The group has decided that they needed to interact directly with participants and required an in-depth understanding of the topic. More specifically, the researchers wanted to find out how social media affects young women.
To do so, they deemed necessary to devise a focus group, considering that they serve as the primary means of collecting quantitative data (Morgan, 1997:3). Langford and McDonagh (2002:5) also identified focus groups as being “extremely powerful and persuasive.”
Following the survey that showed Facebook is the platform most respondents were using on a regular basis, the group organised a focus group, which looked into social media and its impact on self-esteem, focusing on females within the 17-25 age group. The purpose of the focus group was to test the effect Facebook interaction has on self-esteem.
The group used two different sets of questions (a total of 24 questions) to do with the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and the Facebook Intensity Scale.
Out of 18 respondents, 20% said they are not satisfied with themselves, while 86% believed they do things as well as most other people. The group has also found that 7 individuals often feel useless, while other 7 disagreed to the statement; at the same time, 12 female participants wished they had more respect for themselves. The majority of the focus group participants had between 400 and 2000 Facebook friends, with an average of 2 hours spent on the social network site, although 14 of them admitted they are not proud to tell people that use it. The information collected, although mixed, pointed the group in the direction of finding out whether the participants do not have more respect for themselves because of their social media use.
The focus group can be viewed here.
References:
Langford, and McDonagh, (2002). Focus Groups: Supporting Effective Product Development. 1st ed. CRC Press, p.5.
Morgan, D. (1997). Focus Groups as Qualitative Research. p.3.
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