{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,17]],"date-time":"2026-04-17T14:48:23Z","timestamp":1776437303904,"version":"3.51.2"},"reference-count":29,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,6,9]],"date-time":"2023-06-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1686268800000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100004472","name":"Riksbankens Jubileumsfond","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["P19-0822:1"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["P19-0822:1"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100004472","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["journals.sagepub.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["International Journal of Qualitative Methods"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2023,10]]},"abstract":"<jats:p> In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, many research projects were forced to adapt their design and conduct interviews online. This paper discusses the benefits and challenges of using online focus groups with participants representing different generations and cultural and social backgrounds. Based on the researchers\u2019 experiences and field notes from a three-country comparative project, aiming at analysing the extent to which previous experience of state surveillance impacted attitudes to commercial monitoring and tracking of online behaviour among two generational cohorts, the paper identifies seven aspects where the move from offline to online interviewing interfered with the original research design. The paper suggests that most of these interferences resulted in a need to adjust the methodology to better fit the online setting. We reflect critically upon the issues of technological preconditions and digital skills, recruitment, group size, degrees of previous acquaintance, the role of the interviewer, participants\u2019 household status and media environment, and ethical considerations concerning privacy and data management. Based on these methodological insights, we conclude that future online focus group research would benefit from using smaller groups and adjusted moderation, flexibility in interviewing tools and channels, and new, online-specific ethical considerations when planning, executing, and analysing interviews. The paper advocates the complementarity between in-person and online focus groups as two modalities of data collection and argues for the normalization of hybrid methods. <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/16094069231182029","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,6,9]],"date-time":"2023-06-09T13:26:13Z","timestamp":1686317173000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":26,"title":["Conducting Online Focus Group Interviews With Two Generations: Methodological Experiences and Reflections From the Pandemic Context"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"22","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0216-8862","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"G\u00f6ran","family":"Bolin","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Media & Communication Studies, Department of Media & Communication Studies, S\u00f6dert\u00f6rn University, Huddinge, Sweden"}]},{"given":"Veronika","family":"Kalmus","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Sociology, Institute of Social Studies, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia"}]},{"given":"Rita","family":"Figueiras","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Media and Communication, Universidade Catolica Portuguesa, Lisbon, Portugal"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,6,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"bibr1-16094069231182029","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/1609406919874596"},{"key":"bibr2-16094069231182029","unstructured":"Bengtsson S., Johansson S. (forthcoming). Qualitative audience research in a cross-cultural framework: When lofty ideals collide with complicated realities. In Hill A., Lunt P. (Eds.), The routledge companion to media audiences. Routledge."},{"key":"bibr3-16094069231182029","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/0022146520970190"},{"key":"bibr30-16094069231182029","volume-title":"Value and the Media: Cultural Production and Consumption in Digital Markets","author":"Bolin G.","year":"2011"},{"key":"bibr5-16094069231182029","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.4324\/9781315398624-3"},{"key":"bibr6-16094069231182029","volume-title":"Paper Presented at AoIR 2022: The 23rd Annual Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers","author":"Bolin G."},{"key":"bibr7-16094069231182029","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/1609406919885786"},{"key":"bibr8-16094069231182029","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/1049732320935835"},{"key":"bibr9-16094069231182029","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/1609406917750781"},{"key":"bibr10-16094069231182029","volume-title":"Adapting research methodologies in the covid-19 pandemic: Resources for researchers","author":"Garcia Garcia S.","year":"2022"},{"key":"bibr11-16094069231182029","volume-title":"Virtual methods: Issues in social research on the internet","author":"Hine C.","year":"2005"},{"key":"bibr12-16094069231182029","volume-title":"Second international handbook of internet research","author":"Hunsinger J.","year":"2019"},{"key":"bibr13-16094069231182029","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/s10433-020-00552-z"},{"key":"bibr14-16094069231182029","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/16094069221142406"},{"key":"bibr15-16094069231182029","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/14614448221134493"},{"key":"bibr16-16094069231182029","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.12688\/f1000research.10427.2"},{"key":"bibr17-16094069231182029","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.4324\/9781003232049"},{"key":"bibr18-16094069231182029","volume-title":"Doing fieldwork in a pandemic (crowd-sourced document)","author":"Lupton D.","year":"2020"},{"key":"bibr19-16094069231182029","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.4135\/9781483329086"},{"key":"bibr20-16094069231182029","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/13645579.2021.1913921"},{"key":"bibr21-16094069231182029","volume-title":"The focused interview","author":"Merton R.","year":"1956"},{"key":"bibr22-16094069231182029","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1086\/219886"},{"key":"bibr23-16094069231182029","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/s12108-021-09500-5"},{"key":"bibr24-16094069231182029","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/16094069221090355"},{"key":"bibr25-16094069231182029","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/00913367.2016.1252288"},{"key":"bibr26-16094069231182029","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/ccc\/tcab015"},{"key":"bibr27-16094069231182029","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2196\/resprot.5616"},{"key":"bibr28-16094069231182029","first-page":"1","author":"Willemsen R. F.","year":"2022","journal-title":"Qualitative Research"},{"key":"bibr29-16094069231182029","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/1049732316631510"}],"container-title":["International Journal of Qualitative Methods"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1177\/16094069231182029","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/full-xml\/10.1177\/16094069231182029","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1177\/16094069231182029","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,2]],"date-time":"2025-03-02T21:45:25Z","timestamp":1740951925000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1177\/16094069231182029"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2023,6,9]]},"references-count":29,"alternative-id":["10.1177\/16094069231182029"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/16094069231182029","relation":{},"ISSN":["1609-4069","1609-4069"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1609-4069","type":"print"},{"value":"1609-4069","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2023,6,9]]},"article-number":"16094069231182029"}}