investigating blogs and facebook in academe: research approaches and considerations

[email protected]

Assistant Professor ▪ School of Information Studies

DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY ▪ 11 OCTOBER 2012 ▪ HALIFAX, NS

INVESTIGATING BLOGS & FACEBOOK IN ACADEME

RESEARCH APPROACHES & CONSIDERATIONS

part one

facebook

TEACHING IN THE AGE OF FACEBOOK

AND OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA:

LIS FACULTY AND STUDENTS’ FRIENDING

AND POKING IN THE SOCIAL SPHERE

WHO WHY HOW

2012 ALISE Research Grant Competition

Carolyn Hank

PI (McGill)

Cassidy Sugimoto

Co-PI (IUB)

Jeff Pomerantz

Co-PI (UNC)

Carolyn Hank

PI (McGill)

Cassidy Sugimoto

Co-PI (IUB)

Jeff Pomerantz

Co-PI (UNC)

Fred

Stutzman,

Advisor

(UNC)

SOCIAL NETWORK SITES

Data Source: Hampton et al. (2011)

Image Source: Donovan (2010)

59%

OF ADULT INTERNET

USERS USE 1+ SNSs

BASED ON 79% OF AMERICANS WHO

REPORT USING THE INTERNET (N=2,255)

SNS USERS ON FACEBOOK

Source: Hampton et al. (2011)

92%

FACULTY USE OF FACEBOOK

57%

VISITED FACEBOOK IN THE PAST MONTH (N=1,920)

Source: Moran et al. (2011)

FACULTY USE OF FACEBOOK

43%

POSTED TO FACEBOOK IN THE SAME PERIOD (N=1,920)

Source: Moran et al. (2011)

FRIENDS

Source: Hampton et al. (2011)

HIGH SCHOOL EXTENDED FAMILY

CO-WORKERS

COLLEGE FRIENDS

IMMEDIATE FAMILY

PEOPLE FROM VOLUNTEER GROUPS NEIGHBORS

229 FACEBOOK FRIENDS REPORTED, FOR AVERAGE FACEBOOK USER IN SAMPLE

FACULTY & STUDENT … “FRIENDS”

229 FACEBOOK FRIENDS REPORTED, FOR AVERAGE FACEBOOK USER IN SAMPLE Little is known about how students and

faculty interact informally on Facebook

“… a professional tries to simultaneously fill

two or more different

roles.” Rupert & Holmes, 1997, p. 661

DUAL RELATIONSHIPS

TEACHER

MENTOR

SUPERVISOR

EMPLOYER

COLLABORATOR

COLLEAGUE

FRIEND

BLURRED BOUNDARIES

BETWEEN OUR

PERSONAL AND

PROFESSIONAL LIVES …

AMONG A VARIETY OF

CHANNELS

CONTEXT COLLAPSE

TEACHER

MENTOR

SUPERVISOR

EMPLOYER

COLLABORATOR

COLLEAGUE

FRIEND

RELATIVE

PARTNER

ETC.

GUIDANCE ON DUAL RELATIONSHIPS

HONOR

CODES/

CODES OF

CONDUCT

SNS

POLICIES Metzger et al. (2010)

research objectives

Describe LIS faculty and

students’ informal

interactions via

Facebook

Inform social network

and communication

policy decision-making

at LIS programs

research objectives

Inform future

approaches for other

academic units,

regardless of discipline,

to investigate

connections between

pedagogy and social

network sites, including

Facebook

research objectives

HOW? Develop and pilot test an

approach to studying …

… LIS faculty, students’ and

administrators’ perceptions,

experiences, practices, and

decision-making for

managing communications

with one another, if at all, via

Facebook;

… their expectations for

such communications,

including issues related to

disclosure and privacy;

… and the impact of

classroom and institutional

policies, if any, on such

interactions.

