Web Blog as a Research

Web Blog as a Research Tool

The use of weblogs as a researching tool is marred with several demerits that must be systematically be dealt with in order to improve its efficiency to the researcher and acceptance amongst the respondents.

In regards to the issue of computer literacy as a challenge to the use of weblogs. It is important for the interviewer to ensure that all the respondents do possess a certain level of education that would allow them to freely answer the questions and participate in the blog effectively. This reason as well as the fact that weblogs themselves can be used as a tool of enhancing literacy (Huffaker,2004).

When using weblogs for research, it is imperative that the designers commit themselves to certain ethical considerations. This is because the blog allows the respondents to communicate anonymously and therefore there is a need for the weblog entries to be adequately moderated and to be guided with certain specific and concise rules so as to avoid cases of inappropriate comments and exchange. This is in bid to curtail the "lack of coherent rules and regulations for online data collection and research" (Brier,2007).

It is also important to come up with the best sampling style when coming up with an online research. This challenge which has a strong correlation with the problem of computer literacy and internet accessibility means that it is necessary to first of all evaluate the ease of data collecting by means of the discussed online techniques. This means that the interviewees must pooled accordingly in regards to their ability to participate fully to the research being carried out. This is particularly important so as to come up with a representative sample. A larger sample size is thus necessary for weblog-based research (Lin and Laffey,2006).

In order to encourage participants to take part in a weblog research, it is imperative that the weblog is made interactive through the incorporation of videos and images. This would allow for carrying out of the research faster with the rate of feedback being enhanced too (BBB,2010).