Original Research Examining YouTube Users' (YouTubers') Attitudes, Beliefs, and Behaviors: The Bronx Pilot Study

Researcher’s Role

The online version of the Merriam-Webster dictionary describes heuristic as “involving or serving as an aid to learning or discovery by problem-solving by experimental and especially trial-and-error methods”(Merriam-webster.com, 2014); this definition informed the exploratory YouTube in the Bronx from a CS and UG perspective. For the Bronx YouTube Study, great care was taken to position the researcher as an observer of phenomena rather than as a replicator of previous studies, as there was no similar research extant at the time and none exists as of this writing.

Research Methods

For the focus group interviews, the following techniques and focus group research design suggested by Miles and Huberman (1994) to establish the focus group framework were used: (a) building a conceptual framework from which, ultimately, interview questions were developed; (b) formulating research questions; (c) defining the case; (d) bounding the collection of data; and (e) instrumentation. In terms of the focus group interviews, as well as the survey instrument design, Corbin and Strauss (2008) articulated several characteristics of a grounded theory approach that the researcher attempted to adopt. Strauss and Corbin stated, “Researchers need not necessarily begin their first studies with these characteristics full developed” (p. 275).

For the Bronx YouTube study, several research design characteristics articulated by Strauss and Corbin were adopted. For instance, when structuring and writing questions, analyzing focus group interview data, and developing procedures for the focus group interviews, the researcher attempted to “step back and critically analyze situations, recognize the tendency toward bias, think abstractly, be flexible and open to helpful criticism, be sensitive to the words and actions of the respondents and develop an sense of absorption and devotion to the work process” (Corbin & Strauss, 2014, p. 7). These characteristics are part of the grounded theory approach to qualitative research. Although the Bronx YouTube Study was not specifically based on grounded theory, some aspects of this framework were very useful.