Field-Notes and Photographs

Field-Notes and Photographs

In relation to photographs, there has been a growth of interest in the use of visual ethnography in qualitative research. For instance, there are a number of ways in which photographs have been employed by qualitative researchers:

1. 
   As aides mémoires in the course of fieldwork, in which context they essentially become components of the ethnographers fieldnotes.
   
2. 
   As sources of data in their own right and not simply as adjuncts to the ethnographer’s fieldnotes.
   
3. 
   As prompts for discussion by research participants. Sometimes the photographs may be extant… In other contexts, the discussions may be based on photographs taken by the ethnographer or by research participants more or less exclusively for the purposes of the investigation (Bryman, 2004, p.312)
   

…which entails of and sensitivity to the ways in which the researcher as a person has an impact on what a photograph reveals. The sensitivity requires a grasp of the way that one’s age, gender, background, and academic proclivities influence what is photographed, how it is composed, and the role that informants and others may have played in influencing the resulting image (Bryman, 2004, p.312)

This suggests an importance to recognise the fluidity in the interpretation of images, implying that they never can be fixed and will always be viewed by different people in different ways. Hence, this use of photographs in this findings section (in chapter 5 and chapter 6) will be used for illustration purposes only.


4.2.6. Data Analysis

The data gathered was coded and analysed thematically. The purpose of using thematic analysis was to limit research bias. It is important to highlight that research bias can rise from applying subjective meanings to the research, asking questions from a particular point of view, and using the findings to fit certain pre-determined conclusions (Bryman, 2004). Therefore, the use of thematic analysis with no pre-determined themes, lets the themes emerge from the data. This approach comes from the ‘Grounded Theory Analysis’ of Glaser and Strauss (1967), where the researcher would begin to study an area of interest with an open mind and explore the issues for certain features to emerge. Grounded theory has been defined as:

…theory that was derived from data, systematically gathered and analysed through the research process. In this method, data collection, analysis, and eventually theory stand in close relationship to one another (Strauss and Corbin, 1998, p.12)

By linking and categorising the frequent features of the particular social interaction, the researcher can then build up a theoretical framework that directly emerges from the research and is not imposed upon it (Bryman, 2004).

The data was analysed using SPSS (a software package for quantitative data) and NVivo (a software package for qualitative data).

The process of the thematic analysis, as set out by Glaser and Strauss’s (1967), consists of four stages. The first stage is to compare incidents applicable to each category. In order to do this, familiarisation of the text enables an understanding and a feel of the dialogue to build up ideas. The second stage is integrating categories and their properties by adding in-depth annotation and making notes on the transcripts, which can make spotting themes and dominant thematic areas easier. The third step is to delimit the theory, by summing up themes and building a ‘theme tree.’ Rearranging themes and adding sub-themes can make the data look clearer to compare and contrast. Finally, the last stage is to write the theory; by joining the themes together, this creates critical commentary in the form of prose.

In undertaking this thematic analysis two computer packages were used to assit this process. Firstly, SPSS was used to code the questionnaire answers (both pilot questionnaires and online questionnaires on separate data files) to generate diagrams and tables to showing percentages for comparative purposes. Secondly, and most importantly, NVivo was used to assist in the analysis of the transcriptions from the follow-up interviews and group interviews, as well as the researchers’ observational notes. Recorded interviews and group interviews were transcribed to enable a thematic analysis, and to draw out and compare the main themes of the data (Bryman, 2004).


4.2.7. Ethical Issues

Ethical approval for this research was granted via University of Salford’s ethics committee. I have conducted this research using the ethical guidelines of the British Sociological Association (2002) and the Social Research Association (Roberts, 2003). Ethical considerations are grouped into four main areas: avoidance of harm, avoidance of deception, confidentiality and consent (Homan, 1991). The researcher has conducted the work responsibly within the moral and legal orders of society and will protect the participants from harm by adhering to ethical practices.

Before conducting the interviews and group interviews, participants needed to meet the criteria of being over the age of 18 years old and sign a consent form, and were made fully aware of the aims and nature of the research. It is important to be open and honest to the participants about the research, so a full disclosure of information was provided (Bell, 1993). Therefore, participants were informed that they were free to choose whether they would like to take part in research activities and be provided with the fullest information concerning the nature and purpose of the research (Nigel, 2001). I also took this into consideration in the online questionnaires, where the first page explained the purpose of the research to participants before continuing, and participants were able to withdraw from the study at any time. Participants were also able to volunteer to do a follow-up interview or group interview, which were arranged via email and for which a separate consent form was provided.

In relation to confidentiality, the data has omitted respondents’ names and addresses, and their geographical location, so that they cannot be identified (Nigel, 2001). The participants’ names and addresses have been provided voluntarily on questionnaires only by those participants who were willing to provide it and say that they were willing to participate in follow-up interviews or group interviews. Names and addresses will not be revealed to anyone other than the researcher, and questionnaire and interview responses will remain anonymous. To protect participants from harm and identification, all data have been stored on one computer and locked with a password to respect to individuals’ right to privacy. All additional paperwork and backup files is stored in one location and locked up, and participants are able to request the destruction of audio recordings and transcripts at any point.

