Internet in Qualitative Research
The internet is a tool, and also a field-site for qualitative research. The relationship of the internet to the research project depends largely on how the internet is defined.
Some users perceive publicly accessible discourse sites as private.
It is important to distinguish between the research scenario, as already categorized, and the characteristics of the internet that will become salient as the purpose of research is identified or unfolds. Depending on the focal point in each scenario, the internet can acquire or display particular characteristics that, in turn, influence the design and enactment of the research project.
Use of a particular form of internet medium may appear to be homogeneous at the surface level of activity.
If used as a tool for research, the capabilities of the internet should be matched to the goals, topics, and participants of the project. Because internet technologies are defined and adapted in distinctive ways by different users and groups, this is often an inductive process.
As an interpretive issue rather than a legalistic one, anonymity can be discomfiting for researchers who might not know who the participants are, at least not in any embodied tangible way. This raises concerns about authenticity. On the one hand, interacting with participants in anonymous environments results in the loss of many of the interactional qualities taken for granted in face-to-face interviews and observations.
In addition to collapsing distance, internet technologies can disrupt the traditional use of time in interaction. Because internet technologies accommodate both asynchronous and synchronous communication between individuals and groups, the use of time can be determined more individually. In real time conversations, users can see their messages before they are sent. Backspacing and editing are made possible by stopping time in this way. In text based environments, pauses and gaps are expected.
Online discussion sites can be highly transient. For example, researchers who gain access permission in June might not be studying the same population in July and vulnerable persons are difficult to identify in certain online environments.