Forum for Interview material?

[Ieke]

Hi everyone, hope you are all doing a great job!

Since the International Women's Day (8 March) an international forum is been opened for three weeks (untill 30 March 2011) for people working in the field of trafficking in persons with a specific focus on domestic workers: completely overlapping my field of researchinterest and I even have access to this forum. However, how can I use this as a source of research material? And if so... how can I refer to it (footnotes/endnotes; just like as actual interviews)?

Shukran!
Ma'a salaam!

[Broccoli]

how can I refer to it (footnotes/endnotes; just like as actual interviews)?

Shukran!
Ma'a salaam!

In line with the Chicago Manual of Style, you would refer to the forum like so, in your bibliography (reference list) and in text:

Reference list:
Davey. 2011. "How to prolong the usage of your underwear during fieldwork." UU: MA Conflict Studies and Human Rights Forum. https://conflicthumanrights.forumotion.com/post?p=100&mode (accessed 1 July 2011).

In-Text:
Foot- or Endnoted as (Davey 2011)

We're flexible. Just as long as you use the Chicago Manual of Style for standard referencing, and apply its "spirit" when referencing more unconventional sources (like internet forums). Many of these new sources of digital information are too recent to be accounted for by conventional referencing manuals of style, so you'll have to ad-lib in the "spirit" of the particular manual of style that you are using as a guide (in our case, it's the Chicago Manual of Style).

[Ieke]

Thanks! so we have to use Chicago Manual of Syle instead of Harvard Style? (as this one is mentioned in the Red Guide).

[Broccoli]

Either one is acceptable, since they are both similar. The important thing is that we have in-text referencing for bibliographical literature, not referencing by foot- or endnotes. We only foot- or endnote additional information that is not directly relevant to put in the body text, and also reference to interviews and other sources of first-hand research data.

[Simone]

Hey,

For my internship I attend many conferences and events. A lot of the information I hear at these events are relevant to my research. I have recorded the most important events, and taken notes at the rest. However, I don't really know how to use this information. I mean, these events are not interviews nor written sources. Should I use them as my observations?

Thanks and un abrazo desde Colombia.

Simone

[Broccoli]

For my internship I attend many conferences and events. A lot of the information I hear at these events are relevant to my research. I have recorded the most important events, and taken notes at the rest. However, I don't really know how to use this information. I mean, these events are not interviews nor written sources. Should I use them as my observations?Simone

Yes, treat them as observations. You can quote statements that you hear directly in your text. For example, you can write:

At a conference I attended in Ayacucho city on internally displaced people, Alejandro Guacamole, president of the Committee for the Internally Displaced, once made the point that " ......."

This will not appear in your bibliography because by definition a bibliography is "a list of books that form the literature of a subject." In your bibliography (or References, whatever you wish to call that section), you can include both printed or downloaded, published and unpublished documents (articles, reports, books, policy papers, even information brochures etc.), so long as they are textual sources.

You would want to have a separate section listing your other sources of data, such as interviews, and odd things like fliers. (Obviously, you don't need to make a list of 'observations,' as these can be described directly in the text body of your thesis, and you can foot- or endnote the relevant background information (person/event, place, date).

Just find a good published book that uses a wide variety of sources, and follow its example. Ethnographies are usually good for this.

[Cameroonian]

I am researching what cameroonians think of their state and found a wealth of information on a Cameroonian english newspaper site in the comments on the articles. someone even says cameroon is a failing state!

but how should I use it in my research since I do not know who these people are what their background is etc? And the website articles dissappear behind archieve doors after some time. I am now copying the articles, the comments and note the date and the website link but this might not be accessable after a while.

I would also like to know what "weight" I should give to the comments when I am writing my thesis. use it as fieldnotes to illustrate a point or use it as research "results' like the results you get from interviews/questionnaires etc?

[Broccoli]

but how should I use it in my research since I do not know who these people are what their background is etc? And the website articles dissappear behind archieve doors after some time. I am now copying the articles, the comments and note the date and the website link but this might not be accessable after a while.

I would also like to know what "weight" I should give to the comments when I am writing my thesis. use it as fieldnotes to illustrate a point or use it as research "results' like the results you get from interviews/questionnaires etc?

Treat these primarily as opinions, and not as descriptions of fact. (I know that it's tempting to treat them as statements of fact; but to do so would not be scientific, and would be pulling a Wilders.) Nor can you treat these comments as research results because they do not arise from a process of your own analysis--or the analysis of any other scholar, for that matter.

In my opinion, it's not the comments themselves that is important, but rather the ways in which they find public space in new media--and, perhaps, a sympathetic audience. What you can try to do is see if some of these comments can be categorised under thematic headings that appear on a number of different sites. If they do, it still does not mean that these are facts; but it could mean that you've spotted a popular theme, or a social narrative. An example of one of these popular themes in Holland is the fear that Muslims aim to take over the Netherlands, and Europe in general. Obviously, this is xenophobic paranoia, but it's interesting to see how often this notion appears on different sorts of websites. If you find a particularly popular theme, you might consider how that idea (even if it is not grounded in empirical reality) nevertheless affects people's social behaviour. That's how you can use these comments, if you find that a large number of them are linked together in the form of a patterned theme or narrative. In contrast, isolated opinions, no matter how intriguing or outrageous or appealing to you, have no apparent social significance beyond their shock or emotive value.

In your thesis you would refer to them as such: "What appears to be a popular theme in so far as it frequently appears on numerous websites and forums is the idea that Cameroon is a failing state" (cite sources, examples of the sites where you found this)

If you can copy these articles down, then that's evidence of their existence, even if the sites eventually disappear. If you wish, you can include copies of these disappearing articles in an appendix at the end of your thesis. In your reference section you can list these under a heading, like "Internet sources."

[Davey]

hah! i so didnt see myself quoted in the underwear thing! haha.

Anyways, Yeah Ive been attending a lot of events and activities and I also wanted to document some observations as to make it workable data. For example tommorow, Im gonna attend an event of a Nroth Korea defector who is going to report prison camp experiences! I probably wont be able to get a one on one interview with her, but I suppose I can take direct quotes from that event and use the style above. I suppose its best to record it, correct?

[Broccoli]

hah! i so didnt see myself quoted in the underwear thing! haha.

Anyways, Yeah Ive been attending a lot of events and activities and I also wanted to document some observations as to make it workable data. For example tommorow, Im gonna attend an event of a Nroth Korea defector who is going to report prison camp experiences! I probably wont be able to get a one on one interview with her, but I suppose I can take direct quotes from that event and use the style above. I suppose its best to record it, correct?

Yeah, man, from now on I can never look at a pile of PVC without thinking of you, Davey

Anyhoo, with regard to your event, yeah, try to record with a voice recorder, if you can. That way you can quote accurately, and also you can preserve the larger context in which you will later extract particular statements from the NK defector's testimony, for inclusion in your thesis.

Again, make sure to acknowledge that this is his personal story, and not meant (or valid) for making blanket generalisations--unless you have heard certain things mentioned by various defectors enough as to identify a possible general (discursive/narrative) theme.

All these qualifications of the event, scope of his statements, etc. can be put in a foot- or endnote.

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