The analysis of interaction in online focus groups

Abstract

Computer mediated communication has enabled researchers to transfer the focus group method to the online environment. This has important practical, ethical and theoretical implications including the challenge of maximizing and analysing focus group interaction in a faceless medium, devoid of visual and vocal cues. In the online setting where written communication is the only means of understanding data, interaction offers the researcher a critical window to interpret meaning and to understand better what is happening in the social context of the group. A schema of questions has been used in this study to draw attention to this interaction and to examine the transcripts of online focus groups, which sought to investigate the lived experiences of sufferers of repetitive strain injury. Five asynchronous online focus groups were conducted on a closed website specifically created for the study. Online focus group interaction was found to generate rich qualitative data. More studies are required to explore what is potentially an innovative tool for qualitative researchers.

Imagine: There's a boy called Billie who really wants to be a girl. But he's not allowed to show it. And there's a god called Jehovah who's got a wardrobe full of frocks. A closet he's afraid to show anyone. A closet he's locked and thrown away the key. Additional Information: It's begun to strike me, reading the book of GENESIS, that God's hiding something. He's not being straight with us. He's got something hidden in his closet, and tonight we're going to find out what it is... We'll find out through an experiment. An experiment with form. Traditional ideas of what manhood means are bringing war to every continent and endangering all of our lives. It's urgent that we explore different understandings of what it means to be a man; and to do so we need to explore different forms. So myself, the director Lorenzo Mele and the composer Robert Burlin, decided to collaborate to see how far we could get making words work with music, and music work with words. I t's an experiment in another sense too. I've written about 60 plays and seen them through into production. But I've never performed in one of my own. I'm curious to see what happens when I try