Situating Internet Use:Information-Seeking Among Young Women with Breast Cancer (Balka, Krueger, Holmes and Stephen, 2010).
In this paper they explore the utilization of the Internet as a means of
health information consumption among young women with breast cancer who were
known Internet users.
Most of the study was conducted online.
The qualitative methodology used in this study was the interview-I would
characterize them as unstructured/ semi-structured interviews- in the form of
narratives. The 35 participants wrote the narratives, where they expressed
their experiences. Predetermined sentence stems were provided to enable the
participants to think and write what they needed at certain points in their
diagnosis and treatment trajectory.
The narrative information that was collected from study participants was analyzed
with the aid of NVivo- qualitative data analysis software. The narratives were
coded when they were received.
The benefits of using narratives is that they provide in depth
understanding of personal experience and viewpoint. This light lead to
information expected or valuable new insights and understanding. Since most of
the study was conducted online, the participants could write their narratives
when it was convenient for them. Plus, the material was already transcribed,
which is a time consuming procedure. The participants were able to express
themselves in ways that were meaningful to them, rather than imposing
pre-assigned response categories on their experiences.
The limitation of using this type of qualitative methodology is that it is
time consuming to collect the data and to analyze them. It is difficult and
time consuming to filter the useful data from the useless ones. But since in
this study the researchers provided the guidelines, it was easier for the
participants to understand what was needed and discuss it. A disadvantage of
using online interviews is that it is inconvenient to ask follow-up questions
or clarifications. Additionally, body language and other useful information
cannot be obtained through observation.
Qualitative methodologies can provide specific, detailed and in depth
information and deeper understanding about behaviors and opinions. In this
paper, we obtained valuable information on why and when young women with breast
cancer use internet and how they don’t value internet as the most trusted
source of information.
What is a case study?
According to
Eisenhardt (1989: 534), “The case study is a research strategy which focuses on
understanding the dynamics present within single settings.” Case studies can
involve one or multiple cases and numerous levels of analysis. Case studies can
be used for various reasons: to provide description, test theories and generate
them.
The tweets that killed a university: A case study investigating the use oftraditional and social media in the closure of a state university (Kelling,
Kelling and Lennon, 2013)
The case study
research method is used to investigate how various forms of media were used by
young people in the discussion of significant events. Specifically, the
researchers investigated the use of social and traditional media by college
students regarding the closure of the state University of South Florida
Polytechnic (USFP).
An online survey
was combined with social and online media monitoring to access the topics, authors
and methods used during the discussions about the closure of USFP.
One of the strengths
of this paper is the combination of methodologies to collect and analyze the
data. This allows for strengthening the grounding of the theory and for the
synergistic view of evidence (Eisenhard, Ibid: 533).
Novelty is another strength (Ibid). This case study tested a theory- the
assumption that social media was a tool for younger adults. According to the
findings, social media played an important role in the discussion and Twitter
was the most common format used, but it was mostly used by people working in
the media sector. Interestingly enough, students instead relied on traditional
sources to gather information. This case study showed that it is incorrect to
automatically assume younger demographic authorship or utilization of social
media technology. The researchers note overall the data present an unexpected result (Ibid:
2662), which was in contrast with general assumption and previous literature. So,
compared to conflicting literature, it builds internal validity; it raises
theoretical level and it sharpens construct definitions (Eisenhard, Ibid).
On the other hand, as in all case studies, we are facing the danger of the generalizability
of the results due to the examination of a specific population and/ or incident
in a specific context. As Eisenhard (Ibid) mentions, the case study is a bottom
up approach and the risk is that the theory describes an idiosyncratic phenomenon.
Young people in studying in another University and living in another continent
might use social media more than traditional ones, or they might be the most
active users of twitter.
REFERENCES
Balka, E.,
Krueger, G., Holmes, B. J. and Stephen, J. E. (2010). Situating Internet Use:
Information-Seeking Among Young Women with Breast Cancer. Journal of
Computer-Mediated Communication, 15, pp. 389–411.
Eisenhardt, K.
M. (1989). Building Theories from Case Study Research. Academy of Management
Review, Vol. 14(4), pp. 532-550.
Kelling, N. J. ,
Kelling, A. S., Lennon, J. F. (2013). The tweets that killed a university: A
case study investigating the use of traditional and social media in the closure
of a state university. Computers in Human Behavior, Vol. 29(6), pp. 2656-2664.
Hey Katerina-Ioanna!
ReplyDeleteInteresting subjects indeed. Regarding your first paper concerning breast cancer, do I believe that the metrology "Narratives" can be really interesting. My first though is how this paper would be different if the authors conducted another method, one of the more "normal" ones. Do you believe that the results and conclusions would be "better" if that were to be the case?
Hej Adam!
DeleteIndeed, narratives can be really interesting and useful in getting meaningful information by the participants. The participants are able to express themselves in ways that are meaningful to them.
Taking into consideration that in this paper they explore the utilization of internet as means of health information consumption among young women who had breast cancer and who were known to be Internet users, I think that methodology used was the appropriate one. I say that in the sense that the research question was pretty narrow. Additionally, cancer is a sensitive topic and therefore the participants might feel more relaxed and it might be easier for them be able to open up by narratizing about their experience.
Having said that, I would like to note that other methodologies could also be useful and appropriate. I was also thinking of what would happen had the researchers used another qualitative methodology. To answer your question I believe that using face-to-face open-ended interviews, online questionnaires, or even diaries could provide different results and conclusions. But we cannot be sure about it. And even if the results and conclusions were quite different, I don't know if we could characterize them as "better" .