RESEARCH DESIGN

MCGILL

IUB

UNC

SETTINGS

TOOLS

FOCUS

GROUPS INTERVIEWS

RESEARCH DESIGN

FACULTY

STUDENTS

-UG

-MLIS

-PhD

1:1

INTERVIEWS

FOCUS

GROUPS

WEB-BASED

SURVEYS

POLICY

ANALYSIS

ASSOC. DEANS/

DIRECTOR

SYLLABI

SOCIAL MEDIA

INST’L POLICIES

-SCHOOL

-FACULTY

-UNIVERISTY

Q1: FACULTY

Q2: STUDENTS

EXPLORATORY DESCRIPTIVE

SPRING-SUMMER 2012 SUMMER-FALL 2012 FALL-WINTER 2012

Hampton et al. (2011). Social networking sites and our lives. Washington,

DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project. http://pewinternet.org/

Reports/2011/Technology-and-social-networks.aspx

Moran, M., Seaman, J., & Tinti-Kane, H. (2011). Teaching, learning, and

sharing: How today’s higher education faculty use social media.

Boston, MA: Pearson Learning Solutions. Retrieved from

http://www.pearsonlearningsolutions.com/educators

/pearson-social-media-survey-2011-bw.pdf

Rupert, P.A., & Holmes, D.L. (1997). Dual relationships in higher

education: Professional and institutional guidelines. Journal of Higher

Education, 68(6), 660-678.

[Image Source] Donovan, K. (2010, January 29). Social media heart

collage. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/

kdonovan_gaddy/4314365065/

SOURCES … so far

part two

four studies from 2006 through today

BLOGS &

PRESERVATION General Bloggers - CHOEMPRAYONG & SHEBLE (2006-2008)

- BLOGFOREVER: EU-FUNDED PROJECT (http://blogforever.eu)

Scholar Bloggers - HUMANITIES, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SCIENCES, PROF. & USEFUL ARTS

-HISTORY, ECONOMICS, LAW, BIOLOGY, CHEMISTRY & PHYSICS

- BIBLIOBLOGGERS

GENERAL BLOGGERS 2006-2008

SNOWBALL SAMPLING

QUESTIONNAIRES

n=223

Sheble, L., Choemprayong, S., & Hank. C. (2007). Preservation in context: Survey of blogging behaviors. In Proceedings of the Third International Digital Curation Conference. Edinburgh: Digital Curation Centre.

1

Blog:Blogger not 1:1 Content dynamic

Bloggers interested in DP

Save some but not all Personal responsibility

Capability, though?

Access, use and extent?

Method

Responsibility

Access scenarios

Use scenarios

Intellectual Property Versioning

Process in time

Findings Future

GENERAL BLOGGERS 2006-2008

conclusions

1

SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (ACTIVE) 2009-2011

Hank. C. (2011). Scholars and their blogs: Characteristics, preferences, and perceptions impacting digital preservation (Doctoral dissertation). ProQuest Dissertations & Theses database (UMI No. 3456270).

HISTORY, ECONOMICS, LAW, BIOLOGY, CHEMISTRY & PHYSICS

QUESTIONNAIRES

INTERVIEWS

BLOG ANALYSIS BLOGGER

BLOG

n=153

n=93

2

How do scholars who

blog perceive their blog

in relation to their

cumulative scholarly

record?


research questions

2

How do they perceive

their blog in relation to

long-term stewardship?

Who do they perceive

as responsible as well

as capable for blog preservation?


research questions

2

What blog characteristics impact preservation?

What blogger behaviours impact preservation?


research questions

2

?

Multiple instances

Multiple authors

Scholar blogger(?)

Scholarly blog(?)

Currency

Timing


design considerations

2

BLOGS

BLOGGERS

Questionnaires

Interviews

Blog Analysis


data sources/units of analysis

2

NEEDLE IN A

HAYSTACK


sampling issues

population

2


sampling issues

population

CHAMELEON IN

A HAYSTACK

2


sample source

Purposive Sampling

2

644blogs

History| Economics | Law | BioChemPhys

Academic Blog Portal <http://www.academicblogs.org>

SAMPLE

CODING

SYSTEM

Blogs & bloggers

Nine criteria


sampling

2

HOMOGENEITY

PUBLICLY AVAILABLE

PUBLISHED IN ENGLISH

KNOWLEDGE OR PERSONAL BLOG

TIME-STAMPED POSTS

ACTIVELY PUBLISHED TO

AT LEAST 1 YEAR OLD

PERSONAL IDENTIFIERS (RE: AUTHORSHIP)

