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Theories: The Backbone Of A Research Project

Yolandi Botha

“Theory…is centrally involved in every step of the investigative process from initial premise to final interpretation of the data” (McCullers, 1984)

Theories, or specifically in the context of this post, social theories, are guidelines to study certain phenomena within a specific school of thought. These theories serve as the foundation of any social research project. This post aims to provide a brief outline of some of the core functions of theories in research.

• Theories assist the researcher to obtain a focused demarcation of the phenomenon.

• By creating more focus on the topic being studied, theories guide the researcher to eliminate irrelevant information. This does not mean that the eliminated information should be disregarded but implies that it is not suited/applicable to the specific study.

• Theories string an array of concepts together which creates meaningful patterns or relationships that could be explored.

• Theories provide different perspectives in viewing certain phenomena and cannot really be disproved.

• Theories also assist the researcher to identify gaps in the literature that require further exploration.

• In line with the identification of gaps in the literature, theories could also point to different pathways that the researcher could take in exploring the topic.

Although it is still the researcher’s responsibility to organise and contextualise facts from the literature, theories assist in summarising these facts and identifying areas that require further exploration. It provides the researcher with a guideline or roadmap that could be explored and establish a definite perspective or viewpoint about the topic that is being studied.

Based on the importance of theories in research, Chapter 3 of the publication aims to provide a discussion on the most prominent theoretical constructs, theories and models, collectively referred to as theoretical frameworks, that could be applied to any social media research project. These frameworks have been categorised under personal behaviour, social behaviour or media influence themes. This chapter provides the necessary foundation to assist the researcher to evaluate new data, detect new research problems, render strong results and identify a pathway to formulate solutions to research problems in the context of social media.

*McCullers, J.C. 1984. The role of theory in research: implications for home economics. Home Economics Research Journal, 12(4): 523-538.

Yolandi is the author of chapter 3 Prominent theoretical frameworks in social media research.

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Reflecting on Reflexivity In Qualitative Research

Christelle Swart

This topic reminds me of the well-known soliloquy in the Shakespeare play Hamlet – “to be, or not to be” that in context is “to practise reflexivity or not to practice reflexivity”? In a soliloquy, an actor engages in a conversation with him or herself through a series of unspoken reflections.

Reflexivity in research is by no means a novel idea but has become prominent in recent years, mainly as a control strategy to understand how the researcher’s experiences and characteristics might impact the process outcome of qualitative research. Some even regard these experiences and characteristics as barriers to achieve unbiased research results. This discussion will later address some of the positive effects of reflexivity on the researcher.

What is reflexivity? Reflexivity is viewed as a series of actions that consists of internal dialogue, self-evaluation of the researcher’s positionality (such as personal experiences, gender, race, affiliation, theoretical, social background, political and ideological stances and others), and an appreciation and consciousness of the impact thereof on the research process are seemingly central to reflexivity.

A qualitative approach to social media research demands a holistic series of reflexive actions on the researcher’s self – self-knowledge; the role of the self in research efforts to create knowledge; and the attentively self-monitoring of the effect of his/her positionality on the research. To illustrate, the researcher should be truthful about the real reason/s why a certain research paradigm is favoured above others. Also, could the reason for excluding certain questions in an interview schedule be because of his/her personal beliefs or values

Reflexivity should equally be concerned with the effects of the research on the researcher. It might be that the implementation and execution of a specific research design could reveal personal strengths and weaknesses, that together with a reflection on his/her experiences during the process, can lead to the development of the individual as a researcher.

The overall purpose of chapter 4 is to explore qualitative research design in social media research, as well as the different research methods available to analyse visual and textual social media content. A qualitative research paradigm generally aims to locate patterns of meaning through examining how people assign meaning to things, to obtain insights into what the meanings are, and to place what is said and done into context in specific circumstances. Reflexivity has the power to achieve this objective if integrated throughout the entire research process.

Christelle is the author of chapter 4 Using a qualitative research approach in social media research.

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Using Mixed-Methods Approach in Social Media Research

Esther Emmanuel Awuah

The mixed-methods approach is now increasingly recognised by social science scholars and researchers as the ‘third’ paradigm of research. This approach combines both qualitative and quantitative methods in a single study, and when these are perfectly combined, they produce superior research results. This is possible because the approach adds more insight and comprehension that may have been missed when a single research method is used in research.

