Methodology and Social Media - Inherently lacking?
After looking into research methods for social media, it seems there is no one method that gives definitive answers on the medium. Given, each study’s motive has perhaps a better suited methodology, but the nature of social media, as it is so broad, means it necessarily cannot be captured by one scientific approach. Although the research method is one of the less fun or “sexy” aspects of modern media to talk about, it is a critical issue since, as Baym’s example points out, the research method has a direct effect on data results and conclusions made about the medium.
That is not to say, however, that the same method cannot be used to different ends. Nardi and Boelstorff, for example, both chose to use participant observation. However, whereas Nardi used to explore how World of Warcraft participation fit into the scheme of everyday life for the players she interacted with, Boelstorff examined Second Life as its own microcosm, a place with its own norms, customs, traditions and lifestyle, worth researching for their own sakes. The method does have its limitations however, as not only is the data purely qualitative, but every interaction is also refracted through the researcher and is thereby going to have their own implicit assumptions embedded in the information. I think this is a major fallback to the participant observation method.
It would be interesting, however, to put the two of these researchers in conversation with those who examined retweeting. Where as the data in this study was quantitative and undoubtedly more holistic, pulling from Twitter’s general timeline, it doesn’t have the same emotional insight as Nardi’s and Boelstorff’s studies. Considering that ethnography seeks to understand a culture, cold numbers, while important and telling, lack the heart and insight that Nardi got from interviews. Perhaps the best approach to a study would be a sort of combination of both. While the retweet study attempted to do this – by crowdsourcing questions on a public twitter feed, it represents a skewed sample, even less representative of a general population than those investigated in participant observation studies.
Ceci Diaz