CONTINUED BLOG ELIGIBILITY

AUTHORED BY 1 OR MORE SCHOLARS

CONTINUED

a) 1+ descriptor: Ph.D., Dr., Professor, Reader,

Lecturer, Doctoral Student, or Doctoral

Candidate

c) Link to blogger’s CV or the like with 1+

citation to a journal article

b) 1+ descriptor (Scholar, Academic, Researcher,

Research Director, Fellow, Biologist) and

institutional affiliation

d) Graduate student and explicit reference to

area of study or pursuant degree

SCHOLAR CRITERIA

Criterion History

Freq (%)

Econ

Freq (%)

Law

Freq (%)

Sciences

Freq (%) Publicly available 168 (90%) 163 (85%) 113 (95%) 126 (88%)

Published in English 159 (84%) 151 (79%) 111 (93%) 123 (85%)

Knowledge or personal blog

146 (77%) 140 (73%) 93 (78%) 119 (83%)

Time-stamped posts 145 (77%) 140 (73%) 93 (78%) 118 (82%)

Actively published to 68 (36%) 83 (43%) 58 (49%) 62 (43%)

At least 1 year old 58 (31%) 66 (34%) 53 (45%) 54 (38%)

Personal identifiers in regard to authorship

53 (28%) 59 (31%) 48 (40%) 48 (33%)

Authored by 1 or more

bloggers meeting scholar parameters

46 (24%) 51 (27%) 47 (40%) 44 (31%)

ASSESSMENT

sampling frame one

ELIGIBLE BLOGS

(29%)

125 Single-Blogs | 63 Co-Blogs

CO-BLOGS : POSTED W/IN 1 MONTH

CO-BLOGS: MEETS SCHOLAR CRITERIA

ALL BLOGS: BLOGGER CONTACT INFO

BLOGGER ELIGIBILITY

sampling frame two

ELIGIBLE BLOGGERS

107 Single Bloggers | 187 Co-Bloggers


instrument design

Do not

reinvent

the wheel

Lenhart & Fox (2006)

Herring et al. (2005a, b)

Morton and Price (1999)

Olsen et al. (2009)

Rainie (2005)

White & Winn (2009)

Hank et al. (2007)

2

QUESTIONNAIRES Q1 (single-bloggers): 41 to 58 questions

Q2 (co-bloggers): 41 to 62 questions

Qualtrics


questionnaires

2

PRE-TESTING

us/uk

bloggers

researchers

preservationists


questionnaires

2


questionnaire administration

Personalized Email Salutation | Blog Title | Blog URL | PIN

Invite and 2 reminders

No inducements

Manual

Timing of invitation email

All eligible bloggers invited (N=294)

Available for 3 weeks

2

Completed sample:

153 respondents

RR 1: QI: 63% | QII: 46% | QI/II: 52%

Outcome rates derived from Internet surveys of specifically named persons

from the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR, 2009)


completed sample

2

24 semi-structured

phone interviews

72 (47%) of QI & QII respondents expressed interest


interviews

2


interviews

Concurrent to other data collection

Protocol | Debriefing sheet| Pre-testing

24 phone interviews

15 to 25+ minutes

11 to 14 questions

Semi-structured

2

Coded 93 blogs: 61 single/32 co-blogs

57 to 63 Indicators

Authorship Attributes

Blog Elements & Features

Rights & Disclaimers

Authority & Audience

Blog Publishing Activity

Post Features

Archiving

(SR: 49.5%)


blog analysis

2

(ON/OFF BLOG)

Time in Minutes

Single-Blog Frequency (%)

Co-Blog Count Frequency (%)

≤ 9 17 (28%) 5 (15%)

10 to 19 32 (52%) 24 (73%)

20 to 29 9 (15%) 2 (6%)

30 to 39 2 (3%) 1 (6%) ≥ 40 1 (2%) -


blog analysis

…tick tock tick tock

2

Criterion History

Freq (%)

Econ

Freq (%)

Law

Freq (%)

Sciences

Freq (%)

Publicly available 168 (90%) 163 (85%) 113 (95%) 126 (88%) Published in English 159 (84%) 151 (79%) 111 (93%) 123 (85%)

Knowledge or personal blog

146 (77%) 140 (73%) 93 (78%) 119 (83%)

Time-stamped posts 145 (77%) 140 (73%) 93 (78%) 118 (82%)

Actively published to 68 (36%) 83 (43%) 58 (49%) 62 (43%) At least 1 year old 58 (31%) 66 (34%) 53 (45%) 54 (38%)

Personal identifiers in regard to authorship

53 (28%) 59 (31%) 48 (40%) 48 (33%)

Authored by 1 or more bloggers meeting scholar parameters

46 (24%) 51 (27%) 47 (40%) 44 (31%)

REMEMBER …

WHAT ABOUT THOSE INACTIVE,

BUT PUBLICLY AVAILABLE BLOGS?

left no message behind

on where they went or

if they will be back etc.

