[Air-L] FB groups as method & parental consent

[Montathar Faraon]

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
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