Transcripts
Part 3: You will hear two students discussing how to narrow and refine the aims of their research project.
Mia: Have you got a minute to go over our project aim again?
Leo: Yes. I think our aim is still too broad. We keep adding platforms and extra ideas.
Mia: Exactly. Our title is consumer trust in online health information, but that could mean anything.
Leo: We need to tighten it. First, platforms. If we do Instagram, TikTok and health blogs, we’ll never finish.
Mia: What if we keep blogs but just use a few posts, like a small sample?
Leo: Even then, it’s still another format to compare. It will make the scope too broad.
Mia: Okay, two platforms only. Instagram and TikTok.
Leo: Agreed. Next is participants. We said the general public, but we can’t reach them easily.
Mia: University students are realistic. We can recruit from campus, but we should admit they are not representative.
Leo: Yes, that’s a sensible limitation. What about methods. Survey first, then interviews.
Mia: That works. The survey shows patterns, and interviews explain why. We just need to make the interview questions match the survey findings.
Leo: Should we skip interviews and do only the survey to save time?
Mia: I don’t think so. If we only do a survey, we might not understand the reasons behind the answers.
Leo: True, we’ll keep the interviews. We also talked about an experiment where we show fake posts.
Mia: I’m not comfortable with that. It could cause ethical problems, and it would take ages to get approval.
Leo: Then we avoid the experiment. Now, variables. We listed trust, health anxiety, and digital literacy.
Mia: That’s too many. If we measure everything, the results will be messy.
Leo: So we reduce it. One main predictor and one main outcome.
Mia: For the predictor, author credentials are clear. People notice doctors and specialists.
Leo: Yes, but we must define credentials properly so we can code posts consistently.
Mia: And for trust, we can ask about intended behaviour, like whether they would follow the advice or share it.
Leo: That should give clearer results than just asking if they like the post.
Mia: Finally, topic. General health advice is too broad.
Leo: Let’s focus on supplements. It’s manageable, and people see those claims a lot online.
Mia: Before we write the questions, we should agree on how to choose the posts. If we just pick ones we personally find interesting, that could bias the results.
Leo: Good point. We can set a simple rule, like using recent posts with a certain hashtag, or selecting the first ten posts that appear after we search a keyword. It keeps it fair and easy to repeat.
Mia: Also, we should think about what counts as a supplement claim. Some posts talk about food, like protein or vitamins, but they might not be selling anything.
Leo: We can limit it to products sold as supplements, like tablets, powders, or capsules. That way the content is more consistent.
Mia: And for credentials, do we only count medical doctors, or can it include nutritionists and fitness coaches?
Leo: We can include a few categories, but we need to write them clearly. For example, doctor, dietitian, nutritionist, and no stated qualification. If we make the categories too detailed, coding will take forever.
Mia: That sounds manageable. We can also take a screenshot of the profile description so we do not forget what the creator claims.
Leo: Yes, and we should note that we are relying on what people say about themselves. We cannot verify it, so that is another limitation.
Mia: For the survey, we should keep questions short. Maybe use a simple scale for trust and add one question about whether they would follow the advice.
Leo: And in the interviews, we can ask why they trusted one post more than another, and what details they noticed first. But we should avoid asking leading questions.
Mia: Great. So our aim becomes assessing how author credentials in Instagram and TikTok posts influence students’ trust and intended behaviour about supplement advice.
Leo: Perfect. I’ll rewrite the aim as one sentence and draft three research questions tonight.
Mia: I’ll start the survey questions and we can meet tomorrow.