A major limitation of most qualitative research is the relatively small sample size. Because of its largely qualitative nature the research is not necessarily reliable and it may be difficult to repeat and obtain similar results. However, Hall and Hall (2004) highlights that these ‘restrictions’ can also be strengths of qualitative research. A small-scale project of this nature is easier to handle and allows for greater control and for changes or improvements to be made, and costs involved will not be as great as a large-scale research study (Hall and Hall, 2004). In addition, Siegel (1956) argues the sample size is determined by the amount of information needed, rather than designing research on quantitative presuppositions; ‘Interview as many subjects as necessary to find out what you need to know’ (Siegel, 1956, p.43). Therefore, although this research may be low in reliability, it is high in validity because it provides in-depth accounts of individual experiences.

In addition, attending video game events was quite costly; besides the venue fee, it was also involved travel expenses, accommodation, and food; all of which I had to provide for myself. For this reason, the number of events that could be attended was limited.

Furthermore, there are other factors that needed to be taken into consideration when conducting the research. Crawford (2012) highlights that studying video gamers that attend game conventions, LAN parties, or similar events and activities, will not necessarily represent the whole culture, as the majority of participants at these events may represent more ‘hardcore’ members of this community. Therefore, rather than comparing different ‘types’ of gamers, this research acknowledges that it focuses on the various video game practices and cultures only at a limited number of events, in one country, over a specific period of time.

Issues in fieldwork

1. 
   reactive effects of the observer’s presence or activities of the phenomena being observed;
   
2. 
   distorting effects of selective perception and interpretation on the observer’s part; and
   
3. 
   limitations on the observer’s ability to witness all relevant aspects of the phenomena in question (McCall and Simmons, 1969, p.78).
   

As a female, slightly older (though look young) and ethically Chinese, researching in a male dominated environment, to some extent, I am considered an ‘outsider’. For instance, Taylor (2012, p.29) considered herself as an outsider, for she described herself as a ‘non-competitive, a women, and a bit older than most attendees’. In comparison, I would describe myself as ‘competitive’, a women, appears to be of the same age, of which it may have helped me be accepted within certain video game communities and provide a presence that bears the ‘stamp of familiarity’ from attending various video game events, and also the same series of events multiple times, as Taylor and Witkowski (2010, p.6) writes;

What women establish at this event is that their presence bears the stamp of familiarity, not only with games and their playing of a rich variety, but also in having a computer of one’s own to play on.

As a sponsored/competitive gamer in Hearthstone (as examined further in chapter 5), I consider myself as one of the women in Taylor and Witkowski’s (2010) study from DreamHack, where I mark a space of one’s own, having personal gaming knowledge and entering with an active stance to activity engage in the public gaming spaces.

To ensure that the research was manageable and doable, I produced a timetable that planned the duration of each of the components and stages (Blaikie, 2000). Each stage of the research may overlap in time, occur at more than one time, or was carried out throughout the process of the whole project (Blaikie, 2000). Firstly, I prepared a research design before applying for ethics. Once granted ethical approval, I contacted specific gate-keepers for video game events that I wanted to carry out research. The preparation for my data collection included designing the research questions, selecting the sample size, developing research techniques to carry out the data collection, and the analysis of data. However, the data collection took a little longer than expected, because I wanted to obtain a variety of interviews and group interviews with people that attended different video game events. After gathering data from a variety of video game events, near the end of the data collection process, I continued gathering data from Insomnia Gaming Festivals, because I wanted to obtain more in-depth data on competitive gaming. Nevertheless, analysis of data was carried out immediately after data collection to ensure I could undertake the working on ‘writing up’ of the thesis as scheduled.

In conclusion, this research has used a variety of research methods to explore the cultural and patterns of participation of video gamers at various video game events across the UK.

This research has employed an ethnographic research approach, which follows Wolcott’s (1995) definition of ethnographer, who defines this as a form of inquiry that requires a researcher to be immersed personally in the ongoing social activities of some individual or group carrying out the research. Therefore, the role of the ethnographic researcher is to become immersed in the on-going social activities that take place at these video game events. For instance, Johnson (2006, p.25) describes there is ‘an experiential gap between people who have immersed themselves in games, and people who have only heard second hand reports, because the gap makes it difficult to discuss the meaning of games in a coherent way’. Not only is ethnographic research rich in data, it also creates a binary separation of self and research which is difficult to maintain. Ethnography needs to account for emotions whilst maintain academic rigor through a process known as reflexivity. Reflexivity means both having the capability and language necessary to justify the methodological, theoretical and practical/pragmatic steps undertaken during data collection and analysis (Mason, 2002), and also the awareness of the researcher’s relationship to the field.

In relation to this research, this type of reflexivity requires acknowledgement of when the researcher is, and is not, an embedded member of the community being researched. For example, Taylor (2012) is reflective on the uses of ethnographic research, in that she did not consider the research she conducted within the e-sports community to be ethnographic. Taylor (2012, p.29) writes that she ‘was always fairly outside’ what she was studying by virtue of her status as ‘non-competition, a woman, and a bit older’ than her research participants. Taylor (2012) acknowledges her status as an outsider, even when her research was designed to be an ethnographic account of e-sports, Taylor’s own reflexivity on her methodological choices and relationship to the field and participants required her to recognise that it was not ethnographic. Therefore, Taylor’s experience illustrates that researchers studying communities of players face power imbalances, such as those related to gender or age, and often these experiences are integral to the experience of playing within a given community.