Difference of work with electronic sources from work with printed
It's about working with sources in research activities. I work at the Faculty of International Relations of St. Petersburg State University, so the text concerns the study of international relations. It was first published in my Academic FAQ .
In general, work with electronic sources can be based on the already established principles of both general source study and special source study of international relations.
The meaning and content of evidence presented in electronic form on certain events should be disclosed taking into account (more precisely, on the basis of) the social and political conditions that accompanied the appearance of these certificates. For example, blog entries that stirred the world community about the events of autumn 2007 in Myanmar should be assessed taking into account ideas about the social characteristics of that relatively small layer (if not to say “groups”) of Burmese people who not only have access to blogging services, but also can describe what happened in Myanmar in English. And when working with the results of public opinion polls conducted in the form of online voting, it is impossible not to take into account the level of involvement in the virtual environment of various interest groups and the degree of their ability to organize mass participation in the voting of their supporters, as well as the social portrait of the owners of the resource being surveyed because they have the ability to influence the results of technical means), and its visitors.
The understanding of the role of source analysis in social research methodology that has developed in science is easily transferred to the analysis of electronic sources. Without analysis of the sources can not proceed to scientific research. I. V. Grigorieva, the author of one of the most popular source-study textbooks in Soviet times, rightly notes that a researcher “when choosing a topic, must first make sure that it is adequately provided with sources reflecting all its most essential aspects. One cannot limit oneself to attracting only a minimum number of sources, build a study on randomly discovered, fragmentary documents, and even more so deliberately exclude sources that are available, but not suitable for the author. With the seeming diversity and availability of electronic sources of information on any topic relevant to modern international relations, this maxim continues to be relevant for an international researcher. First, the sheer number of available electronic documents is often offset by their poor quality. Most of the electronic sources used by researchers are accessed using world wide web technologies. Meanwhile, the current stage of development of this phenomenon is characterized by a high level of direct borrowing of texts as a whole or their content with an insignificant change in form. For example, on August 1, 2008, Webscan Technologies conducted a quantitative study of news content published on Russian-language websites, during which, in particular, it concluded: “... At least 38% of news is literal reprints from other resources. At the same time, from the 100 most cited online resources of Runet in the first half of 2008, about 233 thousand news were reprinted, which were again posted with varying degrees of repeatability at about 18.5 thousand sites. Thus, the increase in the volume of news published in the Russian-language Internet is primarily due to the so-called "information noise", while the number of news stories increases slightly. " In addition, the chase of webmasters for unique content sometimes leads to the fact that the borrowed text is modified (manually, using synonymizer programs or other special software) to such an extent that its original meaning changes, and it is able to introduce readers (and researchers) in the confusion about the essence of the presented information. Moreover, the development of the market for search engine optimization services often leads to the fact that several dozen of the first results of search engines output for a particular query are precisely such specially “optimized” texts, and to find primary sources that have not been subjected to “uniqueization” and “synonymization” procedures. and search engine optimization and containing more meaningful information for the researcher, sometimes not so easy. Finally, with the rapid growth of access to modern information systems of the most diverse social groups around the world, observed at the beginning of the 21st century, materials in unknown languages ​​will be sure to be found in a vast array of information on a particular topic relevant to international relations, and sources appearing in an environment alien to the researcher, and reflecting the point of view of its representatives. Neither one nor the other group of electronic sources can be ignored when conducting a study claiming scientific objectivity.
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As in the case of any other sources, when working with electronic sources, the researcher needs to extract the information contained in them and evaluate its quality, completeness and degree of reliability. It is in solving these problems that the specificity of working with electronic sources in international relations is manifested.
In general, work with electronic sources can be based on the already established principles of both general source study and special source study of international relations.
The meaning and content of evidence presented in electronic form on certain events should be disclosed taking into account (more precisely, on the basis of) the social and political conditions that accompanied the appearance of these certificates. For example, blog entries that stirred the world community about the events of autumn 2007 in Myanmar should be assessed taking into account ideas about the social characteristics of that relatively small layer (if not to say “groups”) of Burmese people who not only have access to blogging services, but also can describe what happened in Myanmar in English. And when working with the results of public opinion polls conducted in the form of online voting, it is impossible not to take into account the level of involvement in the virtual environment of various interest groups and the degree of their ability to organize mass participation in the voting of their supporters, as well as the social portrait of the owners of the resource being surveyed because they have the ability to influence the results of technical means), and its visitors.
The understanding of the role of source analysis in social research methodology that has developed in science is easily transferred to the analysis of electronic sources. Without analysis of the sources can not proceed to scientific research. I. V. Grigorieva, the author of one of the most popular source-study textbooks in Soviet times, rightly notes that a researcher “when choosing a topic, must first make sure that it is adequately provided with sources reflecting all its most essential aspects. One cannot limit oneself to attracting only a minimum number of sources, build a study on randomly discovered, fragmentary documents, and even more so deliberately exclude sources that are available, but not suitable for the author. With the seeming diversity and availability of electronic sources of information on any topic relevant to modern international relations, this maxim continues to be relevant for an international researcher. First, the sheer number of available electronic documents is often offset by their poor quality. Most of the electronic sources used by researchers are accessed using world wide web technologies. Meanwhile, the current stage of development of this phenomenon is characterized by a high level of direct borrowing of texts as a whole or their content with an insignificant change in form. For example, on August 1, 2008, Webscan Technologies conducted a quantitative study of news content published on Russian-language websites, during which, in particular, it concluded: “... At least 38% of news is literal reprints from other resources. At the same time, from the 100 most cited online resources of Runet in the first half of 2008, about 233 thousand news were reprinted, which were again posted with varying degrees of repeatability at about 18.5 thousand sites. Thus, the increase in the volume of news published in the Russian-language Internet is primarily due to the so-called "information noise", while the number of news stories increases slightly. " In addition, the chase of webmasters for unique content sometimes leads to the fact that the borrowed text is modified (manually, using synonymizer programs or other special software) to such an extent that its original meaning changes, and it is able to introduce readers (and researchers) in the confusion about the essence of the presented information. Moreover, the development of the market for search engine optimization services often leads to the fact that several dozen of the first results of search engines output for a particular query are precisely such specially “optimized” texts, and to find primary sources that have not been subjected to “uniqueization” and “synonymization” procedures. and search engine optimization and containing more meaningful information for the researcher, sometimes not so easy. Finally, with the rapid growth of access to modern information systems of the most diverse social groups around the world, observed at the beginning of the 21st century, materials in unknown languages ​​will be sure to be found in a vast array of information on a particular topic relevant to international relations, and sources appearing in an environment alien to the researcher, and reflecting the point of view of its representatives. Neither one nor the other group of electronic sources can be ignored when conducting a study claiming scientific objectivity.
')
As in the case of any other sources, when working with electronic sources, the researcher needs to extract the information contained in them and evaluate its quality, completeness and degree of reliability. It is in solving these problems that the specificity of working with electronic sources in international relations is manifested.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/38311/
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