Toward Theory and Technique for Online Focus Groups

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Author(s): Albino Claudio Bosio (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano, Italy), Guendaline Graffigna (Universitá Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy)and Edoardo Lozza (Universitá Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy)
Copyright: 2008
Pages: 21
Source title: Handbook of Research on Digital Information Technologies: Innovations, Methods, and Ethical Issues
Source Author(s)/Editor(s): Thomas Hansson (University of Southern Denmark, Denmark)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-59904-970-0.ch014

Keywords: Information Science Reference / Media & Communications / Multimedia Technology

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Abstract

Starting from a review of current dominant points of view about online focus groups, the authors outline the results of a research project in which they compared face-to-face discussion groups with different formats of online focus groups (forum; chat; forum plus chat) in order to identify their methodological specificities. The comparison was conducted with young adults on three health-related topics with different levels of social sensitivity. Systematic analysis of the conversational and thematic characteristics of all discussion transcripts revealed interesting characteristics of the four focus group techniques considered. The results corroborate the view that the research setting influences the findings production process in qualitative research, and might be the basis for a theory of online focus group techniques that can orient the researcher in choosing the online focus group technique best suited to his or her study aims and topics.

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