%

Available but

not actively

published to

in previous

3 months (n=156)


blog analysis

2

SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (INACTIVE) 2011-PRESENT

Hank. C., & Lent, A.R. (2012). Dispatches from blog purgatory: Final messages from scholars’ inactive blogs. #Influence12: Symposium & workshop on measuring influence on social media. Halifax, Nova Scotia

HUMANITIES, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SCIENCES, PROF. & USEFUL ARTS

BLOG X N=1779

BLOG ANALYSIS n=909

no new posts > 3 months

3

SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (INACTIVE) 2011-PRESENT

3

“SENTIMENT ANALYSIS” BY HAND

“farewell” post?

ACTIVE BLOGS

currently published

556 (61%)

INACTIVE BLOGS

no new posts

353 (39%)

NONE

230 (65%)

LAST POST ONLY

77 (22%)

PRELIMINARY!

BIBLIOBLOGGERS 2012-PRESENT

ACADEMIC LIBRARIANS & INFORMATION AND LIBRARY SCIENCE FACULTY/RESEARCHERS

BIBLIOBLOGGERS? not bible …

OCLC/ALISE Library & Information Science Research Grant Program

QUESTIONNAIRES

INTERVIEWS

BLOG ANALYSIS

CV ANALYSIS BLOGGER

BLOG BLOG X

4

BIBLIOBLOGGERS


2

BIBLIOBLOGGERS 2012-PRESENT

4

results(?)

Public 100%

Subject to

critical review 68%

Allows use and

exchange 94%

Scholarly record

80%

66% agree with

all three criteria

Association of Research

Libraries (1986)

Braxton, J.M., Luckey, W.,

& Helland, P. (2002)

SCHOLARSHIP

SCHOLAR BLOGGERS 2

SCHOLARLY LIFE

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

RESEARCH PRODUCTIVITY

RESEARCH CREATIVITY

RESEARCH QUALITY

WRITING QUALITY

WRITING EFFICIENCY

SHARING PRE-PUBS

TEACHING QUALITY

WORK ENJOYMENT

GREATER VISIBILITY

PROMOTION

IMPROVED

NEITHER

IMPAIRED

SCHOLAR BLOGGERS 2

%

… to present

INVITATIONS … impact & reward

SCHOLAR BLOGGERS 2

%

… to collaborate


SCHOLAR BLOGGERS 2

%

… to serve


SCHOLAR BLOGGERS 2

%

INVITATIONS

… to publish

… impact & reward

SCHOLAR BLOGGERS 2

%

preservation for public access

& use into the indefinite future

PRESERVATION

SCHOLAR BLOGGERS 2

PRESERVATION

0% 100%

Personal access/use

Indefinite future

Public access/use

Indefinite future

Personal access/use

Short-term future

Public access/use

Short-term future

16%

19%

76%

80%

SCHOLAR BLOGGERS 2

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

RESPONSIBILITY CAPABILITY

Blogger

Co-Author(s)

Provider/Host/Network

Search Engine

Public Trust

preservation SCHOLAR BLOGGERS 2

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

RESPONSIBILITY CAPABILITY

Blogger

Co-Author(s)

