The history of internet research methods is, naturally, much shorter than the histories of other research methods in the social sciences, though no less rich or significant as a result. The early development of distributed networked communications in the 1960s and 1970s can be seen as a relevant pre-history and emergence period for the internet, and consequently the birth of the world wide web in the early 1990s saw the internet truly break out from being a rather technical tool into a more ubiquitous aspect of everyday life. This four-volume collection begins with some of the earliest works on what was or was to become the internet, moving methodically through to present-day issues. The esteemed editorial team has selected for inclusion literatures which address a wide range of topics, and the collection is further set in context by an illuminating introductory chapter in Volume 1.
VOLUME ONE: The Social Context of Online Research
Part One: Classics
Cyburgs. Review of 'the Virtual Community. Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier' by Howard Rheingold - William Sims Bainbridge
Review of 'Virtual Reality' by Howard Rheingold - J. Timmons Roberts
Community without Propinquity Revisited: Communications Technology and the Transformation of the Urban Public Sphere - Craig Calhoun
Towards a Sociology of the Network Society - Manuel Castells
Materials for the Exploration of the Network Society - Manuel Castells
An Introduction to the Information Age - Manuel Castells
Network Rules of Order: Regulating Speech in Public Electronic Fora - William Dutton
Proper Methodologies for Psychological and Sociological Studies Conducted via the Internet - Claire Hewson, Dianna Laurent and Carl Vogel
Catching Cybercriminals: Policing the Internet - David Wall
Consumption and Digital Commodities in the Everyday - Mark Poster
Part Two: Digital Divides and Exclusions
Social Implications of the Internet - Paul DiMaggio et al.
Exploring the Digital Divide Internet Connectedness and Age - William Loges and Joo-Young Jung
Beyond Access: The Digital Divide and Internet Uses and Gratifications - Jaeho Cho et al.
The Digital Divide as a Complex and Dynamic Phenomenon - Jan Van Dijk and Ken Hacker
New Social Survey Perspectives on the Digital Divide - John Robinson, Paul DiMaggio and Eszter Hargittai
Reconsidering Political and Popular Understandings of the Digital Divide - Neil Selwyn
Digital Divide Research, Achievements and Shortcomings - Jan Van Dijk
Explaining the Global Digital Divide: Economic, Political and Sociological Drivers of Cross-National Internet Use - Mauro Guillén and Sandra Suárez
Social Movements and New Media - Brian Loader
Coming of (Old) Age in the Digital Age: ICT Usage and Non-Usage among Older Adults - Barbara Barbosa Neves, Fausto Amaro and Jaime Fonseca
VOLUME TWO: Critical and ¿Live¿ Issues in Researching Society Online
Part One: Gender and the Internet
Net Gains, Net Losses - Cheris Kramarae and Jana Kramer
Gendered Conversational Rituals on the Internet: An Effective Voice Is Based on More than Simply What One Is Saying - Pamela Cushing
Women¿s Studies Online Cyberfeminism or Cyberhype? - Ivy Schweitzer
Gender and the Internet - Hiroshi Ono and Madeline Zavodny
Reflections on Gender and Technology Studies: In What State Is the Art? - Judy Wajcman
Cultural Production, Transnational Networking, and Critical Reflection in Feminist Zines - Elke Zobl
"Click Here" A Content Analysis of Internet Rape Sites - Jennifer Lynn Gossett and Sarah Byrne
Progressive Yet Traditional - Stephen Koerning and Neil Granitz
Feminist Sexualities, Race and the Internet: An Investigation of Suicidegirls.Com - Shoshana Magnet
Gender, Space, and Discourse across Borders: Talking Gender in Cyberspace - Janemaree Maher and Chng Huang Hoon
Part Two: Research Ethics and Researching Sensitive Topics
Using the Internet for Survey Research - Ross Coomber
Ethical Issues in Conducting Sex Research on the Internet - Yitzchak Binik, Kenneth Mah and Sara Kiesler
Ethical Issues for Qualitative Research in On-Line Communities - Charlotte Brownlow and Lindsay O'Dell
What Is Special about the Ethical Issues in Online Research? - Dag Elgesem
Internet Research: An Opportunity to Revisit Classic Ethical Problems in Behavioral Research - David Pittenger
"Go Away": Participant Objections to Being Studied and the Ethics of Chatroom Research - James Hudson and Amy Bruckman
Internet Users' Perceptions of 'Privacy Concerns' and 'Privacy Actions' - Carina Paine et al.
Development of Measures of Online Privacy Concern and Protection for Use on the Internet - Tom Buchanan et al.
