Hello Rena, Although I haven't dealt specifically with Facebook groups I have come across articles that deal with this issue. I recommend that you take a look at the following articles: Valenzuela, S., Park, N., & Kee, F. K. (2009). Is there social capital in a social network site?: Facebook use and college students' life satisfaction, trust, and participation. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 14, 875-901. Juliana, F., Magda, G., Kevin, W. B., & Jeffrey, C. N. (2010). The writing on the wall: A content analysis of college students' Facebook groups for the 2008 presidential election. Mass Communication and Society, 13, 653-675. Kind regards, Montathar On Thu, Jun 30, 2011 at 7:29 PM, Rena Bivens <rena.bivens@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi All,
I'm writing about two issues: (1) using Facebook groups as part of a research method (2) obtaining parental consent
Has anyone on the list used Facebook groups within their methodological strategy? I plan to create a Facebook group for the first stage of a project I am conducting on social media and gender-based violence - particularly gender socialization by teenagers on Facebook. The idea is to recruit students from various high schools across Canada to join the FB group and then engage participants in discussions while also sharing videos, images and news articles. Within a couple of months the intention would be to gain informed consent to 'friend' a number of the participants and preform a digital ethnography of their profile pages (including info, wall, photos). Online focus groups would also be incorporated during fieldwork and as a final stage face-to-face focus groups will take place to validate or reconfigure preliminary conclusions.
I'm also hoping to get ethical approval to include under-16s (e.g. 13-18 year olds) but I'm trying to be creative as to how I can obtain parental consent since participants will come from a wide geographical region. Any ideas apart from a paper letter that would be mailed or faxed would be greatly appreciated!
Many thanks in advance and feel free to ask for more information.
Rena
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