5.5: Methodological Limitations

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There are challenges associated with the use of interviews and focus groups in any research study. For instance, the usefulness of qualitative data collected from interview methodologies depends on participants’ provision of accurate and complete answers. Accordingly, the interviewer must endeavor to establish trust and rapport with participants.

Bias on both sides of this kind of exchange is always a formidable issue, too. Bias can be readily introduced in the way the interviewer frames a question, or the way in which a respondent interprets and then answers a question. To enhance the reliability of our interview technique and the consistency of the questions we asked, we used a scripted interview with both student and faculty participants. The script was piloted and a few small changes were made to the wording before the focus groups and interviews began.

Another issue is self-selection of volunteer samples like the ones used in this study, since those that choose to participate in a study may have a special interest in a research topic. While taking all of these limitations into account, we point to the main purpose of qualitative research: interviews are not necessarily used to produce generalizable findings about a sample; rather interviews are used to arrive at a deep understanding of a specific situation, as respondents decide to report them. Despite making every attempt to address these limitations, we acknowledge that future research is required to confirm these findings. Therefore, our findings should not be viewed as comprehensive, but rather as part of our ongoing research about the impact of content from algorithm-driven platforms on information quality.

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