Pham, I need your help to graduate!

[Nunsuch]

What about various bloggers at Patheos and/or Catholic Answers?

[Gabriela]

2 minutes ago, Nunsuch said:

What about various bloggers at Patheos and/or Catholic Answers?

I think I've pretty much covered Patheos and Aleteia. Are there blogs on Catholic Answers? Whose?

The key, I think, is finding bloggers that priests might likely read. They often use such resources to give them ideas for homilies, so if there's a good blog out there that covers the weekly readings, it's a good target.

Edited September 2, 2016 by Gabriela

[NadaTeTurbe]

14 hours ago, Gabriela said:

Hey pham. My recruitment for participation in the dissertation study was rockin' for a few weeks. Now it's stalled. What I've learned is that if I can get a Catholic blogger to post a statement about the research, I'll get about 10 priests actually carrying through all the way to the interview. (I'll get a lot more making contact but not scheduling, and way more seeing it, of course.) In other words, Catholic bloggers are the bomb diggity. But I've emailed a lot of them, and only gotten four to post, and now I'm kinda' desperate. Here's who I've contacted:

Catholic Association of Teachers of Homiletics (sent out on their listserv)

Catholic Leadership Institute (no reply)

Fr. Z (he posted)

Phatmass ()

Anthony Esolen (he posted)

Fr. Dwight Longenecker (no reply)

Fr. Pablo Migone (no reply)

Fr. Michael Duffy (no reply)

Heather King (can't do it)

Dr. Scott Hahn (can't do it)

Bishop Barron (no reply; he never replies )

Deacon Greg Kandra (he posted)

Daughters of St. Paul (Sr. Theresa Aletheia Noble; no reply)

Elizabeth Scalia (she's on retreat)

New Advent (no reply yet, but just contacted him yesterday)

Monsignor Charles Pope (I think he's posting it today)

Homiletic & Pastoral Review (no reply yet)

First Things (about to contact)

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput (about to contact)

Who am I missing, pham? Who else can I ask? What I'm finding is that, if the person is SUPER famous, they just ignore me. If the person is well known with a large audience, but not hugely famous, they'll usually post, or at least respond. So, can you think of anyone else who might be willing to help me out with a short post?

Sister Laurel, the hermit from Stillsong Hermitage ? http://notesfromstillsong.blogspot.fr/

The sister behind anunlife ministry ? http://anunslife.org/

[beatitude]

I only know one Catholic priest in America who isn't in a religious order, but I will give the study details to other people in the UK in the hope that they're better connected. One thing I found in my own research is that people are much more likely to follow through if they're recruited through snowball sampling, so if you ask priests for the details of priest friends who might participate, you may have better luck. It helps to have that personal introduction. Praying for you!

[Nunsuch]

Gabriela, it I think there is a pretty broad spectrum of bloggers on Patheos's "Catholic channel" that aren't included in your list. The Catholic Answers people can be found on their website. The group you have is long, but I think entirely on the fairly conservative end of things. If that is your intention, fine, but it's not representative of the entire Catholic priesthood. If I were doing a study like yours, I would select some dioceses and write to their offices of priest personnel, or I would get in touch with the relevant office at the USCCB. 

[katherineH]

@Gabriela,

Try contacting Brandon Vogt. He works closely with Bishop Barron. I got in touch with him for my thesis project and he was very helpful. Also try all of the popular lifeteen speakers - they have access to many priests.  I got them to retweet about my study and got most of my participants from them. I found that more people are willing to retweet then to post on their blogs.  Here are the ones I would recommend: Chris Stephanik, Matt Fradd, Jason Evert, Leah Darrow, Fr. Mike Schmitz, and Jennifer Fulwiler.

[Gabriela]

9 hours ago, katherineH said:

@Gabriela,

Try contacting Brandon Vogt. He works closely with Bishop Barron. I got in touch with him for my thesis project and he was very helpful. Also try all of the popular lifeteen speakers - they have access to many priests.  I got them to retweet about my study and got most of my participants from them. I found that more people are willing to retweet then to post on their blogs.  Here are the ones I would recommend: Chris Stephanik, Matt Fradd, Jason Evert, Leah Darrow, Fr. Mike Schmitz, and Jennifer Fulwiler.

amesome! Thank you!

I'm not on Twitter, though...  What else would you recommend?

[Gabriela]

17 hours ago, NadaTeTurbe said:

Sister Laurel, the hermit from Stillsong Hermitage ? http://notesfromstillsong.blogspot.fr/

The sister behind anunlife ministry ? http://anunslife.org/

Thank you!

12 hours ago, beatitude said:

I only know one Catholic priest in America who isn't in a religious order, but I will give the study details to other people in the UK in the hope that they're better connected. One thing I found in my own research is that people are much more likely to follow through if they're recruited through snowball sampling, so if you ask priests for the details of priest friends who might participate, you may have better luck. It helps to have that personal introduction. Praying for you!

Thank you, too! I am actually snowball sampling, but a lot of priests express interest, then (I presume) get busy, and never wind up scheduling. I have had several follow through from snowballing, though, and I ask at the end of every interview if the priest would be willing to recommend the research to others.

12 hours ago, Nunsuch said:

Gabriela, it I think there is a pretty broad spectrum of bloggers on Patheos's "Catholic channel" that aren't included in your list. The Catholic Answers people can be found on their website. The group you have is long, but I think entirely on the fairly conservative end of things. If that is your intention, fine, but it's not representative of the entire Catholic priesthood. If I were doing a study like yours, I would select some dioceses and write to their offices of priest personnel, or I would get in touch with the relevant office at the USCCB. 

It's not my intention to have only conservatives. Aside from Fr. Z I have no idea what these people's leanings are. I know I've had quite a few priests who are definitely more liberal, so I think it's all balancing out. We're not aiming for perfect representativeness here, as this is qualitative research. Anyway, given how busy priests are, there'd be self-selection bias even if we randomly sampled to perfection: Only those who really care about and prioritize preaching are going to take 90 minutes out of their day to be interviewed about it.

I did ask at a CATH meeting whether it's worth contacting the USCCB, but was told they're just going to ignore me. I think I'll have more luck with specific bishops if, God forbid, it should come to that.

I do think I'm nearing data saturation, so a few more bloggers will probably get me there!

Thank you all for your help with this! 

[katherineH]

On September 2, 2016 at 7:36 PM, Gabriela said:

amesome! Thank you!

I'm not on Twitter, though...  What else would you recommend?

That you get on Twitter haha  no but really Twitter is great recruitment tool... 

[Gabriela]

28 minutes ago, katherineH said:

That you get on Twitter haha  no but really Twitter is great recruitment tool... 

Yeah, I know. If I carry out in future what I'm thinking of carrying out, I think I'm going to have to get on Twitter. Oh blasted modernity!

BTW: I never knew you're a native French speaker!

[katherineH]

1 hour ago, Gabriela said:

Yeah, I know. If I carry out in future what I'm thinking of carrying out, I think I'm going to have to get on Twitter. Oh blasted modernity!

BTW: I never knew you're a native French speaker!

yes, born and raised. Lived there until I was 17.

[Quasar]

1 hour ago, katherineH said:

yes, born and raised. Lived there until I was 17.

You get props, just for that. ;-)