Desarrollo de una reacción multiplex empleando miniSTRs del cromosoma X

Drawing on the theoretical and methodological frameworks and other considerations outlined above, this section describes the thought processes through which working approaches to fieldwork and practical methods for investigation and analysis were ultimately chosen.

Description of the development of the research design and application

Development of the study format, research questions and final method choices took place over several phases, a function of both the insights emerging from early observation of data and advances in related areas of scholarship during the study.

104 | P a g e Whatever the focus of research, in what is still a relatively new field, the researcher has a range of potential options for study design, data collection and analysis. The challenge has been whether to call upon established practices, many of which were developed before the advent of social media or attempt a new or pluralist approach in recognition of the novel aspects of the topic and indeed more recent methodological research.

Much on offer will amount to translational approaches from traditional research practice and there is much scope to ‘play safe’ and adhere to these, but in addition to this there are new methods and opportunities afforded by the distinctive features of the medium or indeed scope, and often, need for hybridity to achieve holistic understanding (Hooley et al. 2012).

Comparable studies

Observation, with varying degrees of participation through individual or group interview, for instance, has often been the practical method of choice for studies of media use in context (Jensen, 2002).

How other researchers in the developing field of social media specifically are taking on the questions that emerge have been an initial point of reference. This has been in varying ways.

An early study of diversity of political conversation on the internet involved in-depth interviews with 69 users, however this was before significant take up of social media and focused on Usenet groups and real time messaging (Stromer-Galley 2006).

105 | P a g e An overview of trends in qualitative and mixed methods social media research literature published from 2007 through to 2013 found that the most frequently used research approaches collected data through transcribed interview, focus group, and survey methods. Content analysis of social media came next. Researchers noted that mixed methods studies tended to follow Creswell and Plano Clark’s basic mixed methods typology, that is convergent parallel, explanatory sequential, and exploratory sequential (Snelson 2016).

Specific examples include a large 2013/14 study, with researchers developing an account over time of users of online political and civic 'self-help' sites and their involvement in wider community and political activities, where the aim was to develop and apply an innovative and replicable mixed methodology, integrating qualitative and quantitative evidence about users, thus to allow for a richer and more detailed insight into their experiences (Gibson et al. 2014).

Another relevant and recent study, New Radicals: Digital Political Engagement in Post Referendum Scotland uses a combination of analysis of Twitter feeds, a targeted survey and in-depth one-to-one

interviews (Mclaverty et al. 2015). Each of these approaches has been used to inform the developing model.

It is clear that pluralist and mixed methods approaches are generally proving useful in exploring the issues emerging from social media use.

106 | P a g e Places and platforms: The internet as a field of study

A note about platforms

This study looks at mainstream patterns of political social media use. Based on the understanding that the ‘big two’ platforms, Facebook and Twitter, remain overall the most used (Smith & Anderson 2018, Statista 2018), and given that in these environments, participants situate their political talk amongst a much wider social and political context, a working assumption has been that most interviewees would focus on these two main channels, which indeed they most often did, but talk about other platforms has not been excluded. Twitter is based on weaker social ties than Facebook (Harrison 2017). Facebook has been, almost by default, the primary focus of study because of its size and reach, its discursive nature, and the fact it is the overwhelmingly most popular medium of choice for people to talk to each other about politics.¹¹ Facebook is the most-widely used platform, and is most representative (Pew Research Center 2015). The importance of Twitter as a broadcast medium favoured by the political establishment is also considered. This situates Facebook and Twitter as locales of study rather than case studies themselves.

Use of ‘contextual case studies’

‘A rich picture, with boundaries.’ (Thomas 2015).

At the development stage, a decision was made to focus on set-piece UK political events as demarcating or delimiting contextual case studies. These have not been applied and explored as a unit of analysis in the traditional sense, but as a mechanism for scoping and focusing. They were eventually narrowed down to the Scottish independence referendum of 2015, the EU referendum and associated UKIP surge, and the ongoing Labour Party leadership debate. Later in fieldwork, a

11 Over the 2015 UK General Election campaign, there were around 21 million political comments on Facebook, and ten million tweets about politicians. Source:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/social- media/12061333/In-2015-social-media-companies-strengthened-their-rule.-In-2016-they-will-face-rebellion.html

107 | P a g e decision was made to ask some participants about their experience during the unexpected General Election of 2017. So, participants and groups were recruited and spoken to primarily with reference to these key events. This has been in line with wishing to study the characteristics of online political conversation within a settled democracy. As outlined in the ‘rationale’ section, these events were chosen for their high levels of participation and engagement, their association with larger political trends and the richness of available evidence in comparison with other possible examples. This proved useful in focusing on specificities, providing a timeframe, shaping questions, identifying key trends, recruiting people and in practice helping them to articulate their thoughts. It is clear, however, that people’s interest in these events overlapped to varying degrees. This has in fact proved helpful in allowing participants to compare events and to observe changes in participation practice. Comparative references may also be made from outside the case study events where examples have been provided by interviewees and these are relevant to key themes.

Topic discussion guide

Complementary discussion frameworks were developed for both group and individual interviews and a version is included in the appendices along with a sample of a tailored individual interview guide used for discussions with serving politicians. All these guides were developed as a result of group observation exercises during scoping work, when key themes and trends were identified. As noted, these were levels and understanding of participation; subjective and interpersonal

experience of online political discussion; event-specific experience; issues of identity; perceived efficacy; media consumption and literacy plus open observations and emerging findings.

The rationale behind the choices of topic area was to develop a holistic picture of the main inputs, influences and considerations informing the world view of participants. So first, there was a need to get a sense of their general level of political participation, plus how, where and when they

108 | P a g e commonly practised this online. The second question set was designed to get an understanding of the subjective, interpersonal and affective elements of their experience. Their lived experience during the case study events was explored and given the nature of these events and the role identity played in them, ideas around identity expression were discussed. Questioning then moved on to subjective perceptions of impact and efficacy. As it is such a key part of the online political

experience, media consumption and attitudes towards and understanding of media are explored.

Lastly, participants were given space to offer their own thoughts about the effects of online media on the political experience.

As indicated by Krueger, the topic guide was kept open to allow for participants to identify their own emerging themes (1994).

Data collection and analytical approaches are outlined later in the chapter.