Abstract

Social scientists are increasingly using social media to conduct research and to recruit subjects for research studies. Prior research seems to suggest that using social media is particularly helpful when it comes to recruiting participants from hard-to-reach populations such as immigrants. In this study, we examine how social media platforms (i.e., Facebook and WhatsApp) were used to recruit participants for a study, which examined Kenyan immigrants’ perceptions of the police. Within the context of criminal justice research, the inclusion of African immigrants in research is important as their experiences and perceptions of justice get muted when compared to the experiences of blacks in general. We found that when conducting research among this group of immigrants, social media was instrumental in facilitating the recruitment of participants. Moreover, we discovered that building rapport with the participants and clearly articulating the objectives of the study was important. Implications for research are discussed.

摘要

社会科学家越来越多地使用社交媒体进行研究和招募研究对象。先前的研究似乎表明，在从移民等难以接触的人群中招募参与者时，使用社交媒体特别有用。在这项研究中，我们研究了如何使用社交媒体平台（即 Facebook 和 WhatsApp）来招募参与者进行一项研究，该研究考察了肯尼亚移民对警察的看法。在刑事司法研究的背景下，将非洲移民纳入研究非常重要，因为与一般黑人的经历相比，他们对正义的经历和看法变得平淡无奇。我们发现，在对这群移民进行研究时，社交媒体有助于促进参与者的招募。此外，我们发现与参与者建立融洽的关系并清楚地阐明研究目标很重要。对研究的意义进行了讨论。