Qualitative and Digital

The Changing Landscape Of Research

A large number of applications has materialised to support research through collaboration: e-Science, e-Social Science, computational social science, e-humanities, e-Research and ‘Digital scholarship’ to name a few (Dutton, 2013). A move towards increased research accessibility is also evident (Pilaar Birch, 2013). The trend towards collaboration in research is so important that the term ‘social shaping’ has been applied to digital research as a way of capturing the increasingly collaborative nature of research endeavours. Originating in the social sciences, the term ‘social shaping’ is used by authors such as Dutton (2013), bringing it to bear on digital research. Dutton acknowledges that ‘social shaping’ encompasses a great diversity of perspectives, and needs to be better refined if it is to be used as a framework for digital research, it does bring to the fore that research in the digital age has an increasingly social dimension to which social scientists can contribute to the “co-production of the technologies, policies and practices of digital research” (Dutton, 2013, p. 191). Moreover, Dutton (2013) predicted that connectivity of digital technologies, digital research is leaving the realms of purely academic endeavours and into the digital economy. Though now almost a decade ago, Dutton realised that the effect of the digital age on research is greater interaction “between academic communities, business and industry” (Dutton, 2013, p. 191). The connectivity enabled by digital technologies is having the effect of moving research towards global contexts and the exploitation of big data and the creation of new resources for research is rapidly taking hold (Dutton, 2013). Evidently, the traditional image of research as a “solitary endeavour” (Renaud, 2001, p. 59) is under challenge. Collaboration and interaction are one defining feature of research in the digital age. Furthermore, the paper based information resources in research have given way to electronic resources including the web, database and e-journals (Ge, 2010). Anecdotally, most grad students pursue their research studies rarely, if at all setting foot in a physical library.

Evidently, the advent of digital information and communication technologies are changing how research is conducted. But digital technologies are also changing what research is conducted. There are new sources of data, and new environments in which to conduct research, and new ways of disseminating research. Social media provides a multitude of opportunities for investigating human interaction and behaviour in ways that have never been available before. Researchers in fields such as sociology and ethnography are increasingly engaging in social media contexts to conduct their research.