Online Research Methods in Sport Studies

Jamie Cleland, Kevin Dixon, Daniel Kilvington

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781000734652
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Ciencias sociales
• Subtopic: Investigación y metodología de las ciencias sociales

The internet and digital technologies have transformed sport and the way that we research sport, opening up new ways to analyse sport organisations, fan communities, networks, athletes, the media, and other key stakeholders in the field. This engaging and innovative book offers a complete introduction to online research methods in sport studies, guiding the reader through the entire research process, and bringing that process to life with sport-related cases and examples.

Covering both qualitative and quantitative methods, the book introduces key topics such as generating a research idea, implementing the research design, maintaining good ethical standards, and collecting, analysing and presenting data. It explains how to conduct online surveys, online interviews, and online ethnography in practice, and every chapter contains individual and group activities to encourage the reader to engage with real online research, as well as further reading suggestions to help them develop their knowledge.

Online Research Methods in Sport Studies is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students, academics, and researchers with an interest in sport studies, and is a useful reference for practitioners working in sport or sport media who want to improve their professional research skills.

1
INTRODUCTION

Why research online?

According to the website datareportal.com, an online resource that specialises in providing the latest statistics for internet usage from across the globe, at the end of January 2019 there were close to 4.4 billion internet users out of a world population of 7.7 billion (see the list of references at the end of the chapter for the link to this report). Comparing this with January 2018, they report how an extra one million people per day accessed the internet over the course of just one year. They also illustrate how 5.1 billion people are mobile phone users (not all have internet access however), with nearly 3.5 billion of those who have internet access using a variety of social media sites (the average number of social media accounts per internet user was listed as nine). To illustrate why we believe the topic of this book is timely, we only have to compare the number of internet users in 2019 (4.4 billion) with the number in 2014 (2.485 billion) to see the significant growth of global internet consumption over just a five-year period. Indeed, the percentage share of internet time by mobile devices has also increased dramatically, from 26 percent in 2014 compared to 48 percent in 2019 (nearly doubling in that time). Adding to this, worldwide internet users are found to spend an average of six hours and 42 minutes online every day, with two hours and 21 minutes of this time spent consuming various social media sites (the top three most visited websites in the world are Google, YouTube, and Facebook).

Through examples of statistics like these, it is clear that the addition of tablets and smartphones to existing home, study, or work computers has vastly increased our immediate access to the internet in a short period of time. Of course, the internet is not universally available to all, but we do know that there are more digital communication gadgets in the world than there are people. As human beings we find the internet engaging for a multitude of reasons. Browsing the news or sport available online, shopping for holidays, clothes or other products, gaming, listening to music, watching videos or live events, as well as engaging in debate with other users on specific websites or social media platforms, are only some of the options that we have available.

By its very nature the internet is interactive with fluid boundaries in which researchers are increasingly looking to examine. As outlined by the Association of Internet Researchers (2012: 3), ‘The internet is a social phenomenon, a tool, and also a (field) site for research’. From traditional methods of gathering survey questionnaires via post, in person or over the telephone, conducting interviews in person or over the telephone, and carrying out some form of visual observation of participants (either overtly or covertly), research can now be conducted from the comfort of your own home, library, university, or workplace quickly and at a relatively low cost. It also allows for larger sample sizes from a bigger geographical spread through the different ways in which the internet allows researchers to contact and interact with potential participants.

Online research can be both a tool for research and a venue for research that includes the use of information already on the internet, using it for recruiting participants, researching those engaging with various sites in some way and those who use it as a form of intervention (Harriman and Patel, 2014). By way of illustration from the statistics presented above, the everyday popularity of highly interactive social media sites as well as discussion forums, message boards, chat rooms and blogs to network, socialise, and debate through text, photographs, and videos have opened up many new ways for online researchers to access and collect user-generated data.

Not surprisingly, therefore, the internet has fundamentally changed our approach to communication and, in doing so, has provided significant amounts of data on a huge range of topics, including sport. This often takes place in a natural setting, such as across social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and sports fan forums, but it can also include the collection and analysis of online newspaper articles and reports. Indeed, there is some form of online community that can practically suit any research interest. In this way, online research presents greater opportunities for those researchers new to methods being adopted in online settings as well as those who are more experienced in this field of research.

About this book

Given the long-established belief that research methods should be designed to incorporate modes of communication that are comfortable for the desired sample, it is fair to assume that the internet has a crucial place in the future of research. Many of the adverse myths surrounding the use of the internet for research projects are diminishing rapidly as online research is entering the mainstream. Researchers were once sceptical of researching online activities that were somehow degraded as inauthentic to physical ‘real world’ communications, but they now concede that the conceptual dichotomies that demarcate physical and online worlds are largely unhelpful (Gibbons and Dixon, 2010). New generations of researchers who have been schooled on digital technology are no longer fearful of its uses. They implicitly understand its strengths for the purposes of addressing a research aim(s) and objectives within a given project.

