Conducting Congruent, Ethical, Qualitative Research in Internet-Mediated Research Environments

Research practices in Internet-mediated environments are influenced by the dynamic interplay of online, onground and technical research spheres. This chapter illuminates the different ways in which studies can be located within these spheres and explores the resulting implications for researcher-participant relationships. Issues of participant recruitment, data collection, data use and ownership, trust and voice are discussed. The authors suggest that to conduct ethical qualitative research online, the researcher is required to develop and demonstrate awareness of the specific Internet-mediated research contexts, knowledge of technologies used and of research practices congruent with the situatedness of the study. Conducting Congruent, Ethical, Qualitative Research 63 Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. INTRODUCTION The rapid adoption of the Internet has resulted in many recent changes in economic, political, social and psychological spheres of human and social interactions (e.g., Castells, 1996; Gergen, 1991; Surratt, 2001; Turkle, 1995). From conducting e-business to debating politics to exploring multiple identities online, many people using the Internet are experiencing human interactions in very different ways than they would in onground1 communities. The medium used, in this case the Internet, both shapes and forms human and social interactions and is shaped by human and social interactions (McLuhan, 1964). Therefore, it is important to recognize how technical and social realms are connected and inform each other; and, more specifically, how research practices are shaped and being shaped by technologies used. Denzin and Lincoln (2000) define qualitative research as: “... a situated activity that locates the observer in the world. It consists of a set of interpretive, material practices that make the world visible. These practices transform the world. They turn the world into a series of representations, including field notes, interviews, conversations, photographs, recordings, and memos to the self. At this level qualitative research involves an interpretive, naturalistic approach to the world. This means that qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of or interpret phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them” (p. 3). But in an Internet-mediated research setting what is the “natural setting” that Denzin and Lincoln refer to? The natural setting could be conceptualized as being located in the interplays of online, onground and technical research spheres. We suggest that in order to conduct online research, awareness of the interplay of these three spheres is important for the development of ethical, virtual research practices. Researchers need to expand their own traditional onground knowledge of research ethics to include the understanding of technologies used and an awareness of their impact on human and social interactions. From this interplay, new conceptualizations of research practices may arise that go beyond traditional research methods and ethics, creating research practices that are congruent2 within innovative Internet-mediated research environments. The intent of this chapter is to add to the discussion of what constitutes ethical online qualitative research by illuminating how the situatedness of both researchers and participants in technically-mediated environments actively shapes research processes. When conducting qualitative research online, it is important to ask the following questions: How are the technical characteristics of the Internet enabling research interactions? What are the human and social implications of using this new medium? Extended into the contexts of conducting qualitative research online, the questions become: How do technical characteristics of the Internet influence qualitative research? What social and ethical implications do Internet-mediated forms of human and social interactions have on qualitative research practices, specifically researcher-participant relationships? First, the social and technical contexts of Internet-mediated research are illuminated and the implications of the interplay of three research spheres, online, onground and technical, for human and social interactions are discussed. How these changed cultural 64 Maczewski, Storey and Hoskins Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. contexts impact qualitative research practices is then illustrated by exploring issues of participant recruitment, data collection, trust and voice. Later sections will provide guidelines for congruent, ethical online qualitative research practices. All explorations are grounded in cyberculture, virtual and traditional research methods literature as well as many professional conversations and research experiences. INTERNET-MEDIATED RESEARCH CONTEXTS When conducting research using virtual space, three spheres of interactions inform the research process: online, onground and technical (see Figure 1). The online sphere encompasses the virtual space and all forms of actions that are completed within it, for example, a conversation in a chatroom. The onground sphere encompasses the material world and all actions grounded in physical realities, for example, the institution that employs the researcher. The technical sphere is grounded in the onground world and enables the virtual—it connects the onground and online worlds, forming the latter. The technical contexts in which the online research is embedded consist of many parts. For example: