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The Distinctiveness of Online Research: Descriptive Assemblages, Unobtrusiveness, and Novel Kinds of Data in the Study of Online Advocacy

The Distinctiveness of Online Research: Descriptive Assemblages, Unobtrusiveness, and Novel Kinds of Data in the Study of Online Advocacy

Damien Lanfrey
Copyright: © 2013 |Pages: 21
ISBN13: 9781466639188|ISBN10: 1466639180|EISBN13: 9781466639195
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-3918-8.ch004
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MLA

Lanfrey, Damien. "The Distinctiveness of Online Research: Descriptive Assemblages, Unobtrusiveness, and Novel Kinds of Data in the Study of Online Advocacy." Advancing Research Methods with New Technologies, edited by Natalie Sappleton, IGI Global, 2013, pp. 48-68. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-3918-8.ch004

APA

Lanfrey, D. (2013). The Distinctiveness of Online Research: Descriptive Assemblages, Unobtrusiveness, and Novel Kinds of Data in the Study of Online Advocacy. In N. Sappleton (Ed.), Advancing Research Methods with New Technologies (pp. 48-68). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-3918-8.ch004

Chicago

Lanfrey, Damien. "The Distinctiveness of Online Research: Descriptive Assemblages, Unobtrusiveness, and Novel Kinds of Data in the Study of Online Advocacy." In Advancing Research Methods with New Technologies, edited by Natalie Sappleton, 48-68. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2013. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-3918-8.ch004

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Abstract

The proliferation of research investigating online phenomena has pushed scholars to develop and practice new methodological opportunities around an increasingly wider array of contents, tools, and applications hosted and enabled by digital technologies. Yet, this chapter argues, while most studies have focused on online research methods’ ability to offer vast, increasingly real-time data, few have considered the deeper theoretical implications of a fast-changing and fast-expanding digital ecosystem, particularly in respect to the widespread availability of new research objects and new classes of data online. Using three examples from research in online advocacy conducted in the past four years on Kiva.org, the world’s first Web-based person-to-person microfinance platform, the chapter documents how, at the intersection of novel methods, emerging digital affordances, and new classes of data, there lies a possibility to capture and express the distinctiveness of online methods.

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