BLOGS BLOGS AND MORE BLOGS

A recent sociology lecture bought my attention to the Feminist Movement's recent campaign known as "SLUT WALKS!" We were told that there was no academic writing on this and I wanted to see what had been written about in the form of blogs. After a short search, I found a Blog titled "The Psychology of Victim Blaming and Why I'm taking part in my first Slut Walk" (http://slutwalkcleveland.wordpress.com/). This is a blog on the Slut Walks from a personal perspective, which personally I feel is refreshing, as too many sources I read today are looking at others work and opinions (a bit contradictory I know, but this Blog will become clear, all in good time)! Inevitably, this blog marks out why taking part in this campaign is important for this young lady which is useful for assessing the reasons behind why she, and others like her, decided to take part in such an event. 

More researchers these days are using blogs as a form of secondary research due to the technological society we live in, where we have access to the internet etc, more or less everywhere we go. Technology, in the past decade, therefore, has become useful for researchers to record and analyse data, as well as searching the web for statistics and the like. Technology has become an essential part of the research process and now blogs are becoming a crucial piece of data for researchers. In 2011, Nielsen/McKinsey company tracked over 180 million blogs worldwide, which was up from the 36 million tracked five years before, (Newswire 2012) reiterating the fact that they are a growing phenomenon. Essentially a Blog is 'a web site containing the writers' own experiences, observations, opinions...' (Dictionary.com 2013) and it is because of this, that it enables a researcher to find out meanings, a characteristic of qualitative research methods, that makes Blogs so much more popular today for researchers. 

Dunleavy and Gilson (2012) state that 'Blogging is quite simply, one of the most important things an academic should be doing right now,' but even if a blog has not been written by an academic, like the blog on slut walks it can still be used as a form of secondary data, since it gives the ability to collect substantial amounts of data, (Hookway, 2008) on opinions and meanings, which inevitably will be useful for the researcher. This is just one of the advantages blogs have for researchers! As stated, I found my blog after 'a short search,' implying it was easy to get hold of, and most blogs are! The majority of blogging sites are free, enabling low cost and easy access to blogs worldwide, allowing for the researcher to gain access to a very large population because they are GLOBAL. Just like this technological society has enabled us to create a smaller world, by bringing countries closer together, (21st Century Challenges, ND) through globalization  blogs have enabled this too, obviously sparking another positive of this research (Hookway, 2008). Although, there are filters on blogging sites if a researcher is not looking to gain data about a global population, and other filters also have their advantages.
      Due to the fact that technology is involved though, many people are led to believe that those with limited knowledge of computers or the internet will find it difficult to gain access to these types of research, but this is a misunderstanding! Blogs are easy to access and so available to users of low technological competence, (Hookway, 2008) meaning these types of researchers do not need to waste time using what may be coming to be known as, 'old fashioned,' methods of using tape recordings and conducting vast amounts of interviews. 

Due to the fact that blogs contain opinions and the like, it overcomes the barriers and awkwardness of asking sensitive questions. This is similar to diaries, also used by researchers, as they are not contaminated by researchers probing or questions, which could change a participants answer or mind on a certain matter. Therefore, the participant in blogs, just like diaries are 'masked,' (Hookway, 2008) which gives them the freedom to write honestly and they are less self-conscious because they are hidden from view. Just like this blog, the third person, is used to write a number of blogs and this is useful for sociologists and other researchers to investigate the dynamics of the participants experiences from an unadulterated first-person perspective, like interviews are. Don't get me wrong though, blogs written in the first person are just as useful, even if they are not telling the full truth, as even fabrications tell researchers something about the social and cultural ideas a participant and others may have (Hookway, 2008).

Blogs are NOT entirely positive though. Just like with everything, they have their downfalls and disadvantages too, particularly with ethical issues which will be considered in this blog.
      Some individuals are led to believe that all blogs are written in a truthful manner because researchers or general readers do not know who is writing the blog, yet this is not the case for all blogs, and it s questionable whether we can trust what people write, if we cannot see them. Goffman (1969) uses a dramaturgical model to prove that bloggers can stage themselves. This is done by putting on a front when blogging, where they strategically select episodes they blog about, to make them seem moral, (Hookway, 2008) yet Goffman notices that this can change when they are not blogging for example. Goffman (1969) uses the example of a restaurant, he says that an individual is on stage when they are in the restaurant serving customers and they put on a front, so customers interpret their behavior as attentive and generally a good person. As soon as the waiter goes back stage, into the kitchen, their behavior changes and they tend to be themselves. Putting this in the context of blogging then, it appears that what Goffman is saying, is that there may be potential deception from the blogger to make themselves look good. 

Another issue of blogging is informed consent. When a blogger publishes a blog, although they know that it can be viewed worldwide they do not consent to researchers using it as data (Hookway, 2008). Most individuals are generally not aware that their blog could be interpreted or analysed. BUT this is where there is a debate as bloggers are aware of the fact that anyone can view it, so it this blog just fair game? Hookway (2008) found that this is potentially an ethical issue, as if the blog was used as a piece of data, should one credit the blogger for their work or preserve anonymity. Also, there are always issues around whether the researcher is able to interpret the data correctly, as they are not able to speak to the blogger to get a deeper understanding, they are limited to the material in the blog, which may not actually be directly complimentary of the question the researcher is trying to answer! 

Blogs as a research method is still growing though, and these issues are yet to be worked through but this is not stopping researchers from trying out this new technique, as with millions of blogs on the internet, regarding millions of topics, it is a new phenomenon worth trying out in my eyes!