hardware, software, infrastructure, bandwidth as well as local, institutional, national and global information and communication laws and policies. In Internet-mediated research both researcher and participants are located in onground and online communities within their specific cultural parameters and their technologically-mediated interactions are influenced by the interplay of all three spheres. When considering the growing field of Internet research, one can observe that it has been conducted in diverse quantitative and qualitative ways. Given the methodological variety seen in Internet research, the relevance of online, onground and technical spheres differs in relevance to the study. Ethical implications need to be considered Figure 1: Interplay of Online, Onground and Technical Research Spheres in InternetMediated Research Onground Researcher Participant Contexts Technical Hardware Software Infrastructure Research Ethics Online Researcher Participant Contexts Conducting Congruent, Ethical, Qualitative Research 65 Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. within their unique contexts and primary locations within the three spheres. For example, online surveys have been conducted (e.g., Tapscott, 1998; Wellman, Quan-Haase, Witte, & Hampton, 2001), psychological experiments undertaken (e.g., Buchanan & Smith, 1999), ethnographic studies of online communities conducted (e.g., Baym, 2000; Markham, 1998; Smith & Kollock, 1999; Turkle, 1995) and Web content analyzed and archived (e.g., Schneider & Larsen, 2000). In these studies, the spaces in which the research is conducted, the location of researchers and participants, their relationship to each other and the form of data collected, varies tremendously. For example, in an ethnographic study of a virtual community, the researcher and participants interact directly with each other and the virtual community is the actual research focus (e.g., Baym, 1999; Markham, 1998). In this form of Internet-mediated research, the research field is primarily located online. Research findings are interpreted within the contexts of virtual communities. They are primarily written referring to online identities, actions and language use without necessarily connecting these identities with onground realities. They are located within the technical parameters that enable cyberspace. A survey posted online, however, locates the researcher and participants primarily in their onground communities. Both parties asynchronously post and reply to the survey (e.g., Bampton & Cowton, 2002). In these surveys the virtual sphere is used as a space in which data is collected. It is not the virtual space itself that is studied but primarily people’s ideas and opinions in their onground lives about a specific topic. In this kind of research, people’s onground realities are important and the Internet is used as a technology that enables this particular study to be conducted in a specific way— very similar to research surveys conducted via telephone. In yet other studies, the integration of the Internet into people’s lives is the research focus (e.g., Kiesler, Kraut, Lundmark, Patterson, Mukopadhyay, & Scherlis, 1998; Hampton & Wellman, 1999; Wellman et al., 2001). It is explored primarily through onground contacts and inclusion of the analysis of the use of Internet-mediated interactions (e.g., e-mail, listserv, Web). Again the researcher and participants are primarily situated in onground settings, but this time the use of the Internet itself and its relevance for people’s onground lives is studied. Electronic data collection from listserv archives or from an archived website (e.g., Schneider & Larsen, 2000) represents other forms of primarily technologically-mediated research. In this research methodology, there is usually no direct interaction between the researcher and participant (listserv member or website designer)—the analysis of technologically-mediated texts and images is the focus of the study. All methodologies and spheres can overlap and are in dynamic interaction with each other. This can be seen in studies where researcher and participants initially meet in virtual space and follow up with meetings in person. In the early years of Internet research, it seemed that traditional research methodology (e.g., ethnography, survey, discourse analysis) and research methods (e.g., interviews, participant observation) used for conducting studies in physical environments were applied in more or less the same form to study virtual interactions. As stated in the “Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans,” ethical principles guiding traditional research are based on the following principles: respect for human dignity, respect for free and informed consent, respect for vulnerable persons, respect for privacy and confidentiality, respect for justice and inclusiveness, 66 Maczewski, Storey and Hoskins Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. balancing of harms and benefits, minimizing of harm and maximizing of benefits (National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, 1999). In general, these remain applicable when conducting online research; however an expansion of these concepts is necessary to include human interactions in Internet-mediated environments. Existing ethical guidelines for researchers do not yet address the interplay of research spheres sufficiently. Changes in research methods are accepted and discussed, but the technical underpinnings that influence human and social interactions and create different cultural contexts are ignored. Hine (2000) points out that “using the Internet