2021
Ståhl, Matilda
Kasvatustiede, Åbo Akademi, 2021, ISBN: 978-952-12-4127-7.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Avainsanat: community, diversity, education, englanninkieliset väitöskirjat, identities, identity (co)construction, identity construction, online, social media, video games, visuality
@phdthesis{Ståhl2021,
title = {Community, diversity and visuality: An ethno-case study on constructing identities and becoming legitimate participants in online/offline communities},
author = {Matilda Ståhl},
url = {https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-12-4127-7},
isbn = {978-952-12-4127-7},
year = {2021},
date = {2021-01-01},
school = {Kasvatustiede, Åbo Akademi},
abstract = {Since the launch of the first web browser, the early-nineties was dominated by a view of the Internet as a utopian space for identity play and community building. However online platforms are currently not utopian environments where people can be a anyone or anything they want. This thesis discusses how these online platforms continue to be shaped by the identity categories we inhabit in offline contexts. Here, I view identities as multiple yet parallel, somewhat stable but simultaneously renegotiated and changing with social context. Additionally, the focus is on what characterized the identities that the participants construct rather than the identity categories they inhabit. The overarching aim of the thesis is twofold: a)to explore what frames identity construction online and how the youth participants (co)construct identities on online platforms as well as b) to discuss methodological implications for employing screen recordings in an ethno-case study within educational research. The aim is approached through the following research questions:
RQ1. What frames the possibilities for identity construction online?
RQ2. How is the participant identity (co)construction shaped by these frames?
RQ3. What are the practical ethical challenges with employing ethnographic methods when conducting research on identity (co)construction online?
This thesis is a qualitative case study informed by ethnography, or an ethno-case study. Case study as a methodology focuses on an immersed understanding of a phenomenon trough a specific case and can offer insight into how previous research and empirical data are connected. Both case study and ethnography focus on a participant’s perspective of a phenomenon and use varied forms of data collection. However, in ethnography, more emphasis is put on extended periods of time in the field and gaining insight into this phenomenon from multiple contexts, whereas a case study can be more limited in terms of time and researcher immersion into the field.
Here, the research questions are answered through insight into two cases. The first is ethnographic and thereby spanning a longer time period, with multiple sources of data and where research immersion spans both online and offline contexts. The second is framed as an ethno-case study and thereby employs ethnographic methods on a specific case yet is shorter in timespan than the first and where the data collection primarily focuses on the online context.
The first case, Textmöten, was an ethnographic research collaboration focusing on exploring how students in upper secondary schools in Finland used mobile phones in school. The data consisted of video recordings of students during their school day, during lessons as well as breaks, and at the same time as there was a recording of their mobile phones. The application that allowed the mobile phones to be recorded was student controlled, and the students were thereby in control of the material being recorded. During a total of 18 days, the data was collected between the spring of 2015 to the autumn of 2016 at two different Swedish language upper secondary schools with a total of seven students (of age 16-18 at the time). In addition to the video recordings as well as the recordings of the mobile phones, five of the seven students were interviewed.
The second case, esports in education, was conducted in collaboration with a Swedish language vocational school with an esports programme in Finland in 2017-2018. The aim of the project was to explore online gaming through players that took their play seriously. Seven students (of age 17-18 at the time, all identifying as male) playing CS:GO took part in the study by sharing screen recordings of their in-game matches (ten matches and almost six hours in total) and by taking part in interviews (seven in total). The focus students volunteered to participate in the study through a teacher. The design of the study was dependent on the students’ engagement due to the physical distance between the researchers and participants. Regular meetings, held at their school, functioned as interviews and were recorded.
