(ITD4) Experiences in the Cyber-Field

The Internet provides a rich platform for sociological investigation and while the unique affordances of digital data are abundant, there remain ambiguities and questions regarding processes for effectively engaging in online qualitative research. As such, this session offers researcher reflections on their experiences in the “cyber-field”, including insights on the methodological and ethical challenges or dilemmas that emerge during the course of collecting, analyzing, and reporting on digital data associated with ethnographic, interview, and discourse analytic approaches. The presentations may also involve discussions of the empirical findings that have resulted from innovative ways of conducting qualitative research on social media platforms, with online communities, or in other technology-mediated spaces. Tags: Criminology, Digital Studies, Technology

Organizers: Michael Adorjan, University of Calgary, Andrew Nevin, University of Massachusetts Boston; Chair: Michael Adorjan, University of Calgary

Presentations

Kara Brisson-Boivin, MediaSmarts/Carleton University; Khadija Baig, MediaSmarts/Carleton University

Empowering Youth Voices: Reflections on Designing and Facilitating Youth-Engaged Online Research Studies

At MediaSmarts, Canadas non-profit centre for digital media literacy, we position youth as experts in their own lives and design research studies that create safe spaces for them to share their experiences and strategies related to the internet and digital technology. For over 25 years, MediaSmarts has been conducting mixed-methods (qualitative and quantitative) research studies with and for Canadian youth to counter adultism and centre the online lives and experiences of participants. Recent qualitative projects, in particular, have allowed us to meaningfully engage with young people regarding their attitudes, behaviours, and concerns about the online information ecosystem through creative and interactive online focus groups. In this presentation, we will share reflections and lessons learned from our experience designing and conducting digital sociology studies with Canadian youth. For instance, at MediaSmarts we believe that meaningful research with youth necessarily blurs the lines between pedagogy, methodology, and advocacy. However, this is not at the cost of ethical research or prefiguring desired outcomes through the research process. We design our research projects to ensure engagement with youth from the start to the end of a project – to empower youth and provide them with knowledge and skills that they can take with them as they continue to navigate the online world and digital technology. However, youth-led research, especially in the online context, presents unique methodological and ethical challenges including: the need to remain flexible, the ability to adapt recruitment strategies, data collection, and methodologies, as well as difficulties in presenting new and/or unique research approaches to research ethics boards. We will ground this discussion in our recent qualitative project: Reporting Platforms: Young Canadians Evaluate Efforts to Counter Disinformation [1] in which we facilitated interactive online focus groups with youth ages 16 to 29 to examine and assess reporting processes on popular apps (Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube). This research highlights how young Canadians feel about current efforts to counter misinformation and disinformation online and what solutions they have regarding the problems and concerns they experience while navigating online information ecosystems and communities. Participants developed both platform-specific and general recommendations for countering mis-and dis-information which we mobilize with other researchers, policy-and decision-makers, and educators. Finally, we will discuss the benefits of merging methodology with pedagogy and share promising practices for designing and facilitating youth-engaged online research studies that position youth as experts within the field of digital sociology.

Olivia Peters, University of Guelph

Ethical Considerations for Stalking Research: Mitigating "Imposter Participant" Risk During Social Media Recruitment

Digital technologies can greatly facilitate recruitment and participation in qualitative research. However, little is known about the experiences of qualitative researchers when faced with “imposter participants”. This presentation discusses ethical considerations of using social media recruitment for intimate partner stalking research, engaging in reflection on dedicated attempts from an international scam organization. I assert that, 1. the current state of and reliance on digital technology in scholarship necessitates that researchers account for the dynamic risks associated with online recruitment, 2. risks must be acknowledged and supported by institutional infrastructures, including research ethics boards and information technology departments, so that researchers are supported when faced with imposter participants, and 3. without support, researchers and their work are vulnerable to scams and falsified data. This presentation provides suggestions for identifying and mitigating risks during social media recruitment as well as managing modifications during data collection. The intent of this presentation is to facilitate discussion on future considerations for social media recruitment.

