Cyber Means Pilot

The last three months of the research process will be the virtual ethnography research method. I will talk to ten students from each of the universities based on the interview pool or, if there is attricition in the pool, a new pool from those who took the survey based on the selection protocol listed previously in this proposal. The acutal process will consist of me getting permission to analyze the individual’s Facebook profile. Also, I will seek to get permission to note the “artifacts” present on their Facebook site During the virtual ethnographic interviews, the artifacts will be presented to the individual and question will posed regarding the artifacts impact on the individual’s coping stragieies. The remaining three months will be used to compile and analyze the results of all three processes.

This survey will be analyzed based on all of the themes and factors previously listed in this paragraph and will be crucial in the development and the “fleshing out” of the interview protocol.

The first method that will be used for this triangulation study will be a survey designed to look at the overall superstructure that defines this online social network. This survey will be designed to observe the individual habits of first-year students with regards to their Facebook usage. This will also look at the individual’s perception of status and self-worth within the mediated university envirnoment. Coping stragaries engaged by students in both real life and in the online social network will be explored. More importantly, the survey will look at the individual’s relationship with their resident assistant (RA). RAs represent a vital link between the student and the administration of the university. The RAs are expected to fulfill many roles in the student’s life. They are advisors in the affairs of students, the defacto parent of the student, policing students for infractions of collegiate rules and the role model set in front of those living in the dorms by the administration (Deluga & Masson, 2000). The analysis of the relationship between the student and their RA is necessary for this survey as the RA represents the “bottom-up” method of coping described in the previous coping research (Cite needed). Therefore, it is important to get a “baseline” reaction to the student’s relationship to their RA. Once this baseline is determined, this measurement can be used to factor the RA’s ability to help students cope. This survey will analyze all of the themes and factors previously listed