As I venture deeper into my research on social media in intercollegiate athletics, I have been honing in on two different methodologies that seem to be prevalent when researching social media in general. There has been very little research done specifically on the collegiate athletics aspect of social media, but these two methodologies would seem to be appropriate for my research. The two methodologies include a qualitative research approach and a mixed methods research approach. It is important that I start my research on social media in intercollegiate athletics by going to the source at college athletic departments. The qualitative approach will help to determine how and why social media is being used and consumed at those levels of interest. The mixed methodology research approach will allow for both qualitative and quantitative data to be found. This will aid in the data analytics that social media can produce and while also gathering close ended data. There are so many quantitative data points available in the weeds in social media so combining this with the qualitative data will allow for the data to be integrated. This will hopefully allow me to draw interpretations and see trends when using both qualitative and quantitative data points.
My unit of analysis will be Atlantic 10 Conference institutions, which there are 14 full-time members. The University of Richmond is one of the 14 members and as a staff member here, I will have to contain my bias for the Spider athletic department to gain the most objective data return.
Your approach is experimental, yes? Meaning you intend to develop a study that will either explore new ground or support a hypothesis? Which will likely mean the use of survey data, My question to you is whether research into existing social media platforms and handles will be part of the research; if so, you may need to consider how you’ll incorporate establish social media presences into your exploration. Your approach is sound, but when you address social media, I think you’ll need to capture the current state of existing social media channels and handles, and trying to capture something about 14 different institutional social media handles (with multiple channels per handle) will be a very ambitious project.