Thinking About my Grounded Theory Project

                Grounded theory was not something I was familiar with prior to signing up for this course. Writing a research paper using grounded theory methods sounded even more intimidating. However, when I read the course description I was intrigued. I work as a data analyst and typically deal with actual numbers and not qualitative data. It seemed like such a foreign idea to do research with qualitative data using standardized, strategic methods that the uncomfortableness with it actually made it more intriguing. I think it is important that we learn more about things we are intimidated by or unfamiliar with. I feel like the more we put ourselves in uncomfortable situations, the more comfortable we become with being uncomfortable.

                Once I got into the readings the concept of grounded theory became clearer. One of the things that Charmaz (2014) discussed is coding and how it is essentially attaching labels to pieces of data (p. 3). This was intriguing to me as I code data almost everyday because of my job but it is always quantitative data not qualitative data. I wanted to understand more how it would work with qualitative data so I could determine what type of research I could do for my paper. Coding quantitative data seems so easy but qualitative data seems much more ambiguous. Charmaz (2014) explained how it was more a of conceptual understanding of how we explain the relationship between analytical categories (p. 3). This makes it a bit easier to imagine coding with quantitative data.

                When I started thinking about the topic for my research paper, I was having a really hard time wrapping my head around doing research without using human subjects. I did not want to deal with the logistics of ethics approval or finding participants to interview. I started to think about where I could get information and data that was already available and of course, it occurred to me that social media has a massive amount of information that is readily available. It feels like social media use has exploded in recent times and has an impact on our daily lives.

                After determining that social media would be a great place to gather data and information from, I started to brainstorm topics related to social media or that I thought I could use social media to collect data from. When I was reading the chapters related to coding, I immediately thought of social media. Blogs, tweets, and online posts, etc. are all huge sources of data that have the potential to be coded. I thought about different online communities, such as the LGBTQ community and how they use social media to connect, regardless of geographical location. Social media has given us the opportunity to cross paths with those we may never have interacted with previously.

 I thought about the Covid-19 pandemic and about how people would use social media to access information about daily case counts in their area or even across the globe. Even personal accounts from friends or family that contracted Covid-19 are found online. That got me thinking about how social media has changed the way we access our daily news. Previously, we would go to a newspaper or maybe watch a daily news program on television. Now, it seems like most people reach for their smart phone or tablet to read about what is happening both locally and across the world. News can spread so fast through social media with sharing or re-tweeting that it makes sense that it is the first place we go to access information. A newspaper is out of date as soon as it is printed. I also thought about how this could contribute to addictive behaviours in terms of smart phones and social media. How many times a day do we need to check our phones or tablets to get that update? At this point I now have three possible topics: LGBTQ communities using social media to connect, how social media has changed the way we access news, and how social media has become an addiction.

I started to think about the pros and cons of each topic. Each one has unique features that would be interesting to explore. LGBTQ communities using social media to connect is the same for many communities or just anyone connecting online. Sports fans of a certain team might connect through their team’s Instagram page or Twitter account. It just didn’t feel specific enough because it almost feels like that is the entire purpose of social media. Social media addiction is a huge topic and is related to digital addiction which seems like it could be a bit overwhelming to try to narrow down and explore specifics. After some internal debating, I decided on exploring what has caused people to change how they access information such as daily news, with the pre-liminary theory that the availability of digital news online and news through social media has changed how we access information. Of course, keeping my grounded theory methods I need to be adaptable and flexible depending on what I find when I start exploring so that theory could easily change.

At this point I am still struggling with how I will collect, code, and analyze data from social media. However, I decided not to worry so much about the details and instead take the route of exploratory research from Stebbins (2001) and just start exploring different social media platforms to see if it could spark any ideas or theories. I started to think about somehow using the number of ‘likes’, ‘shares’, tweets, and comments, etc. from specific news posts as part of the data collection process and categorizing and coding them. This might not tell me specifically why people are accessing their news online or via social media, but it will give me an idea of the volume of news information that is accessed online. Using news or media companies Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts will allow me to gauge what types of news posts people interact with the most. I may have to it down to a specific platform but at this point I just want to go through the exploration process and see if it helps me form any other theories or perhaps guide me down a different pathway.

Memo-writing will be another key component of the exploration and research process. Charmaz (2014) explained that memo-writing is important through all steps of the research process like determining categories and codes as well as the analysis phase (p. 162). After reading about memo-writing I began to think of it as more of a formal journal that tracks your progress, decisions, and questions throughout the research process. I think understanding decision making is a key component of research as by the time you get to the end of the process, you might forget why you decided to take a certain action. Keeping track of decision making will help make the path you took and why you took it, very clear. Another point that Charmaz (2014) makes about memo-writing is that it causes us to stop and evaluate throughout the journey, instead of just reflecting at the end (p. 162). I think this is important as it will help me understand my thought processes as well as reflect often so I can adapt my research if necessary.

                When reading about theoretical sampling, I was trying to figure out how I could use it to help develop my research topic. I found the concept of theoretical sampling very confusing as I am so used to the idea of sampling a part of a population that represents a larger population. Theoretical sampling appears to be the opposite, or at the very least, unrelated to using a sample of a target population. I will have to conduct theoretical sampling to help try and define the categories I want to use. This should help me figure out where I want to go from there.

I realized I will also need to review current literature to understand how and why people access news and information online and through social media platforms. There must be literature related to the volumes and frequency of online news consumption and why people prefer it to traditional methods such as tv news programs or newspapers. I would make an assumption that convenience and timeliness are two important factors so it will be interesting to see if that theory is true.

At this point in the journey, I have a topic and now I am looking forward to continuing the exploration part of the process. The next step after I finish the exploration process is complete is that I am hoping it will guide me to a firmer theory. I am excited to see where this journey takes me and where I end up at the end.

 

References

Charmaz, K. (2014). Constructing grounded theory. (2^nd ed.). Sage.

Stebbins, R.A. (2001). Exploratory research in the social sciences. Sage.