meaningfully is about acquiring the cultural competences within which it makes sense” (p. 152). As part of understanding the “natural setting” that Denzin and Lincoln (2000) refer to, it is not only necessary for the researcher to understand the cultural codes within virtual communities but also to be able to cross the boundaries of virtual environments into the technical sphere located in digital onground realities. For ethical research to be conducted online, this would mean considering the effects of the research on participants from their online, onground and technical situatedness. For example, when a study that is conducted primarily in the virtual environment and a member of this community is quoted in the research text— whose identity needs to be protected? The online persona? The onground person? And how much does the researcher need to alter the text quoted in a document for it to become unrecognizable by search engines? The previous practice of quoting a participant’s words by using a synonym may not be sufficient anymore, when considering the interplay of online, onground and technical contexts of this research. What are the specific characteristics of the Internet that create different forms of human and social interactions and innovative research spaces and forms? As one of the author’s experience lies within research conducted primarily through virtual spaces (interviews, survey and ethnographic observations) and researcherparticipant interactions, which were conducted primarily online, the following section will highlight the unique characteristics of the Internet that enable different forms of researcher-participant interactions within primarily online research contexts. INTERNET CHARACTERISTICS AND CHANGES IN HUMAN INTERACTIONS One of the issues most challenging in writing this chapter was to be conscious of the technical sphere informing human interactions as well as human interactions informing the technical sphere—to demonstrate the dynamic interplay of spheres instead of easily falling into technologically-deterministic language. For the purposes of this section, however, we only focus on what characterizes the virtual space and how this technologically-mediated space enables different forms of human interactions within this space. De Kerckhove (1997) points out that the three characteristics of the Internet, “connectivity, interactivity and hypertextuality,” build the basis for a sense of “webbedness” among users, which is characterized by the “mental linking of people” or the “industries of networks” (p. xxv). Technical features, such as digital data transfer, networked environments and hypertext, enable a sense of connectivity and interactivity among frequent users. These characteristics are crucial for the Internet “... to have Conducting Congruent, Ethical, Qualitative Research 67 Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. multiple spatial and temporal orderings” (Hine, 2000, p. 114), which in turn impact forms of human and social interactions online. Interactivity and connectivity involve information that is moved in many ways: simultaneously, quickly and in a distributed manner. In networked environments, the pattern of power is described as being less hierarchical than onground and more distributed than linear. The power does not lie primarily within hierarchical institutions but is distributed among networked dynamic local and global interactions with new emerging organizational structures (Castells, 1996, 1997; Dobell & Neufeld, 1994). Hyperlinks and electronic mail, for example, enable people to link to each other immediately, locally and globally, asynchronously and synchronously. Consequently, time and place shift in relevance: people begin expecting quick answers to e-mail, to reach anybody at anytime and to be able to access online information 24 hours a day. Digital data transfers enable a quicker and more immediate transfer of information than previous forms of mail or fax. In comparison to traditional data storage possibilities, digital data information is easily stored and replicated. Records of all interactions are easily kept and traced. This differs from onground access to information where linearity of communication patterns is common. Convenience, accessibility, speed and interactivity are dynamics of online interactions that are commonly expected by online users (Storey, Philips, Maczewski, & Wang, 2002). In addition, text-based environments have taken away some cues of physical interactions on which many initial judgments and assumptions are made in onground worlds. Missed physical cues, for example, gender, age and ethnicity, mean that people explore their identities and experience themselves in different ways. A different sense of identity and embodiment is facilitated, which promotes a shifting in power structures among people interacting (e.g., O’Brien, 1999; Turkle, 1995). These Internet characteristics and resulting changes in human interaction patterns play out in research contexts and have implications for ethical research conduct as well. Important issues, such as access, privacy, informed consent, intellectual property and confidentiality, are discussed by other authors (e.g., Buchanan, 2000; Eysenbach & Till, 2001; Nosek, Banaji & Greenwald, 2002; Sharf, 1999; Suler, 2000). This chapter focuses more specifically on aspects of researcher-participant relationships in online qualitative research: participant recruitment, data collection, voice and trust3. IMPLICATIONS FOR RESEARCHERPARTICIPANT RELATIONSHIPS In qualitative studies “researchers stress the socially constructed nature