Ethical Pluralism and Global Information Ethics - Charles Ess
Children¿s Use of the Internet: Reflections on the Emerging Research Agenda - Sonia Livingstone
Gradations in Digital Inclusion: Children, Young People and the Digital Divide - Sonia Livingstone
"But the Data Is Already Public": On the Ethics of Research in Facebook - Michael Zimmer
An Ethics of Intimacy: Online Dating, Viral-Sociality and Living with HIV - Fadhila Mazanderani
VOLUME THREE: Online Data Collection Methods
Part One: Internet as a Medium (Interviews/Questionnaires etc.)
The e-Interview - Roberta Bampton and Christopher Cowton
E-mail Interviewing in Qualitative Research: A Methodological Discussion - Lokman Meho
Qualitative Interviewing in Internet Studies: Playing with the Media, Playing with the Method - Michelle Kazmer and Bo Xie
Why Are Adolescents Addicted to Online Gaming? An Interview Study in Taiwan - Chin-Sheng Wan and Wen-Bin Chiou
Interviews and Internet Forums: A Comparison of Two Sources of Qualitative Data - Clive Seale et al.
Web-based Questionnaires and the Mode Effect: An Evaluation Based on Completion Rates and Data Contents of Near-Identical Questionnaires Delivered in Different Modes - Martyn Denscombe
Social Desirability, Anonymity, and Internet-based Questionnaires - Adam Joinson
Web Surveys: A Review of Issues and Approaches - Mick Couper
Should We Trust Web-based Studies? A Comparative Analysis of Six Preconceptions about Internet Questionnaires - Samuel Gosling et al.
The Impact of Material Incentives on Response Quantity, Response Quality, Sample Composition, Survey Outcome, and Cost in Online Access Panels - Anja Goritz
Fans, Homophobia and Masculinities in Association Football: Evidence of a More Inclusive Environment - Ellis Cashmore and Jamie Cleland
Part Two: Internet Ethnography
Trading Sexpics on IRC: Embodiment and Authenticity on the Internet - Don Slater
Cyberspace and Identity - Sherry Turkle
Internet Research and the Sociology of Cyber-Social-Scientific Knowledge - Christine Hine
Inside the "Pro-ana" Community: A Covert Online Participant Observation - Sarah Brotsky and David Giles
Avatar Watching: Participant Observation in Graphical Online Environments - Matthew Williams
The Internet in Everyday Life: Computer Networking from the Standpoiont of the Domestic User - Maria Bakardjieva and Richard Smith
Normativity and the Principle of Materiality: A View from Digital Anthropology - Heather Horst and Daniel Miller
Polymedia: Towards a New Theory of Digital Media in Interpersonal Communication - Mirca Madianou and Daniel Miller
Internet Ethnography: Online and Offline - Liav Sade-Beck
Digital Ethnography an Examination of the Use of New Technologies for Social Research - Dhiraj Murthy
Ethnographic Approaches to the Internet and Computer-Mediated Communication - Angela Cora Garcia et al.
VOLUME FOUR: Innovation in Researching Society Online
Part One: Internet as 'Unobtrusive Measures'
The Rebirth of the Football Fanzine: Using E-zines as Data Source - Peter Millward
What Are They Doing? Dilemmas in Analysing Bibliographic Searching: Cultural and Technical Networks in Academic Life - Matthew David and David Zeitlyn
Learning Users¿ Interests by Unobtrusively Observing Their Normal Behavior - Jeremy Goecks and Jude Shavlik
Psychological research online: report of Board of Scientific Affairs¿ Advisory Group on the Conduct of Research on the Internet - Robert Kraut et al.
Privacy Dictionary: A New Resource for the Automated Content Analysis of Privacy - Asimina Vasalou et al.
Part Two: Cutting edge case studies
The Internet for Empowerment of Minority and Marginalized Users - Bharat Mehra, Cecelia Merkel and Ann Peterson Bishop
Disciplining the Future: A Critical Organizational Analysis of Internet Studies - Annette Markham
Global Networks and Their Effects on Culture - Alexander Galloway
Making Friends with Jarvis Cocker: Music Culture in the Context of Web 2.0 - David Beer
The Coming Crisis of Empirical Sociology - Mike Savage and Roger Burrows
Some Further Reflections on the Coming Crisis of Empirical Sociology - Mike Savage and Roger Burrows
Qualitative Methods III: Animating Archives, Artful Interventions and Online Environments - Clarie Dwyer and Gail Davies
Entering the Blogosphere': Some Strategies for Using Blogs in Social Research - Nicholas Hookway
Netnography: A Method Specifically Designed to Study Cultures and Communities Online - Gary Bowler
Wisdom of the Crowd or Technicity of Content? Wikipedia as a Sociotechnical System - Sabine Niederer and José van Dijck