Using the Internet to Survey Small Towns and Communities: Limitations and Possibilities in the Early 21st Century

Authors

Jolene D. Smyth, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Don A. Dillman, Washington State UniversityFollow
Leah Melani Christian, Pew Research Center for the People and the Press
Allison C. O'Neill, CODA Research

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

5-2010

Citation

American Behavioral Scientist 53:9 (May 1, 2010), pp. 1423–1448.

doi: 10.1177/0002764210361695

Comments

Copyright © 2010 SAGE Publications. Used by permission.

Abstract

Researchers who are interested in small towns and rural communities in the United States often find that they need to conduct their own sample surveys because many large national surveys, such as the American Community Survey, do not collect enough representative responses to make precise estimates. In collecting their own survey data, researchers face a number of challenges, such as sampling and coverage limitations. This article summarizes those challenges and tests mail and Internet methodologies for collecting data in small towns and rural communities using the U.S. Postal Service’s Delivery Sequence File as a sample frame. Findings indicate that the Delivery Sequence File can be used to sample households in rural locations by sending them invitations via postal mail to respond to either paper-and-pencil or Internet surveys. Although the mail methodology is quite successful, the results for the Internet suggest that Web surveys alone exclude potentially important segments of the population of small towns and rural communities. However, Web surveys supplemented with postal questionnaires produce results quite similar to those of mail-only surveys, representing a possible cost savings for researchers who have access to Web survey capabilities.