The thesis focuses on three of the platforms the participants engaged with; Instagram, Tumblr (case 1) and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (case 2). The results show that the participants identity (co)construction online was framed by both the platforms technical affordances as well as the online and offline communities they were part of. Additionally, their identity (co)construction was characterized by visuality, community and diversity. The practical ethical challenges revolved around maintaining participant integrity in terms of; a) gaining informed consent from players that became co-observed, b) defining privacy online during the analysis as well as in the published results and c) portraying participants accurately despite stakeholder interests.},
keywords = {community, diversity, education, englanninkieliset väitöskirjat, identities, identity (co)construction, identity construction, online, social media, video games, visuality},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {phdthesis}
}
Since the launch of the first web browser, the early-nineties was dominated by a view of the Internet as a utopian space for identity play and community building. However online platforms are currently not utopian environments where people can be a anyone or anything they want. This thesis discusses how these online platforms continue to be shaped by the identity categories we inhabit in offline contexts. Here, I view identities as multiple yet parallel, somewhat stable but simultaneously renegotiated and changing with social context. Additionally, the focus is on what characterized the identities that the participants construct rather than the identity categories they inhabit. The overarching aim of the thesis is twofold: a)to explore what frames identity construction online and how the youth participants (co)construct identities on online platforms as well as b) to discuss methodological implications for employing screen recordings in an ethno-case study within educational research. The aim is approached through the following research questions:
RQ1. What frames the possibilities for identity construction online?
RQ2. How is the participant identity (co)construction shaped by these frames?
RQ3. What are the practical ethical challenges with employing ethnographic methods when conducting research on identity (co)construction online?
This thesis is a qualitative case study informed by ethnography, or an ethno-case study. Case study as a methodology focuses on an immersed understanding of a phenomenon trough a specific case and can offer insight into how previous research and empirical data are connected. Both case study and ethnography focus on a participant’s perspective of a phenomenon and use varied forms of data collection. However, in ethnography, more emphasis is put on extended periods of time in the field and gaining insight into this phenomenon from multiple contexts, whereas a case study can be more limited in terms of time and researcher immersion into the field.
Here, the research questions are answered through insight into two cases. The first is ethnographic and thereby spanning a longer time period, with multiple sources of data and where research immersion spans both online and offline contexts. The second is framed as an ethno-case study and thereby employs ethnographic methods on a specific case yet is shorter in timespan than the first and where the data collection primarily focuses on the online context.
The first case, Textmöten, was an ethnographic research collaboration focusing on exploring how students in upper secondary schools in Finland used mobile phones in school. The data consisted of video recordings of students during their school day, during lessons as well as breaks, and at the same time as there was a recording of their mobile phones. The application that allowed the mobile phones to be recorded was student controlled, and the students were thereby in control of the material being recorded. During a total of 18 days, the data was collected between the spring of 2015 to the autumn of 2016 at two different Swedish language upper secondary schools with a total of seven students (of age 16-18 at the time). In addition to the video recordings as well as the recordings of the mobile phones, five of the seven students were interviewed.
The second case, esports in education, was conducted in collaboration with a Swedish language vocational school with an esports programme in Finland in 2017-2018. The aim of the project was to explore online gaming through players that took their play seriously. Seven students (of age 17-18 at the time, all identifying as male) playing CS:GO took part in the study by sharing screen recordings of their in-game matches (ten matches and almost six hours in total) and by taking part in interviews (seven in total). The focus students volunteered to participate in the study through a teacher. The design of the study was dependent on the students’ engagement due to the physical distance between the researchers and participants. Regular meetings, held at their school, functioned as interviews and were recorded.
The thesis focuses on three of the platforms the participants engaged with; Instagram, Tumblr (case 1) and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (case 2). The results show that the participants identity (co)construction online was framed by both the platforms technical affordances as well as the online and offline communities they were part of. Additionally, their identity (co)construction was characterized by visuality, community and diversity. The practical ethical challenges revolved around maintaining participant integrity in terms of; a) gaining informed consent from players that became co-observed, b) defining privacy online during the analysis as well as in the published results and c) portraying participants accurately despite stakeholder interests.
RQ1. What frames the possibilities for identity construction online?
RQ2. How is the participant identity (co)construction shaped by these frames?
RQ3. What are the practical ethical challenges with employing ethnographic methods when conducting research on identity (co)construction online?
This thesis is a qualitative case study informed by ethnography, or an ethno-case study. Case study as a methodology focuses on an immersed understanding of a phenomenon trough a specific case and can offer insight into how previous research and empirical data are connected. Both case study and ethnography focus on a participant’s perspective of a phenomenon and use varied forms of data collection. However, in ethnography, more emphasis is put on extended periods of time in the field and gaining insight into this phenomenon from multiple contexts, whereas a case study can be more limited in terms of time and researcher immersion into the field.
