Researcher risks: a typology for qualitative risks to researchers in communication studies

Abstract

Discussions of risk in qualitative research tend to focus on risks to research participants. However, qualitative researchers also face risks—or uncertainties with potential for harm—because they serve as the research instrument. Communication researchers are uniquely suited to problematize the meaning of risk and extend theory about what risk is by noting that risk is subjective and communicatively constructed, both in qualitative methods and in research contexts. We create a typology of five risk contexts that pose a danger to researchers: crisis, disruptive, vulnerable, emotionally risky, and ethically fraught contexts. For each context, we define the risk, propose representative examples, and critically discuss proposed coping strategies. By doing so, we make three key contributions to scholarship on qualitative methods in communication research: (1) we explore how communication concepts of temporality, care, and resilience can be extended via discussion of researcher risks; (2) we show that researcher risk is ongoing, fluid, and constantly evolving; and (3) we argue that risk management strategies must include collective support that embraces the extended temporality of researcher risk.