Innovative Methods for Researching Digital Device and Data Use During the COVID-19 Crisis
Channel: Postdigital Intimacies
Date: 2021-12-14

Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Leader at the Vitalities Lab, University of New South Wales, Australia

In this presentation, I will discuss various innovative approaches of researching people's use of digital devices and their understandings and feelings about their personal digital data during COVID-19. In the absence of opportunities to meet face-to-face with research participants, online methods or classic analogue methods -- or a combination of both -- can be used. I'll discuss some examples from research I have conducted during the pandemic, involving such approaches as hand-drawn maps, responses to creative writing prompts, online discussion groups and video calls for home tours.

Deborah Lupton is SHARP Professor in the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, UNSW Sydney, working in the Centre for Social Research in Health and the Social Policy Research Centre and leading the Vitalities Lab. Her research is interdisciplinary, spanning sociology and media and cultural studies. Lupton is Leader of the UNSW Node of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making + Society. She is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and holds an Honorary Doctor of Social Science degree awarded by the University of Copenhagen.