Provider/Host/Network

Search Engine

Public Trust

Nat'l Library

Nat'l Archive

Inst'l Library

Inst'l Archive

Inst'l IT Dept

preservation SCHOLAR BLOGGERS 2

Better things to do

SCHOLAR BLOGGERS

2

Books

Personnel

Communications

Journal articles

Filter

Blogs

Class

Blogs Traditional Publications

Law review articles

Email

Self-Publications

Works-in-progress

Blogs Peer-Reviewed Pubs

Informal Publications

Lab Notebooks

Published Papers

Dissertations

& Theses

Monographs

Select

Blog Posts

Book Reviews

Teaching materials

Scientific & Scholarly Research

Pedagogical Research & Tools

LOWER HIGHER

PRESERVATION PRIORITY

Blogs

Journal articles

Books

SCHOLAR BLOGGERS 2

Better things to do

Personal responsibility

SCHOLAR BLOGGERS

2

%

Purposefully save entire blog via an

archiving service or independently

SAVING

Subscription

services

Export tools

Personal

back-ups

Document/text files

Via syndication

services

SCHOLAR BLOGGERS 2

%

SAVING

Purposefully save some

blog components

Export tools

Personal

back-ups

Document/text files

Via syndication

services

SCHOLAR BLOGGERS 2

Better things to do


Personal communications

SCHOLAR BLOGGERS

2

%

DISCLAIMERS

have an explicit or implicit

disclaimer-style statement

Own

opinion

Not

responsible

Advice

BLOG 2

THOUGH 80% FEEL BLOG IS PART OF THEIR SCHOLARLY RECORD …

Better things to do


Personal communications

Bad experience

SCHOLAR BLOGGERS

2

Association of Research Libraries. (1986). The changing system of scholarly

communication. Washington, DC: Author.

Braxton, J.M., Luckey, W., & Helland, P. (2002). Institutionalizing a broader view of

scholarship through Boyer’s four domains: ASHE-ERIC higher education report.

San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Hank. C. (2011). Scholars and their blogs: Characteristics, preferences, and

perceptions impacting digital preservation (Doctoral dissertation). ProQuest

Dissertations & Theses database (UMI No. 3456270).

Hank, C., Sheble, L., & Choemprayong, S. (2007). Informing blog appraisal through

bloggers’ perspectives on selection and preservation. Paper presented at the

Conference on Appraisal in the Digital World, Rome, Italy.

Hank. C., & Lent, A.R. (2012). Dispatches from blog purgatory: Final messages from

scholars’ inactive blogs. #Influence12: Symposium & workshop on measuring

influence on social media. Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Herring, S.C., Kouper, I., Paolillo, J.C., Scheidt, L.A., Tyworth, M., Welsch, P., Wright,

E., & Yu, N. (2005). Conversations in the blogosphere: An analysis “from the

bottom up.” In Proceedings of the 38th Hawaii International Conference on

System Science. Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Press.

more … SOURCES

Herring, S.C., Scheidt, L.A., Wright, E., & Bonus, S. (2005). Weblogs as a bridging

genre. Information Technology & People, 18(2), 142-171. doi:

10.1108/09593840510601513.

Lenhart, A., & Fox, S. (2006). Bloggers: A portrait of the Internet’s new story tellers.

Washington, DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project. Retrieved from

http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2006/Bloggers.aspx.

Morton, H.C., & Price, A.J. (1989). The ACLS survey of scholars: Final report of views

on publications, computers, and libraries. Washington DC: Office of Scholarly

Communication and Technology, American Council of Learned Societies.

Olsen, D., Berlin, E., Olsen, E., McLean, J., & Sussman, M. (2009). State of the

blogosphere: 2009. Technorati. Retrieved from http://technorati.com/

blogging/feature/state-of-the-blogosphere-2009/.

Rainie, L. (2005). The state of blogging. Washington, DC: Pew Internet & American

Life Project. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2005/The-

State-of-Blogging.aspx.

Sheble, L., Choemprayong, S., & Hank. C. (2007). Preservation in context: Survey

of blogging behaviors. In Proceedings of the Third International Digital

Curation Conference. Edinburgh: Digital Curation Centre.

White, D., & Winn, P. (2009). State of the blogosphere: 2008. Technorati. Retrieved

from http://technorati.com/blogging/feature/state-of-the-blogosphere-2008/.

more … SOURCES

THANK YOU …

CAROLYN HANK Email: [email protected]

Phone: (001)514.398.4684

SlideShare: http://www.slideshare.net/carolynhank/

Slideshow:

QUESTIONS?

THANKS TO …

FACEBOOK: ALISE 2012 RESEARCH GRANT

BLOGS: OCLC/ALISE LIS RESEARCH GRANT PROGRAM;

BETA PHI MU (EUGENE GARFIELD DISSERTATION AWARD

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