of reality, the intimate relationship between the researcher and what is studied, and the situational constraints that shape inquiry. ... They seek answers to questions that stress how social experience is created and given meaning” (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000, p. 8). To do so, the researcher-participant relationships are of central importance in qualitative inquiries. As described above, the cultural, Internet-mediated contexts of researcher-participant relationships have expanded and now include issues located in technical and online spheres as well. 68 Maczewski, Storey and Hoskins Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. Recruitment of Participants The researcher is initially faced with the task of understanding how participant recruitment is changed within Internet-mediated environments. Using the Internet to recruit participants enables the researcher to use new forms of accessing and recruiting, leading to both successes and frustrations (e.g., Bampton & Cowton, 2002; HolgeHazelton, 2002). In Maczewski’s (1999) study with young people, the impact of hyperlinks on the recruitment of participants became clear early on and quickly alerted the researcher to the implications of interactivity and connectivity. Maczewski’s aim was to recruit frequent Internet users between the ages of 13 and 19 with an active presence on the Web (e.g., youth who have designed a personal website, acted as a chathost, etc.). After having become aware of their online involvement, the question became: How did the researcher interact with them and interest them in becoming participants? In accordance with de Kerckhove’s (1997) three characteristics, Maczewski recognized that the shift from onground to online participant recruitment also meant a shift from linear distribution and control over information to an environment of immediately accessible information sources that enabled potential participants to gain access to information at their time and leisure. She had initially planned to contact participants linearly through engaging in an asynchronous e-mail dialogue (as compared to a person-to-person environment), and revealing information step-by-step depending on the participant and his/her expressed interest. Upon entering the online environment, having information about the research project available to participants 24 hours a day now seemed appropriate. (All relevant information about the research project and researcher was placed on a Web information page as a resource for participants.) This enabled participants, after the researcher’s initial contact by e-mail that included the information website’s URL, to access the project information 24/7, to follow hyperlinks to more background information on the researcher and research project, depending on their interest, and to gain an understanding of the project without directly engaging with the researcher. Using a website as a primary information source allowed potential participants to respond in their own time, allowing for individual reflection on whether to participate or not, without the added pressure of engaging directly with the researcher. The environment of hypertextuality, interactivity and connectivity had now shifted control over what parts of information to access at what time from the researcher toward the participant. Even prior to this step, however, the website design became an important factor in the recruitment of participants. Instead of a voice on the phone, the website now provided the first impression of the project and the researcher for the participants. Information design through text and images now conveyed the research project without personal contact and raised questions of inclusion and exclusion. Although information was accessible 24/7, what information and in what form did the researcher choose to present online? For example, if the researcher only chose clip art that represented males, it would be possible that females felt excluded. The website color choices may appeal to specific groups of people. The text style may attract or exclude certain groups of young people. Information design guidelines (Mullet & Sano, 1995) were a powerful tool in not only recruiting participants but also in establishing a respectful relationship with the participant. This was taken into account when considering the websites’ design, text and structure and the presentation of information on the Web in appropriate and respectful Conducting Congruent, Ethical, Qualitative Research 69 Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. ways. Technical knowledge of website design, knowledge of website conventions, as well as awareness of onground assumptions and online styles of interaction all played out in this initial research step. Mann and Stewart (2000) point out that the action of researchers and participants referring each other to their respective websites is part of creating a trusting relationship. The website design becomes a “social action which has meaning to them [the designers] and which they consider will have meaning for its recipients” (Hine, 2000, p. 148). As Hine continues: “... this competence involves the conceptualization of the Web page as a means of communicating with an audience, the ability to read the temporal collage of the Web and to negotiate the space of flows, and the ability to produce appropriate displays of authenticity” (p. 148). Understanding the Web page as a form of social action is one aspect of demonstrating cultural competence in Internet-mediated relations within the interplay of the technical, online and onground.