Online Social Research: Methods, Issues, & Ethics (Digital Formations, V. 7)

Rating:
Summary: Highly Recommended for Online Research
Review: As a computer geek recently turned anthropologist, I have been frustrated by much of the material I encounter that deals with aspects of the online culture. I have grown to have very low expectations of academic papers as well as books, so it was a surprise and delight to encounter ONLINE SOCIAL RESEARCH METHODS.

Here is a set of authors and an editor who understand virtual life; who niether glamorize nor minimize the impact. Cases and research are presented clearly, and it's easy for a relative novice who wants to research social aspects of the internet to understand the processes and pitfalls. Various approaches (including lurking) are presented in a clear and understandable style. Best of all, there's a chapter on how to do and survive the IRB review and on the ethical considerations that researchers need to be aware of.

The book is both well written and well edited (if you're picking this book up and don't have a background in either anthropology or social sciences, you'll want to read this one with your browser open to get quick definitions of some of the specialized words.)

The geek in me was relieved to find that the authors actually understood the terminology and the environments they are dealing with. This has been a huge bone of contention of mine (my current pet peeve is writers who use "cyborg" for "avatar" or "persona") in the recent past, and the tendency to just "name things without finding out if they already have names" is one of the things I find most aggravating about many of the articles in scholarly journals.

So, kudos to the editors and authors! I highly recommend this one.