Mixed Methods and Multimodal Research and Internet Technologies

Abstract

This chapter explores the varied ways in which qualitative and quantitative, large-scale and small-scale research designs have been combined in the study of the Internet. The chapter also considers multi-modal and online/offline studies, which explore a research object by combining diverse forms of data drawn by crossing the offline/online boundary or combining digital and analogue data. The focus of the chapter is on exploring the motivations for these combinations and outlining the distinctive issues that heterogeneous research designs in these domains encounter. Internet research has occasioned many innovative research designs, as the sheer quantity of data available online often prompts even those overtly committed to a qualitative paradigm to explore techniques for visualizing data and exploring patterns on a larger scale. The spatial

The computational analysis of digital traces in ethnographic studies of online communities

“…Howard (2002) proposes "network ethnography", wherein network analysis of technology-mediated interactions is seen as a starting point for further qualitative analysis. Hine (2015), on the contrary, started her research with participant observation and then she used the computational analysis of archival traces to place patterns observed into the broader context of the experience of the community studied.…”

‘We will multiply the fires of resistance’: The catalysts of dissent against institutional science and their interplay with refused knowledge communities

“…We performed a multi-sited (Marcus, 1995) and connective (Hine, 2004) digital ethnography through a fieldwork that mirrored the RKCs ecosystem. According to a criterion of typological variation, we initially looked for the main online spaces in which each community was involved within a vast array of media channels, including social media platforms, instant messaging services, websites, blogs, and YouTube channels.…”

Xenofobia y racismo hacia (y por) inmigrantes venezolanos residentes en Perú a través de Twitter

“…El presente estudio es lo que en el lenguaje de los estudios de Internet se denomina "Análisis de contenido de un corpus de datos encontrado en línea" (Hine, 2015). Las preguntas de investigación que se intentan responder son: ¿cuáles son las principales ideas xenófobas hacia los inmigrantes venezolanos que exteriorizan los internautas peruanos en Twitter?…”

“…El uso de un enfoque como este se justifica debido a las grandes cantidades de información que se pueden extraer de Internet, lo que por un lado, abre la oportunidad de poder analizar cantidades de datos que antes no estaban disponibles por métodos tradicionales, y por el otro, genera la imposibilidad de seleccionarlos y analizarlos de manera manual, por lo que el uso de técnicas computacionales para la 2 También existen tuits publicados de manera privada, los cuales no pueden ser vistos por otros usuarios y tampoco son utilizables para investigaciones. Estos tuits solo son recolección y tratamiento se hace indispensable (Hine, 2015).…”