In a short period of time, the internet has revolutionised what we can research, what methods we can employ, and the communities we can reach, as well as widening the possibilities of who we can access and collaborate with. In short, the nature of research is changing, and this book sets out to critically examine online research methods in the context of what we simply term sport studies. Although we use this term across the book, we recognise within the content of our chapters the application to all of the relevant disciplines within the study of sport including sociology, culture, race, leisure, administration, governance, coaching, media, journalism, management, development, gender studies, business, health, tourism, physical activity and nutrition, exercise, psychology, and history.

The opportunities to conduct primary and secondary qualitative and quantitative research in the contemporary world of sport studies has been transformed, with new ways to analyse sport organisations, fan communities, networks, athletes, the media, and other stakeholders encouraging a range of innovative online methods to extract data. This book, therefore, attempts to offer an interdisciplinary approach that reflects on the opportunities presented by online research and how the internet has encouraged new and updated qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection and analysis. In doing so, at the heart of the book is the focus on three of the most commonly adopted methods of online research: online surveys (see Chapter 4), online interviews and focus groups (see Chapter 5), and online ethnography (see Chapter 6). These chapters will outline how the internet has become a cultural space full of opportunities to conduct research and explain the results within a theoretical and conceptual context.

As this book will outline, there are advantages and disadvantages to using the internet for online research. One of the more obvious advantages of using the internet to collect, analyse, and disseminate data (see Chapter 7) is the potential global reach and quickness of time it takes from what could be achieved through more traditional methods like face-to-face interviewing or paper survey questionnaires. However, there are also some disadvantages and ethical considerations (see Chapter 3) that need addressing before any data collection takes place, including privacy, confidentiality, informed consent, and the prevention of harm to participants as well as the researcher(s).

The writing of this very book has, not surprisingly, relied on online research. As you will see, the book examines contemporary examples of research in sport across each of the remaining six chapters, and the most up-to-date statistics at the time of writing where possible. Without websites, e-books, or online journals, this content would have proved very difficult to find, so we practice ourselves what we preach in this book. In addition, the book has also relied on online communication as its three authors are displaced by space and time. While Jamie Cleland lives in Australia, Kevin Dixon and Daniel Kilvington are based in England. So, could this book have been written without communicating online? Possibly, but it would have taken much longer to complete as the internet speeds up the process of communication. As authors, we regularly communicated via email when designing and producing this book and feel it will be a useful resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students in the broad discipline of sport studies as well as academic staff working in this field of research. We hope it also proves to be a useful guide for practitioners working in the sports industry, such as those involved in the media, sport for development and sports marketing.

Structure and content of the book

The structure of the book has been purposefully established to take the researcher on the journey from having no real research question in mind through the process of creating one and devising appropriate ethical considerations, to then identifying the best type of methodological approach needed to address the research aim(s) and objectives, before focusing on the analysis of data and the dissemination of the findings to the appropriate audience (whether that is undergraduate or postgraduate dissertation supervisors and examiners or through a funded report or other academic publication, such as a journal article, chapter, or book).

Chapter 2 focuses on the step-by-step process involved in creating an online research question. It discusses the research field and research topic whilst emphasising the importance of reviewing appropriate literature to aid the creation of research aim(s) and objectives. It then addresses the different methods available to online researchers and the types of questions that can be developed within a research study. The latter part of the chapter examines the process of sampling with regards to choosing participants for an online study and the various strategies available to researchers in addressing the research aim(s) and objectives of the project.

Chapter 3 concentrates on four main ethical considerations when researchers engage with the internet to collect, analyse, present, and store data. The first section outlines the ethical process by primarily concentrating on the role of ethics committees and codes of conduct now being implemented by relevant disciplines and organisations (internal and external). The second section addresses the importance of gaining informed consent irrespective of the difficulties sometimes involved when conducting online research. It highlights the importance of, where possible, informing participants about the research project, their role in the project, details of the research team and appropriate contact details, their right of withdrawal, and how their identity will be protected, so that the participant can make an informed choice as to whether to participate or not. The third section concentrates on harm and illustrates the importance of avoiding deception and protecting the participant as well as the researcher from any circumstance that could lead to some form of physical, psychological, or emotional stress or anxiety. The final section focuses on the public versus private debate about certain websites and the differences between them for the purposes of ethical data collection.