The purpose of chapter 6 is to introduce the reader to various elements found within the mixed methods approach, and how a researcher can best combine them to suit their research study — in such a way that the research problems are addressed more effectively. This approach is contextualised within the social media research field, hence the proper application of the mixed methods approach in this context is explained. Additionally, this chapter presents various paradigms or worldviews that guide mixed methods approaches, as well as the various typologies and mixed-method designs, although the chapter focuses more on the basic mixed methods typology by Creswell and Plano Clark (2011), which contains designs such as the convergent parallel, the exploratory sequential and the explanatory sequential.

To understand the mixed methods approach in the social media context, this chapter also contains a practical case study, that illustrates how a consultancy firm based in Ghana called AfroConsult Group Limited, utilised the mixed method approach to gathering data on social media platforms, which helped them inform their social media strategy, and consequently helped them garner thousands of followers on LinkedIn and Twitter. As a result, this firm became one of the most engaging consultancy firms on social media. Hence, the chapter provides an exciting opportunity to advance research knowledge in social media research.

Why should you look forward to reading this chapter? Well, after reading this chapter, you will a) understand what the mixed methods approach is, b) how to identify the type of paradigms or philosophical worldviews associated with the mixed methods approach, c) how to describe the various typologies and mixed-method designs related to the approach, d) how to choose the appropriate design for a mixed-methods study, e) how to carry out mixed methods research effectively, f) know the strengths and weaknesses, as well as the rationale for using the approach, and lastly, you will be able to g) critically discuss the relevance of the mixed- methods approach to social media research.

Esther is the author of chapter 6 Using a mixed-methods approach in social media research.

My Social Media Data Collection Experience

Ronesh Dhawraj

My main motivation for writing this chapter on 'collecting social media data was the fact that both my Masters and PhD studies focused on how big social media data was now impacting the political communication landscape. Politicians, too, were fast realising the true value of using social media platforms to communicate with electoral constituencies. In the chapter on 'collecting social media data', sub-topics such as distinguishing among the different types of Big Social Data and types of raw data are explored critically. I also explain in detail how and why social media can be regarded as Big Social Data, including researchers being empowered to recognise which methodological tools are available to conduct sound research using Big Social Data. The chapter also goes into detail on how to decide when and under what circumstances researchers can opt for a manual or automated approach to Big Social Data collection. Lastly, the chapter provides a skeletal outlook on how to critically analyse some of the checks and balances of Big Social Data collection to ensure ‘trustworthiness’ is achieved for a credible study. My main objective of the chapter on 'collecting social media data, however, remains fairly simple: to aid researchers to become more confident when using Big Social Data for research purposes.

Ronesh is the author of chapter 8 Collecting social media data.

Battling for Scientific Results

Charmaine du Plessis

Social media research has become more mainstream during the last couple of years with many tools and software now available to make handling large datasets easier. However, many researchers probably avoid conducting social media research, primarily due to the many epistemological problems and concerns when using social media data. Some of these problems centre around the pitfalls of observational data, the issue of researcher bias, the fact that social media data can be manipulated and not represent reality and the trustworthiness of the findings of a social media study.

To be credible and treated more seriously in the academic space, we argue that social media research must also adhere to the scientific method. We, therefore, propose 7 generic steps that can be followed to ensure that social media research is more rigorous while being aware of methodological challenges. However, we are also aware that by using social media data tools such as listening and monitoring, it becomes possible for organisations to better understand social media conversations that provide more audience insight and improve organisational strategies because of faster results. More rigorous social media research uses a more systematic process and can be time-consuming while ethics also becomes more of a concern. While some researchers use social media as a stand-alone methodology results can also complement traditional research.

However, there are still ongoing debates that social media research is not a method for conducting systematic research but rather a tool for monitoring and observing content and information across various social media channels. We hope that this book will clearly show how social media can be used as a methodology for scientific research.

Charmaine is the author of chapter 2 Introduction to the social media research process and the co-author of chapter 9 Analysing social media data

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