In this blog post, we will tell you about out third meeting with our steering group. This meeting had three main goals:
- To discuss how the information sheets could be improved and made more accessible.
- To exchange ideas about the interview stage of research
- To share preliminary survey findings (to be discussed in a future blog post)
What we learnt – information sheets
First, we discussed the information sheet that we will give to participants who volunteer for our ‘captioned images’ study. In this part of the study, we’re going to ask participants to upload images with a caption to a private social media account. So, we wanted to know if the information sheet explained this clearly.
Our steering group suggested that we create a video to go with the written information sheet. Presenting the information in an audio-visual format might help some participants to better understand the task. A video would also allow us to share examples of ‘captioned images’ so people can see what they look like and get a clearer idea of what we’re asking them to create.
We also received some constructive suggestions about extra information we could add. For example, we’ve now added a sentence to explain that participants will be able to choose which of their captioned images will be included in future interviews.
What we learnt – interviews
Next, we discussed a selection of interview questions and prompts. We wanted to know whether these questions were clear and understandable. Here, we received some positive feedback on our questions and useful suggestions on how we can improve the wording. For example, we will change the prompt “what was the setting?” to “what was the social media platform?” so that people don’t think we mean the physical setting (e.g., a living room).
We also brainstormed ideas for additional interview questions. Our steering group recommended questions about accessibility and inclusion on social media, the differences between face-to-face and online communication, and the role of anonymity when posting online.
After this, we discussed strategies for building rapport with our participants. For instance, we talked about asking participants to complete a ‘Research Wellbeing Plan.’ This would provide us with some information about how we can best support them and recognise if they are in distress. Our steering group recommended that we offer participants the option to complete this plan alone, or with assistance from a researcher. In addition, we plan to have a pre-interview conversation with participants so we can introduce ourselves and answer any questions. Following discussion with our steering group, we decided that this conversation should last for up to twenty minutes and that participants should be able to bring along another person or a pet, if they need to.
Finally, we shared some preliminary findings from the survey. We will share these findings in a future blog post.
We plan to hold our next meeting with our steering group in January 2025.
