[Air-L] Facebook groups as a method

Johnson, Thomas J tom.johnson at austin.utexas.edu
Thu Jun 30 15:40:03 PDT 2011 

I have used Facebook groups much less ambitiously than you have, creating groups to study social media and politics, recruiting friends and asking them to recruit.  Certainly that technique could work for high school students. I have also posted information about the survey as a note and asked people to share which has also worked. 
On Jun 30, 2011, at 5:00 PM, <air-l-request at listserv.aoir.org> wrote:

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> Today's Topics:
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>   1. FB groups as method & parental consent (Rena Bivens)
>   2. Re: FB groups as method & parental consent (Montathar Faraon)
>   3. Re: FB groups as method & parental consent (Jayne M. Sellick)
> 
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2011 13:29:31 -0400
> From: Rena Bivens <rena.bivens at gmail.com>
> To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
> Subject: [Air-L] FB groups as method & parental consent
> Message-ID: <BANLkTimewh-zDyrs4RByUjb_vX3bM+_MWA at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
> 
> Hi All,
> 
> I'm writing about two issues:
> (1) using Facebook groups as part of a research method
> (2) obtaining parental consent
> 
> Has anyone on the list used Facebook groups within their methodological
> strategy?
> I plan to create a Facebook group for the first stage of a project I am
> conducting on social media and gender-based violence - particularly gender
> socialization by teenagers on Facebook. The idea is to recruit students from
> various high schools across Canada to join the FB group and then engage
> participants in discussions while also sharing videos, images and news
> articles. Within a couple of months the intention would be to gain informed
> consent to 'friend' a number of the participants and preform a digital
> ethnography of their profile pages (including info, wall, photos). Online
> focus groups would also be incorporated during fieldwork and as a final
> stage face-to-face focus groups will take place to validate or reconfigure
> preliminary conclusions.
> 
> I'm also hoping to get ethical approval to include under-16s (e.g. 13-18
> year olds) but I'm trying to be creative as to how I can obtain parental
> consent since participants will come from a wide geographical region. Any
> ideas apart from a paper letter that would be mailed or faxed would be
> greatly appreciated!
> 
> Many thanks in advance and feel free to ask for more information.
> 
> Rena
> 
> -- 
> 
> Pauline Jewett Institute of Women's and Gender Studies
> 
> Dunton Tower, Room 1509
> 
> 1125 Colonel By Drive, Carleton University, Ottawa ON K1S 5B6
> 
> Office: (613) 520-2600 ext. 2904
> 
> Cell: (613) 618-4602
> 
> @renabivens <http://twitter.com/renabivens>
> 
> renabivens.com
> 
> ca.linkedin.com/in/renabivens
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 2
> Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2011 19:50:03 +0200
> From: Montathar Faraon <montathar.faraon at gmail.com>
> To: Rena Bivens <rena.bivens at gmail.com>
> Cc: Air-L <air-l at listserv.aoir.org>
> Subject: Re: [Air-L] FB groups as method & parental consent
> Message-ID: <BANLkTi=Nvq4S+knr6KvR2_EoMBeZ-t25GA at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
> 
> Hello Rena,
> 
> Although I haven't dealt specifically with Facebook groups I have come
> across articles that deal with this issue. I recommend that you take a look
> at the following articles:
> 
> Valenzuela, S., Park, N., & Kee, F. K. (2009). Is there social capital in a
> social network site?: Facebook use and college students' life satisfaction,
> trust, and participation. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 14,
> 875-901.
> 
> Juliana, F., Magda, G., Kevin, W. B., & Jeffrey, C. N. (2010). The writing
> on the wall: A content analysis of college students' Facebook groups for the
> 2008 presidential election. Mass Communication and Society, 13, 653-675.
> 
> Kind regards,
> Montathar
> 
> On Thu, Jun 30, 2011 at 7:29 PM, Rena Bivens <rena.bivens at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Hi All,
>> 
>> I'm writing about two issues:
>> (1) using Facebook groups as part of a research method
>> (2) obtaining parental consent
>> 
>> Has anyone on the list used Facebook groups within their methodological
>> strategy?
>> I plan to create a Facebook group for the first stage of a project I am
>> conducting on social media and gender-based violence - particularly gender
>> socialization by teenagers on Facebook. The idea is to recruit students
>> from
>> various high schools across Canada to join the FB group and then engage
>> participants in discussions while also sharing videos, images and news
>> articles. Within a couple of months the intention would be to gain informed
>> consent to 'friend' a number of the participants and preform a digital
>> ethnography of their profile pages (including info, wall, photos). Online
>> focus groups would also be incorporated during fieldwork and as a final
>> stage face-to-face focus groups will take place to validate or reconfigure
>> preliminary conclusions.
>> 
>> I'm also hoping to get ethical approval to include under-16s (e.g. 13-18
>> year olds) but I'm trying to be creative as to how I can obtain parental
>> consent since participants will come from a wide geographical region. Any
>> ideas apart from a paper letter that would be mailed or faxed would be
>> greatly appreciated!
>> 
>> Many thanks in advance and feel free to ask for more information.
>> 
>> Rena
>> 
>> --
>> 
>> Pauline Jewett Institute of Women's and Gender Studies
