Una wrote:
I would be *gutted* to think that people on this list have felt like lab
rats.
Everyone who took part in the Q study took part, I *truly* hope, because they wanted to, and knew that they were free to pull their responses if they
didn'
t want them analyzed.
Speaking just from my own perspective, I think your study should be considered the epitome of how it should be done. You treated your volunteers and all fans and all fannish differences with utmost respect. Your conduct went beyond professional; you made that extra effort every step along the way to make sure everyone was comfortable with what you were doing. I don't know if it's because of your research methods or your personal love for what you were studying or both, but I find your results to be much closer to the mark than those of Bacon-Smith or Jenkins.
Carol Mc
--- Mac4781@aol.com wrote: > Una wrote:
I would be *gutted* to think that people on this
list have felt like lab rats.
Everyone who took part in the Q study took part,
I *truly* hope, because
they wanted to, and knew that they were free to pull
their responses if they didn'
t want them analyzed.
Which is totally as it should be. I've said before, Una, that I have the utmost respect for your political abilities in this regard. Because it is also very possible for someone to carry out a study with full disclosure to participants, and still have people, volunteers even, grousing that they were misrepresented/not asked their opinions/whatever (again, I've personally been both lucky and paranoid about disclosure, but I've heard of it happening).
The fact that you can do this in a group of which you are a member is even more respectworthy, too. One reason I feel could never study a group of which I was a member (and especially not fans) is cos I can foresee myself siding with one faction over another, or being accused of bias (probably with reason, too :) )...
And IMO, to accuse a social scientist of treating people like lab rats is probably the single worst insult you can give them-- I don't know if Carol quite realized that when she accused me of doing this (and on my downtime, too).
BTW, Una, you've met him-- is Jenkins really this horrible demon bloke who came in and didn't tell anyone bar a few what he was really doing? I read "Textual Poachers" years ago, and while I haven't read it lately, I was shocked to hear Annie say his work was ethically suspect...
Fiona
The Posthumous Memoirs of Secretary Rontane Available for public perusal at http://nyder.r67.net
____________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.co.uk address at http://mail.yahoo.co.uk or your free @yahoo.ie address at http://mail.yahoo.ie
-
Fiona Moore -
Mac4781＠aol.com