Understanding Online Communities and Politics: Conducting Qualitative Research in Ephemeral Environments

What are the challenges of using qualitative research methods in online contexts where content disappears quickly, people may or may not be using legal names, and it is difficult to separate the “signals” you are after from the noise of communication? How can we know how online interaction is impacting offline politics? Beyer discusses the challenges examining online communities and their relationships to offline political realities in relation to phenomena such as Anonymous, GamerGate, and the alt-right.

Jessica Beyer is a Research Scientist in the Henry M. Jackson School for International Studies and in the Technology & Social Change Group in the Information School. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Washington. Her research focuses on online social spaces and state-society relations. Much of her work explores the political mobilization emerging from highly populated online communities and focuses on actors such as Anonymous and other hacktivists, the Pirate Parties, and digital pirates. Her book, Expect Us: Online Communities and Political Mobilization was published by Oxford University Press in 2014.