Internet Inquiry

Conversations About Method

Annette N. Markham, Nancy K. Baym, Annette Markham, Nancy K. Baym

• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc
• Year: 2008
• Print ISBN: 9781412910019, 9781412910002
• eBook ISBN: 9781452278766
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Communication Studies
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

This collection of dialogues is the only textbook of its kind. Internet Inquiry: Conversations About Method takes students into the minds of top internet researchers as they discuss how they have worked through critical challenges as they research online social environments. Editors Annette N. Markham and Nancy K. Baym illustrate that good research choices are not random but are deliberate, studied, and internally consistent. Rather than providing single "how to" answers, this book presents distinctive and divergent viewpoints on how to think about and conduct qualitative internet studies.

Key Features and Benefits  

• Presents each chapter in the form of a question in order to provoke explicit consideration of key issues
• Illustrates choices made within larger disciplinary contexts to help students blend approaches, think broadly, and conduct internet research with the benefit of multiplicity
• Offers a range of perspectives in each chapter to vividly demonstrate that there are many ways to answer methodological challenges well
• Includes contributors from multiple disciplines and across the globe
• Provides a highly reflexive writing style that allows readers to see processes that are rarely visible in finished research reports

Intended Audience  
This edited volume is an excellent supplementary text for a variety of advanced undergraduate and graduate courses such as Internet Research, Research Methods, Qualitative Research Methods, and Computer-Mediated Communication in the departments of communication, media studies, sociology, and anthropology. It will assist new scholars as well as seasoned practitioners in this arena make informed choices in how they conduct inquiry.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction: Making Smart Choices on Shifting Ground
• QUESTION ONE: How Can Qualitative Internet Researchers Define the Boundaries of Their Projects?
• QUESTION TWO: How Can Researchers Make Sense of the Issues Involved in Collecting and Interpreting Online and Offline Data?
• QUESTION THREE: How Do Various Notions of Privacy Influence Decisions in Qualitative Internet Research?
• QUESTION FOUR: How Do Issues of Gender and Sexuality Influence the Structures and Processes of Qualitative Internet Research?
• QUESTION FIVE: How Can Qualitative Researchers Produce Work That Is Meaningful Across Time, Space, and Culture?
• QUESTION SIX: What Constitutes Quality in Qualitative Internet Research?
• Acknowledgments
• References
• Index
• About the Contributors