Online Research Methods
Filed under: Research
Current top of the Smoothmedia methods reading list is Eszter Hargittai's Research Confidential. Eszter was one of the first sociologists we encountered researching online methods and at Smoothmedia we share her desire to experiment with methods of scraping and gathering web and social data. Her new book describes messy case studies in these emerging methodological techniques.
"I also think some social scientists encounter fewer problems, because they compromise the quality of their research. Sure, some data collection methods are easier than others (e.g., sending out a survey to one's friends and colleagues may be easier than finding a suitable sample that does not consist of people in one's network), but depending on the questions one is asking, compromising on methodological rigor may limit significantly what conclusions, if any, one can then derive from the data."
