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Originally Posted by Kevin
The more I think about it, the more I think social networking sites for special interests (e.g., Greekchat) might be alright sources for these sorts of subjects. You have just as much chance of someone faking their answers here as you do on your average college campus. Further, unless you're actually conducting the survey on multiple sites across the nation (as Greek Life cultures vary greatly from place to place), Greekchat is probably a better cross section of the Greek community than the freshmen taking psych 101 who have to participate as subjects in someone's research.
Are we a pretty good cross section of Greek Life in the U.S. and Canada? I think we're better than most. There are folks here from every region, type of school, NPC, NPHC, NIC, etc., it's all here.
I know that in my academic career, places like GC could never be considered viable sources for anything, but is this just academic elitism? Or does this belief serve a truly legitimate purpose?
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Great post.
If GC was a differently administered site, we might even have a standard process by which researchers can solicit participation. I moderate a yahoo group for LGBT members and aspirants of NPHC organizations and we have been solicited at least three times by researchers.