Research methodology

I'm at the stage in the project where the ethics of my research methodology needs to be established. I have realised, due to the interdisciplinarity, or simply the use of mixed-media involved in this project, it is not a task of plainly picking one root of compiling knowledge. I have a series of approaches that seem to dictate certain ways to form an opinion. Each has their own standards and recognised ways for understanding more.

For instance, considering how blogging and social networking is effecting the news journalism industry, I could compare data on newspaper sales with the amount of blogs that are created daily, thus quantitively comparing results. Or I could interview focus groups and find a qualitative way of evaluating how people learn about current affairs and communicate with each other. Just this question could be approached from an economic, politics, media study, journalistic or cultural stance. I also have the option as an artist to become as close or as distant as I like to this question, or shaping an opinion through a variety of practices. Emotionality and flares of self identity may be a strong way of forming a project with an integral experience to offer.

Furthermore, I am asking about something that is in rapid motion. As huge cultural shifts take place, how can I get a grip on what is happening? I need to be aptly responsive to the social and political climate that develops in real time.

And so with a confusing array of options with which to form knowledge of this project, I sit down to my computer.

I open safari (my internet browser), and go to the top right google search box and type 'social media'.

Up come a series of results: the obligatory wikipedia page; a handful of marketing websites that "hold the secret to social media success"; a few blogs; some videos; some images and some journalistic news results. Each one asks a different approach to it's significance in the context of this project. It is worth noting, that by now (4 weeks into the project) I have become skilled in the art of trawling the isles of google. I have no doubt that every scholar and every professor, every notable scientists, art maker or politician utilises search engines, or rather the contents of the world wide web to form an opinion.

I give this project full access to as much of the diverse and varying virtual landscape of the internet I can explore. Whilst doing so I have found communities of specialists and little clusters of information. I use a combination of trusting google's algorithmic responses to my searches and my own sense of judgement to lead my inquiry.

The question is can the internet be reliable? I can hear the warnings of every secondary school teacher giving out homework; "Remember that anyone can write anything on the internet and it's not always true!" I remember one teacher banning wikipedia, as it was not accredited with any institutional stamp of approval. I could use a variety of research ethics to evaluate this perspective against arguments that stand for crowd-credibility. This however would need to consider how this teacher came to this decision. Was it advised by the school? Did he read a compelling article in the newspaper?

In the internet I can find continuous cycles of meta-research, both giving me first hand experience of all it's relatively new media, as well as links to evidence of others research and findings.

One of the ways I have been broadening my research is through a pattern of media-trawling. I call it this, because I cannot find a better way to describe this action. That is not to say however that I am simply putting the bare minimum effort into it. As I discussed in an earlier log entry, I have been having difficulty situating my research amongst a published literary field. Admittedly I am not the most familiar person with  the library but from my attempts it is quite a challenge finding current texts relating to computer aided networks and technological effects on society. I am learning that there is an anxiety I feel from the pressures of academia I perceive that make this 'trawling' seem ilegitimised. I throw caution to the wind at this stage allowing influences from all directions to shape my research path. I will clearly outline my influences along the way, and possibly upon reflection I may find that some discoveries are less credible than others, but for now I see no other way but like this.