>> 
>> Dunton Tower, Room 1509
>> 
>> 1125 Colonel By Drive, Carleton University, Ottawa ON K1S 5B6
>> 
>> Office: (613) 520-2600 ext. 2904
>> 
>> Cell: (613) 618-4602
>> 
>> @renabivens <http://twitter.com/renabivens>
>> 
>> renabivens.com
>> 
>> ca.linkedin.com/in/renabivens
>> _______________________________________________
>> The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
>> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
>> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at:
>> http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
>> 
>> Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
>> http://www.aoir.org/
>> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 3
> Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2011 19:08:42 +0100
> From: "Jayne M. Sellick" <J.M.Sellick at durham.ac.uk>
> To: "air-l at listserv.aoir.org" <air-l at listserv.aoir.org>
> Subject: Re: [Air-L] FB groups as method & parental consent
> Message-ID: <3EBADB1DDEFEA244A45F569963F478B312ADC833D4 at MAILWEST>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
> 
> Hi Rena,
> 
> I'm just starting to connect with online users as part of my participatory project with different groups of disabled people. I spent quite a lot of time deciding how to do this and settled on my own blog in the end. However, with reference to facebook I'm planning on using it, alongside Twitter to gain further interest for the project and get people to the blog, rather than using it as a space to collect and upload content and/or ideas from potential participants. i.e. they could like the page or join the group but then use a different and private online space to get involved. 
> 
> I would say that whilst Facebook is a well connected platform (for many non-disabled groups) with a range of tools to use, such as uploading photographs and making comments; it's very difficult to ensure any sort of privacy or anonymity. I think that the latter may be something that parent's (and equally students) could be concerned about as the topic is potentially sensitive and users may wish to be reassured that their input remains confidential. Facebook don't place privacy very highly on their agenda!
> 
> It terms of parental consent, you could set up a very simple wordpress blog where parents and students could register their interest and where you could set up a Terms of Use form (a plugin) that outlines the need for parental consent. By registering and agreeing to the terms of use you are asking parents and students to agree with these (in
> line with your ethics) and will also have an electronic copy of when they agreed to these terms. 
> 
> The online focus group sounds great and I'd love to hear more about it, as and when you get to it. you could also update the (potential) blog with info about/for the online focus groups.
> 
> Hope this helps!
> 
> Best wishes,
> 
> Jayne Sellick
> 
> PhD Researcher
> Geographies of Disability and Health
> Department of Geography
> Science Laboratories
> Durham University
> South Road
> Durham
> DH1 3LE
> 
> Blog: http://www.disidentities.com
> 
> Tel: +44 (0) 7757 838 741
> 
> Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/J_Sellick
> 
> Web: www.durham.ac.uk/geography
> ________________________________________
> From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org [air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Rena Bivens [rena.bivens at gmail.com]
> Sent: 30 June 2011 18:29
> To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
> Subject: [Air-L] FB groups as method & parental consent
> 
> Hi All,
> 
> I'm writing about two issues:
> (1) using Facebook groups as part of a research method
> (2) obtaining parental consent
> 
> Has anyone on the list used Facebook groups within their methodological
> strategy?
> I plan to create a Facebook group for the first stage of a project I am
> conducting on social media and gender-based violence - particularly gender
> socialization by teenagers on Facebook. The idea is to recruit students from
> various high schools across Canada to join the FB group and then engage
> participants in discussions while also sharing videos, images and news
> articles. Within a couple of months the intention would be to gain informed
> consent to 'friend' a number of the participants and preform a digital
> ethnography of their profile pages (including info, wall, photos). Online
> focus groups would also be incorporated during fieldwork and as a final
> stage face-to-face focus groups will take place to validate or reconfigure
> preliminary conclusions.
> 
> I'm also hoping to get ethical approval to include under-16s (e.g. 13-18
> year olds) but I'm trying to be creative as to how I can obtain parental
> consent since participants will come from a wide geographical region. Any
> ideas apart from a paper letter that would be mailed or faxed would be
> greatly appreciated!
> 
> Many thanks in advance and feel free to ask for more information.
> 
> Rena
> 
> --
> 
> Pauline Jewett Institute of Women's and Gender Studies
> 
> Dunton Tower, Room 1509
> 
> 1125 Colonel By Drive, Carleton University, Ottawa ON K1S 5B6
> 
> Office: (613) 520-2600 ext. 2904
> 
> Cell: (613) 618-4602
> 
> @renabivens <http://twitter.com/renabivens>
> 
> renabivens.com
> 
> ca.linkedin.com/in/renabivens
> _______________________________________________
> The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
> 
> Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
> http://www.aoir.org/
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> _______________________________________________
> The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
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