Here, the research questions are answered through insight into two cases. The first is ethnographic and thereby spanning a longer time period, with multiple sources of data and where research immersion spans both online and offline contexts. The second is framed as an ethno-case study and thereby employs ethnographic methods on a specific case yet is shorter in timespan than the first and where the data collection primarily focuses on the online context.
The first case, Textmöten, was an ethnographic research collaboration focusing on exploring how students in upper secondary schools in Finland used mobile phones in school. The data consisted of video recordings of students during their school day, during lessons as well as breaks, and at the same time as there was a recording of their mobile phones. The application that allowed the mobile phones to be recorded was student controlled, and the students were thereby in control of the material being recorded. During a total of 18 days, the data was collected between the spring of 2015 to the autumn of 2016 at two different Swedish language upper secondary schools with a total of seven students (of age 16-18 at the time). In addition to the video recordings as well as the recordings of the mobile phones, five of the seven students were interviewed.
The second case, esports in education, was conducted in collaboration with a Swedish language vocational school with an esports programme in Finland in 2017-2018. The aim of the project was to explore online gaming through players that took their play seriously. Seven students (of age 17-18 at the time, all identifying as male) playing CS:GO took part in the study by sharing screen recordings of their in-game matches (ten matches and almost six hours in total) and by taking part in interviews (seven in total). The focus students volunteered to participate in the study through a teacher. The design of the study was dependent on the students’ engagement due to the physical distance between the researchers and participants. Regular meetings, held at their school, functioned as interviews and were recorded.
The thesis focuses on three of the platforms the participants engaged with; Instagram, Tumblr (case 1) and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (case 2). The results show that the participants identity (co)construction online was framed by both the platforms technical affordances as well as the online and offline communities they were part of. Additionally, their identity (co)construction was characterized by visuality, community and diversity. The practical ethical challenges revolved around maintaining participant integrity in terms of; a) gaining informed consent from players that became co-observed, b) defining privacy online during the analysis as well as in the published results and c) portraying participants accurately despite stakeholder interests.
2013
Johnson, Mikael
Tietotekniikka, Aalto-yliopisto, 2013, ISBN: 978-952-60-5072-0.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Avainsanat: englanninkieliset väitöskirjat, participatory design, social media, strategic user involvement, user innovations, user-centred design, virtual worlds
@phdthesis{Johnson2013,
title = {How social media changes user-centred design: Cumulative and strategic user involvement with respect to developer–user social distance},
author = {Mikael Johnson},
url = {http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-60-5073-7},
isbn = {978-952-60-5072-0},
year = {2013},
date = {2013-01-01},
urldate = {2013-01-01},
school = {Tietotekniikka, Aalto-yliopisto},
abstract = {The aim of user-centred, participatory, and lead-user design approaches is to raise the quality of products and services through methods that aid developers in user involvement. In the lite-rature, the design context is often assumed to be 'one-off projects', which limits the applicabi-lity of the guidelines for further service design after market launch. Other challenges concern-ing social media include ambiguities in the role of informal engagement, the abstraction pro-cesses between millions of users and working user categories, and criteria for involving users.
This study investigated user involvement strategies and practices in the construction of a so-cial media service. The research questions were (1) how do users' actions in and around social media shape its design after market launch, (2) how do social media developers' user involve-ment practices evolve over time, and (3) how does user categorisation change with social me-dia? This thesis adopted an exploratory case study approach and the data was collected during 2003–2010. While the study is grounded in usability research and human–computer interac-tion, the theoretical and methodological framework leaned on science and technology studies.
The site of investigation was one of the world's largest social game and online communities for teenagers, Habbo Hotel, operated by Sulake Corporation. The data was gathered from devel-opers and users through a multi-method approach, using traditional qualitative and quantita-tive methods as well as online data sources. While this study offers unique insight into the in-teraction between a particular social media company and its users, the implications go beyond the studied target group and games to social media in general.