Chapter 4 focuses on the methodological approach of online surveys and presents five key sections to illustrate the opportunities and challenges researchers face. Firstly, it raises the importance of planning and the stages through which an online survey will develop before, secondly, addressing the area of sampling when identifying participants to take part. The third section concentrates on the questions within the online survey, in particular the importance of finding a balance between closed and open-ended questions to gain as much rich data as possible. The fourth section then illustrates some of the important strategic points when conducting the online survey, such as maximising the number of completions and the importance of undertaking some pilot research before wider distribution takes place. The final section addresses some of the potential problems that can be encountered by online surveys, namely under coverage and non-responses, and outlines ways in which this can be reduced whilst also discussing the importance of maintaining reliability and validity when undertaking an online survey to address the research aim(s) and objectives.

Chapter 5 explores the potential pitfalls and controversies associated with online interviews. It does this by concentrating on three main areas. First, it begins by explaining what interviews are and the various types available. Structured, semi-structured, and unstructured interviews will thus be defined and discussed in order to provide important contextual and background information on this research method. Second, the chapter then critically examines the multiple forms of online asynchronous and synchronous interviews available to researchers and offers some useful tips and guidance. The final section highlights a number of ways in which researchers can prepare for online interviews and puts forward some guidance on how online interviews can be carried out.

Chapter 6 focuses on online ethnography, otherwise known as netnography. This research method centralises observation as a research tool but often draws on other methodological approaches. Before exploring online ethnography, it is important to understand traditional ethnography as a research practice. Therefore, the opening sections of Chapter 6 focus on the emergence of ethnography as a research method, the ways in which it can be employed, and why it can be useful to researchers. It defines and discusses three standard approaches to ethnography: Non-participant observation, participant observation, and complete participant observation. This contextual discussion ends with an examination of the different ethnographic forms available, such as audience, auto-ethnographic, and institutional. Following this opening discussion, the chapter then covers how and why ethnography is used to investigate online spaces. Key aspects of online ethnography are highlighted, such as immersion and how to take, and analyse, research field notes effectively. The chapter also provides some guidance on how to enter online communities, online ethnography and research ethics, and how to conduct online ethnography reflexively. The latter part of the chapter discusses the advantages and disadvantages of online ethnography and offers a number of tips for those who wish to employ this research method in their own research.

Chapter 7 focuses on the analysis of data – a key area of any research project. It begins by exploring the various ways in which quantitative data can be collected. Hence, nominal, ordinal, ratio, and interval data are considered. Yet, the main focus of this chapter is on the analysis and presentation of qualitative data. It provides a step-by-step guide to how to analyse qualitative data, and how to generate, or develop, emerging codes (otherwise known as patterns or trends). Throughout this discussion, a clear and useful guidance for researchers who are analysing qualitative data is provided. The latter part of the chapter covers specific forms of data analysis approaches which researchers may use. These approaches include content analysis, discourse analysis, Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis, narrative analysis, thematic analysis, and grounded theory. This section also refers to various research projects within the field of sport studies whereby these approaches were adopted. By alluding to real-life projects, the reader can understand how this approach is used in action. The chapter ends by offering some important guidance on how to structure a research project as all of the sections come together for its completion and submission.

Developing your knowledge through key terms, activities, and questions

From qualitative to quantitative, from ethnography to netnography, from narrative to thematic analysis, research methods literature entails many terms that may confuse or puzzle debutant researchers. Learning about research methods, however, is not too dissimilar from learning about the rules of a sport. Take football, for example. None of us were born with a pre-existing understanding of the offside rule. However, once we read about it, see it in action, and discuss it with others, we develop an understanding. The offside rule is just one rule within the wider framework of rules governing football. The more time you spend in the game, the greater your understanding will be. Likewise, inexperienced researchers may be unfamiliar with the practices and processes involved in conducting online (as well as offline or more traditional) research projects. The only way to acquire the knowledge, and thus learn the research rules, such as appropriate sampling strategies, ensuring ethical standards of research, and how to analyse data effectively, is to familiarise yourself with them. Therefore, reading methodological literature and discussing your research ideas with your supervisor, colleagues, and peers will help you in gaining a comprehensive understanding of the rules, practices, and processes associated with online research methods. In order to help you fully understand the key elements involved with online research, we would like to draw your attention to the words emboldened across the chapters. We have identified these words as key terms and although we explain them in our chapters, we provide you a further definition in the glossary, which can be found at the back of the book. Whenever you have any doubt over any of the key terms feel free to browse through the glossary to aid your understanding.

Across each of the remaining six chapters of this book, we also provide a number of key resources and rhetorical questions to make you think clearly about the research journey all researchers go on: From identifying a topic, to gaining ethical approval, to devising questions and choosing your methodological approach, to collecting and analysing the data, to disseminati...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of tables
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Creating your online research question
• 3 Online research ethics
• 4 Online surveys
• 5 Online interviews
• 6 Investigating the online world
• 7 Analysing and presenting data
• Glossary
• Index