My hypothetical study involves sub-cultural groups’ online social media use patterns. According to Chatman’s small world theory and her research on various “isolated small groups” such as janitors, custodial workers, retired women, and single mothers(1987, 1991, 1992a, 1992b, 1996), she figured out that for “information poor community”, the isolated small world culture leads its members to “close and protect” themselves from the outside world, focus only on present day reality, and rely mostly on their personal experiences, and opinions of other members, especially the leading role in that community.

Although Internet and development of social media lead to free communication among people anonymously, it is not clear whether those traditionally small world or subcultural group will communicate with “mainstream” people through social media and “break” the communication boundaries with out world. Or they might prefer to use social media to strengthen their inner-world connection.

My research question are: Whether and how people from small world maintain their information boundaries when using social media?

PICK A CASE

The particular case that I will work on is Culturally Deaf people who heavily use social media for information in their everyday life. The Culturally Deaf identity is self identified. I will investigate what kinds of social media they prefer to use, and in what aim. Deaf people are typical “small world” group who maintains and highlights their own culture, values, and lifestyle. And it is hard for outsiders to step into Deaf Community because they feel uncomfortable to communicate with hearing world. The purpose is to understand whether and how they use social media to communicate with hearing world.

DESCRIBE THE TYPE OF CASE

I have chosen the holistic multiple-case replication design. Thus, I will replicate the “experiment” or inquiry by continuing to study Deaf people until I have reached a point of saturation. I will choose users who identify them as Deaf and active in Quora and YahooAnswer, which are typical social media for “hearing world”. And I will also choose users from online chatrooms, AllDeaf forum and groups on Facebook, where Deaf people communicate with each other using their own social media. My aim is to cover Deaf who use “hearing” social media and who use “Deaf” social media only. In terms of technique, I will utilize the in-depth interview and user profile analysis if possible. Since I am aiming for “the replication of an experiment” (Yin, p. 52), the case study research must be standardized or formal. Thus, based on our previous interview readings, I must strike a balance between conversation and interrogation.

TYPE OF DATA AND ANALYSIS

For the data, I need to firstly identify who have preference using “hearing” and “Deaf” social media. This type of data can be collected by user profile analysis on different social medias.  Afterward, the structured interview will focus on three questions: (1) Do you identify yourself as culturally Deaf? (2) Will you use Quora or YahooAnswers and communicate with other hearing people for information? Why or why not? (3)What do you think of other culturally Deaf people? Will they prefer to use “hearing” social media? Why or why not? Regarding the analysis technique, I will use content analysis method and grounded theory if necessary in order to figure out their information behavior patterns with outside world in this virtual age.

HOW COULD THE FINDINGS DIFFER FROM WHAT THEY WOULD BE IF I DID A STUDY ON THE SAME QUESTION BUT WITH MORE PARTICIPANTS/SITES/DATA AND FEWER DATA TYPES?

Fewer data types means only user profile analysis or interviews are used in this study. Relying on one data type with more participants/sites/data will increase the scalability but decrease the comprehensiveness and understanding of the phenomenon I investigate here. For instance, if only profile analysis is conducted, I can understand how those active Deaf express and communicate with other hearing people on hearing and Deaf social media, but I don’t know the reasons. If only interviews are conducted, data will be totally based on their self perceptions. And without user profile methods, it is hard to select “appropriate” participants for this study.