The key findings demonstrate how collaboration and feedback loops between developers and users change over time. In particular, this study highlights the effects of changes in the target group, the broad variety of applied user involvement methods, rhythms in development, and users' contributions after market launch. The author developed two concepts, 'developer–user social distance' and 'content creation capacity', to help designers and researchers communicate previously neglected dimensions of user involvement. Results from analysis of the accumula-tion of user knowledge in the development organisation criticise assumptions in the literature on when and how designers categorise users as well as the functions of these user categories in the design process. The results further suggest that guidelines and other advice on user involve-ment should be uncoupled from the assumption of stable and orderly project phases. This case contributes to user-centred design guidelines, process guidance for user involvement, and re-search on social media development and developer–user collaboration.},
keywords = {englanninkieliset väitöskirjat, participatory design, social media, strategic user involvement, user innovations, user-centred design, virtual worlds},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {phdthesis}
}
The aim of user-centred, participatory, and lead-user design approaches is to raise the quality of products and services through methods that aid developers in user involvement. In the lite-rature, the design context is often assumed to be 'one-off projects', which limits the applicabi-lity of the guidelines for further service design after market launch. Other challenges concern-ing social media include ambiguities in the role of informal engagement, the abstraction pro-cesses between millions of users and working user categories, and criteria for involving users.
This study investigated user involvement strategies and practices in the construction of a so-cial media service. The research questions were (1) how do users' actions in and around social media shape its design after market launch, (2) how do social media developers' user involve-ment practices evolve over time, and (3) how does user categorisation change with social me-dia? This thesis adopted an exploratory case study approach and the data was collected during 2003–2010. While the study is grounded in usability research and human–computer interac-tion, the theoretical and methodological framework leaned on science and technology studies.
The site of investigation was one of the world's largest social game and online communities for teenagers, Habbo Hotel, operated by Sulake Corporation. The data was gathered from devel-opers and users through a multi-method approach, using traditional qualitative and quantita-tive methods as well as online data sources. While this study offers unique insight into the in-teraction between a particular social media company and its users, the implications go beyond the studied target group and games to social media in general.
The key findings demonstrate how collaboration and feedback loops between developers and users change over time. In particular, this study highlights the effects of changes in the target group, the broad variety of applied user involvement methods, rhythms in development, and users' contributions after market launch. The author developed two concepts, 'developer–user social distance' and 'content creation capacity', to help designers and researchers communicate previously neglected dimensions of user involvement. Results from analysis of the accumula-tion of user knowledge in the development organisation criticise assumptions in the literature on when and how designers categorise users as well as the functions of these user categories in the design process. The results further suggest that guidelines and other advice on user involve-ment should be uncoupled from the assumption of stable and orderly project phases. This case contributes to user-centred design guidelines, process guidance for user involvement, and re-search on social media development and developer–user collaboration.
This study investigated user involvement strategies and practices in the construction of a so-cial media service. The research questions were (1) how do users' actions in and around social media shape its design after market launch, (2) how do social media developers' user involve-ment practices evolve over time, and (3) how does user categorisation change with social me-dia? This thesis adopted an exploratory case study approach and the data was collected during 2003–2010. While the study is grounded in usability research and human–computer interac-tion, the theoretical and methodological framework leaned on science and technology studies.
The site of investigation was one of the world's largest social game and online communities for teenagers, Habbo Hotel, operated by Sulake Corporation. The data was gathered from devel-opers and users through a multi-method approach, using traditional qualitative and quantita-tive methods as well as online data sources. While this study offers unique insight into the in-teraction between a particular social media company and its users, the implications go beyond the studied target group and games to social media in general.
The key findings demonstrate how collaboration and feedback loops between developers and users change over time. In particular, this study highlights the effects of changes in the target group, the broad variety of applied user involvement methods, rhythms in development, and users' contributions after market launch. The author developed two concepts, 'developer–user social distance' and 'content creation capacity', to help designers and researchers communicate previously neglected dimensions of user involvement. Results from analysis of the accumula-tion of user knowledge in the development organisation criticise assumptions in the literature on when and how designers categorise users as well as the functions of these user categories in the design process. The results further suggest that guidelines and other advice on user involve-ment should be uncoupled from the assumption of stable and orderly project phases. This case contributes to user-centred design guidelines, process guidance for user involvement, and re-search on social media development and developer–user collaboration.