ABSTRACT

As a social space, the web provides researchers both with a tool and an environment to explore the intricacies of everyday life. As a site of mediated interactions and interrelationships, the ‘digital’ has evolved from being a space of information to a space of creation, thus providing new opportunities regarding how, where and, why to conduct social research.

Doing Research In and On the Digital aims to deliver on two fronts: first, by detailing how researchers are devising and applying innovative research methods for and within the digital sphere, and, secondly, by discussing the ethical challenges and issues implied and encountered in such approaches.

In two core Parts, this collection explores:

  • content collection: methods for harvesting digital data
  • engaging research informants: digital participatory methods and data stories .

With contributions from a diverse range of fields such as anthropology, sociology, education, healthcare and psychology, this volume will particularly appeal to post-graduate students and early career researchers who are navigating through new terrain in their digital-mediated research endeavours.

part I|126 pages

Collecting content

chapter 2|20 pages

‘Feeling appy?’

11Using App-based methodology to explore contextual effects on real-time cognitions, affect and behaviours

chapter 3|17 pages

Adapting a method to use Facebook in education research

Taking phenomenography online

chapter 4|19 pages

An exploration of lived experience in a digital world

How technology is revolutionising substance misuse recovery

chapter 5|17 pages

Exploring breast cancer bloggers’ lived experiences of ‘survivorship’

The ethics of gaining access, analysing discourse and fulfilling academic requirements

chapter 6|19 pages

Text research on online platforms

Heuristic steps and pitfalls

chapter 7|14 pages

Tinder matters

Swiping right to unlock new research fields

chapter 8|18 pages

Remote ethnography, virtual presence

Exploring digital-visual methods for anthropological research on the web

part II|79 pages

Engaging research informants

chapter 11|19 pages

In search of lost purpose

The dream life of digital

chapter 12|16 pages

Using digital stories in healthcare research

Ethical and practical dilemmas

chapter 13|8 pages

Conclusion

(Re-)exploring the practical and ethical contexts of digital research