Using WhatsApp for focus group discussions

Ecological validity, inclusion and deliberation

Dados Bibliográficos

ID12697310
AutoresA Colom (0000-0003-3696-1463, The Open University, autor correspondente)
Ano2021
Volume22
Fascículo3
Páginas452-467
Data de publicação2021-01-21
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoQualitative Research (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1468-7941 • E-ISSN: 1741-3109
EditoraSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1468794120986074
OpenAlexW3124813419
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas39
Referências citadas33

WhatsApp’s ubiquity in many people’s everyday lives points at new possibilities for conducting online and mobile focus groups. Yet, research on the benefits and potential pitfalls of this is negligible. This paper offers new empirical insights from using the method as part of a digital ethnography with young activists in Western Kenya. The presence of WhatsApp in participants’ everyday lives offers a context with high ecological validity. The paper suggests that this opens up new options for designing online focus groups, transcending the traditional categorisation between synchronous and asynchronous interactions and some limitations of both approaches. WhatsApp also offers opportunities for creating more inclusive group discussions. Using discourse analysis of the WhatsApp focus group, the paper also finds that this familiarity and inclusivity affords the potential for group deliberation, which can be particularly valuable in participatory research

Asynchronous communication · Citizen journalism · Context (archaeology · Deliberation · Ecological validity · Ethnography · Focus (optics · Focus group · Geography · Inclusion (mineral · Participatory design · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Social science · Sociology · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Engineering · Focus Groups and Qualitative Methods · Impact of Technology on Adolescents · Psychology · Social Media and Politics · Social Psychology