What's the news in the last week? Well, I was given ethics clearance. That was really painless, actually. I'd like to give a shout out to one of my supervisors who helped flesh out my application back at the start of the year. Holla!
What else? I'm still writing my methodology chapter, though I'll have my second draft ready by Monday. I think it's starting to resemble what my other supervisor was hoping for, but as we all know there will be room for improvement.
What else? I'm still writing my methodology chapter, though I'll have my second draft ready by Monday. I think it's starting to resemble what my other supervisor was hoping for, but as we all know there will be room for improvement.
Possibly the most exciting news is that my recruitment has kicked up a notch. GWLG agreed to post my recruitment flyer and within a few hours I've already been approached by 5 individuals. I only needed 5, and I had a few already that I anticipated could snowball into a few others, so that's been really good. For a straight guy to successfully approach and insert himself into a lesbian community is no small task. It was probably my biggest fear, leading up to actually doing my research - what would happen if I failed miserably in recruiting? The good news is, I won't have to worry.
I feel like maybe it's a good idea to share a part of my methodology, in regards to approaching a community that the researcher exists out of. I was reading some stuff on internet research ethics recently, namely Christine Hine's Virtual Methods: Issues in Social Research on the Internet (2005), Virtual Ethnography (2000); The Ethics of Internet Research: A Rhetorical, Case-Based Process by Heidi McKee and James Porter (2009); and Boellstorff's Coming of Age In Second Life (2008). One salient thing that I learned from these texts is the need for 'authenticity'.
There was something by Janne Bromseth which I took from one of those texts. Bromseth did some research on gay and bisexual women's interaction on a Scandinavian litserv. She noted that when conducted ethnography online, it is important that the researcher sustains a 'cultrally appropriate image'. Such an image is necessary so as to appear legitimate and culturally sensitive toward the population that the researcher is studying, and, perhaps more importantly, reduces that the researcher can be seen as an 'other' (outsider).
Taking from this, I thought that it wasn't enough for my methodology that I simply have a tumblr blog for my research (though it would be where my potential participants could acquire the participant information and consent sheets). I would have to establish my own tumblr blog. Now, tumblr users can be assured that I am not just an amused researcher, looking down from high above in my ivory tower. This is also that is something which resonates with the standpoint epistemology that I've used, which calls for reflexivity and that the research operates as a participant, rather than an expert.
I feel like maybe it's a good idea to share a part of my methodology, in regards to approaching a community that the researcher exists out of. I was reading some stuff on internet research ethics recently, namely Christine Hine's Virtual Methods: Issues in Social Research on the Internet (2005), Virtual Ethnography (2000); The Ethics of Internet Research: A Rhetorical, Case-Based Process by Heidi McKee and James Porter (2009); and Boellstorff's Coming of Age In Second Life (2008). One salient thing that I learned from these texts is the need for 'authenticity'.
There was something by Janne Bromseth which I took from one of those texts. Bromseth did some research on gay and bisexual women's interaction on a Scandinavian litserv. She noted that when conducted ethnography online, it is important that the researcher sustains a 'cultrally appropriate image'. Such an image is necessary so as to appear legitimate and culturally sensitive toward the population that the researcher is studying, and, perhaps more importantly, reduces that the researcher can be seen as an 'other' (outsider).
Taking from this, I thought that it wasn't enough for my methodology that I simply have a tumblr blog for my research (though it would be where my potential participants could acquire the participant information and consent sheets). I would have to establish my own tumblr blog. Now, tumblr users can be assured that I am not just an amused researcher, looking down from high above in my ivory tower. This is also that is something which resonates with the standpoint epistemology that I've used, which calls for reflexivity and that the research operates as a participant, rather than an expert.
Anyway, as is customary when concluding posts on this blog, it's gif-time - for "teh kidz". Here is an apt representation of me presently, replying to all my participation requests:
References
Boellstorff T 2008, Coming Of Age In Second Life, Princeton University Press, USA.
Bromseth JCH 2006, 'Genre trouble and the body that mattered: Negotiations of gender, sexuality and identity in a Scandinavian mailing list community for lesbian and bisexual women', PhD thesis, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, accessed 28/09/20012, DiVa database, http://ntnu.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?searchId=1&pid=diva2:122317
Hine C 2000, Virtual Ethnography, SAGE, UK.
Hine C 2005, Virtual Methods: Issues in Social Research on the Internet, Berg, UK.
McKee H A & Porter J E 2009, The Ethics Of Internet Research: A Rhetorical, Case-Based Process, Peter Lang, USA.
