesn't aim to capture the whole picture or reach
generalized conclusions but rather try to focus on one phenomenon/ one
aspect etc. and trough this magnifying glass better comprehend the meaning
of things. 

Therefore, it is more than obvious that qualitative research (as well as
quantitative research) will always have missing data; as the starting point
assumes that a qualitative researcher has subjective perception of the world
and can never make objective choices. Accordingly, s/he makes subjective and
aware choices affected by her/his cultural background, personality,
interests etc. whereas another researcher will make other choices. 

This can be a much bigger problem in the huge ocean of Internet. 

Though I understand and have myself dealt with this practical problem of
missing data (I research the subject of Israeli e-Politics), I try to bear
in mind, that whatever methods I use and whatever empiric data I will
collect, I can never grasp the complete wide picture, as every research, by
its nature, illuminates a specific segment of reality. Nevertheless, even
'not complete' (partial) data analysis produces significant findings. 

Have a great week, cheers, Sharon. 

Best Wishes,
Sharon Haleva Amir, HCLT Fellow 
(PhD Candidate) Faculty of Law, 
University of Haifa, ISRAEL. 
--------------------------------------------------

http://weblaw.haifa.ac.il/en/research/resstudents/pages/sharonha.aspx 


-----Original Message-----
From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org
[mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Julian Hopkins
Sent: Monday, August 09, 2010 6:52 AM
To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
Subject: Re: [Air-L] Missing Data in Qualitative and Online Research

I'd like to echo some of the comments made already. In my research on
personal blogging, I found that the interviewees often mentioned
'backchannel' contact: via MSN in particular, but also emails and SMS. More
recently Twitter has increased in significance, and DMs are the obvious
backchannel there.

Sometimes, edited MSN conversations are reproduced on a blog, using
screenshots, and thus some missing data is ostensibly provided, but of
course it's only what the blogger wants to blog about.

Meeting bloggers offline in blogmeets was an important way of filling out
some missing information: the hierarchies and clustering of bloggers were
more evident; and seeing how those offline meets were re-presented online
was an interesting window into the mediation of those encounters. 

Overall, as others have pointed out, the assumption that all online activity
is public and available is a fallacy that should be addressed further.

Cheers,
Julian

++++++++++
Blog: www.julianhopkins.net
Twitter: @julianhopkins
Skype: julhop

-----Original Message-----

From: William Dutton <william.dutton at oii.ox.ac.uk>
Subject: [Air-L] Missing Data in Qualitative and Online Research
To: "air-l at listserv.aoir.org" <air-l at listserv.aoir.org>
Date: Friday, August 6, 2010, 8:17 AM

Dear List Members,

My colleagues and I would greatly appreciate your input to an exploratory
project on missing data in qualitative and online research.* We would
appreciate anything from your immediate reactions while reading this e-mail
to detailed references to literature that has addressed our questions.

There are two very general but heuristically useful questions. Your views on
either would be welcomed. Feel free to reply privately or to the list, as
you
 wish.

1. What is ?missing data? in the context of qualitative research and how is
it dealt with?

2. Likewise, in computer-mediated research, are researchers missing
particular kinds of data, or believe that they are missing particular kinds
of observations, and how are they compensating or otherwise addressing this
gap?

Thoughts? Thank you,

Bill

*This is a collaborative project between the ESRC?s National Centre for
Research Methods (NCRM) ?hub? (Graham Crow, Rose Wiles), WISERD (Amanda
Coffey), Oxford eSocial Science ?node? of NCeSS (Bill Dutton, Alison
Powell), and Qualidata/Timescapes (Libby Bishop), based on our recognition
of a shared but not well developed problem.

William Dutton, Director
Professor of Internet Studies
Oxford Internet Institute
1 St Giles', Oxford OX1 3JS? UK

e-mail: william.dutton at oii.ox.ac.uk
Web: http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/people/?id=1
Phone: +44 (0)1865 287 212
Cell: +44 (0)7768 823906

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