Conducting the focus groups

Focus group 3 was held in the home economics classroom of Confey Community College, focus group 4 was held in the science laboratory of Coláiste na Carriage and focus group 1 was held in a classroom in Aislainn Cill Chartha. All the other focus groups were held in a classroom in Dublin City University, this space was used because it was easily accessible for participants, and was also available to me at no charge. The room was arranged as shown in figure 4.1. Note that the screen at the top of the room which is comfortably visible to all the participants; and the recording

equipment set up unobtrusively at the back of the room, out of the direct eye-line of most participants.

Figure 4.1 Focus group room layout.

I was aware from the beginning that in my role of moderator, the way I conducted the focus group sessions could significantly affect data collection. As participants arrived to the session I welcomed them, showed them to their seats, gave them a questionnaire about how they used media and introduced participants to each other. I made the environment as relaxed and friendly as possible. Conversation during this preliminary stage promotes a setting where participants are willing to interact with each other throughout the forthcoming focus group discussion. While I encouraged social chat among waiting participants (upon topics such as the weather, traffic etc.) I avoided any talk about the research topic itself.

The data gathered in the media-use questionnaires is summarised in Appendix H.

When all the participants had arrived and finished filling in the questionnaires, I began the focus group session. I opened each session with an introduction that included: a welcome; a brief explanation of the research aim and purpose; a statement of the importance of each participant’s opinions to the study and an invitation to diversity of opinions; an outline of what the format of the focus group session would be, a brief description of my role as moderator; a reminder of how the session’s data would be recorded and an assurance to participants that they would be anonymised in any reporting of the session. An effective introduction is critical to the session as the initial

atmosphere set for the focus group can affect data quality (Dawson et al., 1993). Once introduced, I guided the focus group conversations to maintain a focussed discussion.

Data collected from the focus group sessions was taken in note form, and also audio-recorded. I used audio-recording in preference to note-taking alone as it permits full transcription of the session which is necessary when the data collected is narrative in nature and analysis requires exact statements of the participants to be available (Sim, 1998; Bertrand et al., 1992).

The audio recording equipment used had a multidirectional microphone which helped to ensure successful capture of all the discussion. It can be difficult to identify different voices from the audio-recordings, so at the beginning of each focus group session, I went around the table, asking each participants to introduce themselves, and describe what kind of television programmes they typically watch. As well as serving as a warm-up exercise, this was helpful at the transcription stage in that I could connect each voice to a name which greatly assisted with later identification of their audio-taped responses. I also, as far as possible, took note of the order of the speakers.

I then went on to ask participants the questions as listed in the guide (the focus group discussion guide is given in full in Appendix C.), and probed participants to elaborate further when necessary. Note that participants were not asked questions in turn, rather the questions were ‘opened to the floor’ to develop and encourage conversation and discussion. Moderation was carried out with a light touch throughout.

A number of authors experienced in the use of focus groups agree that use of stimuli can provoke thought related to the research topic to encourage and enrich discussion thereby enhancing group effectiveness (Jackson, 1998; Greenbaum, 1998; Kreuger, 1994; Stewart and Shamdasani, 1990). Posters, pictures and other material may be used to augment oral questioning in an attempt to stimulate discussion (Jackson, 1998). I used clips from television programmes about science as stimuli. Participants were shown the stimuli clips (as listed below) and asked to respond.

Because the uniqueness of focus group data is based in the group interaction, focus groups’ interaction/dynamics and non-verbal behaviours were observed and recorded in notes for each group session. There is disagreement in the literature about whether the group or the individual is the unit of analysis of focus group data (Kidd and Parshall, 2000). I decided that I wanted to take into account both the individual and the group and be sufficiently flexible to identify if one is influencing the other before I drew any conclusions.

During the focus group session, I paid particular attention to the way the group interacted with each other, i.e. at points of general agreement and disagreement, at

points in the discussion where there was conflict, where participants agreed with each other and where participants supported each other. A break was taken half way

through the sessions and tea, coffee and biscuits were served. Participants all received a gift as a thank-you for taking part; these gifts were distributed at the end of the

session.

4.2.4 Stimuli for focus groups—nanotechnology, coeliac disease,