Mélina Poulin, Carleton University

Examining Critical Approaches to Social Media Research and Literacy in Canada

Social media platforms accompany most Canadians in their daily lives. On the one hand, they constitute valuable tools enabling commercial, informative and entertaining functions, as well as open civic spaces that can initiate large-scale social trends and political engagement. On the other hand, major social media platforms are designed for and fueled by the extraction and commodification of personal data. They incorporate algorithmic systems that are criticized for breaching privacy, enforcing or suppressing discourses, and sustaining misinformation or ideological polarization. Canadians are becoming increasingly concerned about the challenges of navigating social media platforms. However, most of them have not received any proper education on the subject. The learning opportunities that do exist are often scattered and designed for young people in a classroom setting, meaning most people rely on uncritical know-how skills gained from their own experiences. Without a proper understanding of the socio-technological implications of using social media, people may not be aware of how their ability to engage in safe, informed and meaningful online interactions is compromised. In light of these concerns, I explored existing options for advancing knowledge-making and education relating to social media in Canada. Social media research and digital/media literacy initiatives share the long-term goal of making new perspectives and knowledge about social media accessible, all the while advocating for safer and more empowering online practices. What had yet to be explored were the contrasts and similarities as well as strengths and gaps that characterize these interconnected fields. Therefore, I designed a multilayered qualitative study inspired by LeGreco and Tracy’s (2009) discourse tracing approach that allows for the assessment of a case study at micro, meso, and macro levels of manifestation in society. I first conducted interviews with digital or media literacy experts working in Canadian-based organizations. Their experiences in working with schools and various communities shed light on the challenges and conditions of educating about social media at local and organizational levels. In turn, I completed a narrative review of academic literature comprising social media and education research from the last 15 years. This review allowed me to compare and assess knowledge-making practices relating to social media across communities of knowledge in Canada and beyond. Finally, the broader themes that emerged from interviews and the narrative review were analyzed in conjunction, ultimately reflecting macro discourses on public and institutional responses to social media literacy in Canada. One of the key findings of this study pertains to the multifaceted challenges of accessibility of social media literacy in Canada. Interviewed experts have noted how educational materials and academic research do not consistently translate into inclusive or practical resources for educators and various audiences. Inequalities also exist when it comes to affording material and having access to learning settings. At last, a recurring concern is the scarcity and competition when it comes to securing resources and funding for educative projects. Another key aspect relating to social media research is how studies that received the most attention in recent years tend to put forward large-scale data analytics, techno-deterministic assumptions and limited conceptions of users agency, thus raising concerns about how such emerging knowledge informs state decisions, policy and education (Lim, 2022). Arguably, these challenges in education and research are indicative of a neoliberal society that upholds individualism, performativity, exclusion, and laissez-faire, which ironically mirrors the underlying motives of social media platforms. Conversely, I discuss promising alternatives and noteworthy approaches that promote critical self-awareness and social justice, as well as pedagogies and practices that depart from hegemonic modes of thinking. In sum, this research contributes to highlighting the challenges and promising avenues for advancing social media education as it fundamentally impacts our ability to deploy our political voice and agency in Canada today.

Yijia Zhang, University of British Columbia

Ethnic Platforms: Ethnicity as Base or Barrier?

There is growing research examining the disparate impacts of technology on racialized groups. In the context of the platform economy, researchers find that allegedly liberating platforms could exacerbate inequalities and discrimination experienced by people of color, who are disproportionately dependent on platforms. In contrast, the same platforms afford opportunities for affluent white families to profit from their assets. Less attention has been devoted to the impacts of digital technology on ethnic groups where entrepreneurial, professional, and gig work associated with platforms is performed by members of the same racial/ethnic community. For example, in recent years, Vancouver, Canada has seen a growing network of Chinese-language platforms offering services such as food delivery and ride-hailing. Most of these platforms started in alternative forms, such as websites, chat groups, or subscription accounts in the Chinese all-in-one platform WeChat. Even when in the form of applications, participants in fieldwork note that the platform design strongly reflects Chinese-ness. Drawing on my ongoing dissertation fieldwork following these ethnic Chinese platforms in Metro Vancouver, this paper examines how Chinese migrants and other stakeholders perceive ethnicity around these platforms, and how such perceived ethnicity shapes the growth, or barriers to growth, of these platforms. I have interviewed over 70 entrepreneurs, employees, gig workers, users, and clients engaging with ethnic Chinese platforms. In addition to tracing how these platforms surface in urban spaces, I conducted digital ethnography, exploring the virtual spaces these platforms created and tracing their design evolution over time. To contextualize the findings in broader Canadian society, I have also tracked local and national coverage of these ethnic platforms, documenting the discursive contexts where these platforms operate, start off, and, for some, disappear. Preliminary results show that, for these platforms in Vancouver’s Chinese community, ethnicity defines them in salient and nuanced ways. Entrepreneurs transplant what they believe to be the best innovations from their home country to Canada, supporting transnational migrants and bringing convenience to everyday life in Canada. However, at times, such transnational, entrepreneurial spirit may be checked by local regulations. For users, although language and the ethnicity of the majority user base define the ethnic character of these platforms, ethnicity gives away at less expected moments, such as flashy promotion announcements. It is these less visible moments that reveal the platforms’ ethnicity. Depending on co-ethnic users and gig workers familiar with the platform business model before it was available in the host country, these ethnic platforms witnessed fast and strong initial growth. Some platforms even expanded into other Chinese communities in Canada, the United States, and other high-income countries. The strong ethnic character that vitalizes these community initiatives, however, may also inhibit them from further fruition. For example, when leading ethnic platforms attempted to move beyond the Chinese community, they encountered immense difficulties. The platforms tailored their interface design to the aesthetics of a particular group of translocal users, which local users not exposed to that culture-specific interface found challenging to navigate. The ethnic reputation of these platforms also produces assumptions that they do not come with official-language options. The social imaginations of these ethnic platforms prevent them from being less centered around a particular ethnic community. By bringing together platform research and sociological scholarship on ethnic economy, this paper aims to contribute to the ongoing discussion on how race/ethnicity is interwoven in the production, consumption, and communication of everyday technologies such as platforms.