Instagram Research Methodology

Overview
My research into Instagram will rely on three methods of inquiry:


 * 1) First person experience/interaction/use of the App -> Participant
 * 2) Engagement with other users as a peer and a researcher -> Participant Obversation/Ethnography
 * 3) API Data Collection -> Should all for the collection of large amounts of data providing contextual analysis

References & Sources

 * Internet Inquiry.

Needed

 * Researching in Apps
 * Perhaps Pew Guidelines in Research Methodology
 * Some Ethics guides

Problems / Questions

 * 1) How do I address the proprietary nature/site of the study?
 * 2) Do I contact/work with the organization? Or work privately?
 * 3) Do I need to research and explain lots about the company?
 * 4) What's the decorum for engaging users in this sort of a site?
 * 5) Do I foreground my status as a researcher?
 * 6) There is no clear way of having private conversations currently on Instagram. Is that OK? Can everything be in the public?
 * 7) The API was working and now IS NOT working, but the company promises it should be back up soon. What should I do?

New Questions

 * 1) How do 'Terms of Service' come into play? Legal Stuff?

Model

 * Work through each of the techniques and explain why and how
 * Also explain what WILL NOT be done:
 * 1) Visual Analysis -> The content is not what is being studied
 * 2) Location of Content & Content Creation -> Though a major point of the App, this will be sidelined.
 * 3) Socio-economic distribution -> This is not about the digital divide or the suburbanification of App culture, unless that appears or emerges
 * 4) So basically that means class is sidelined
 * 5) Gender of production