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Author Heyes

Title Using Virtual Ethnography to Research Vulnerable Participants Online : A Case Study of Mental Health Online Community Support Forums / Heyes
Published [Place of publication not identified] : Sage Publications Ltd, 2017
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Summary Researching vulnerable groups has long been a subject of academic work and has been subject to rigorous ethical approvals for conducting face-to-face interviews. With new technologies come new challenges. Groups of people come together on online forums and have anonymous discussions about anything and everything; this often includes the source of their vulnerabilities. In the discussed research, the focus of these community support forums is mental health. It is difficult to shift the focus of researching vulnerable adults away from face-to-face to online, particularly as there are no physical cues to give meaning to the language used. The value therefore must be contained in the written word, and there are "unique characteristics" in the data due to this. There is something quite refreshing about focusing on the text rather than body language, and there are many suggestions on how to conduct this type of research. My research focuses on using virtual ethnography of online focus groups, which has been fraught with issues, but has proved a useful learning experience
Notes Title from content provider
Subject Electronic discussion groups -- Research -- Case studies.
Social groups -- Research -- Case studies.
Genre/Form Case studies.
Case studies.
Form Electronic book
ISBN 1526403609
9781526403605