What is it: I have chosen Babycenter for the mini online research
assignment as discussed in class. Babycenter is a pregnancy and parenting
website that provides parenting advice for every stage of a child’s development
starting with detailed phase by phase information during pregnancy. The website is also well known for its numerous
discussion forums for parents around the world to connect with each other to share
experiences and obtain information.
Who is it tailored to: Quoting from the website – “Babycenter is
the voice of 21st century Mom and modern motherhood.” As such, the primary users of this website are
pregnant women and Moms.
Emotional relations: The
users of this website have to sign up for membership to get access to post in
the forums. The forums are organized in a structure that is largely defined by
the users. There are specific forums for pregnant women with similar due dates,
forums for Moms with children in similar age groups, for Moms with special-needs
children, bereavement and infant/child loss groups, as well as general forums
for day to day parenting discussions.
The forums are a place where a lot of personal information is shared - thoughts
and opinions, fears and anxieties, happiness and excitement related to
pregnancy, parenting, childhood illnesses, or infant loss.
Why it would make an ideal case: Babycenter is a company that is a
member of Johnson & Johnson. It has numerous international partner sites
like Babycenter Australia, Babycenter UK, Babycenter Arabia etc. as well as
different partner sites within the States. It makes money from advertisement
revenue and by promoting Johnson & Johnson products. The discussion forums
are used to track global membership and target user groups and their topics of
discussion to display appropriate ads.
Potential methodological challenges: Since Babycenter operates as
an independent company, the very first methodological challenge would be to obtain
permission to study the users and usage of the website. Another challenge would
be to define boundaries around sizeable and manageable aspects of the website
for the purposes of the study. The forums include large amounts of personal
information about babies and older children that may sometimes include information
about geographical location and illnesses. As these are public forums, it may be
difficult to manage a robust system of informed consent while providing the
option to opt out.
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