Methods
The methods section of this research paper will address the design, procedures, and
considerations of the research study. It will also detail the population and the actions the
respondents took in order to participate, as well as describe the data collection and analysis.
Research Design
To answer the proposed research question, the researchers designed a study to evaluate Facebook privacy setting awareness. The research study was descriptive in nature and nonexperimental, as there was no randomization or manipulation of variables. The study utilized a survey and content analysis to determine if a relationship existed between the efforts users make to keep up to date on changing privacy policies, and their awareness of current personal privacy settings. The 25 question survey and opt-in content analysis were available on the website SharePoint for participants to take voluntarily.
Population
According to Keyton (2011), “The researcher must identify the appropriate population
that will best satisfy the expectations presented by the research questions or hypotheses” (p.
122). Therefore, because this study focuses on Facebook privacy settings, it was necessary for participants to be active members of the social networking site. Participants were also required to be over the age of 18, but the target age range for the survey was 18 to 30. Participants consisted of the researchers’ friends on Facebook, as well as freshman and sophomore students at King’s College who opted to participate. The researchers’ friends on Facebook were contacted via a Facebook event invitation, and the freshman and sophomore students were contacted via a student-out e-mail. Overall, the total sample size was approximately 2029 individuals. The projected number of research participants for the study was 250-300 individuals. The final number of respondents was 235, 102 of which opted to participate in the content analysis.