Research Methods in Digital Media

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Research Methods inDigital Media

• Rudy McDaniel, Ph.D.
• Lecture 6 Qualitative Methods

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Outline

• Announcements
• Final project due on 7/23
• Finish up quantitative discussion from last week
  (blog postings)
• Lecture
• Qualitative methods
• Activities
• Discussion of qualitative papers / posting 5
• Assignments for next week

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Weekly Time Management Tip

• Be aware of your own time management challenges!
• The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be
  conscious of none.
• -- Thomas Carlyle

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Part I

• Qualitative Methods

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Qualitative vs. Quantitative

• Quantitative research is more focused on testing
  hypotheses, while qualitative research is more
  interested in generating hypotheses
• Quantitative research is easy to graph,
  calculate, and analyze with statistics
  qualitative research is often difficult (or
  impossible) to translate into numbers
• The goal of qualitative research is to build
  theory, while the goal of quantitative research
  is to test theory

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Typical Qualitative Characteristics

• Takes place in natural setting
• Uses multiple methods that are humanistic and
  interactive
• Emergent rather than predefined
• Interpretive (and personal)
• Holistic rather than reductive
• Introspective and reflexive
• Iterative, with both inductive and deductive
  components

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Harry Wolcott (1994)
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Types of Qualitative Research

• 1. Observation
• 2. Ethnography / Fieldwork
• 3. Case Studies
• 4. Focus Groups
• 5. Grounded Theory
• 6. Narrative Studies
• 7. Sensemaking
• 8. Discourse Analysis

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Activity 1 (10 minutes)

• Using your preliminary knowledge of qualitative
  research methods, work with a partner or two to
  explain your research questions and discuss
  possible qualitative research designs for your
  project
• Provide an impromptu peer review for your
  partners ideas and offer suggestions for
  improvement and a critical evaluation of the
  methods from an outside perspective
• We will discuss as a class

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1a. Observation

• Observations are an important part of
  quantitative and qualitative research. In
  qualitative research, however, variables are not
  generally directly manipulated as they are in
  quantitative research.
• Observatory research generally stems from a
  desire to understand the world or its inhabitants
  better (esp. from other perspectives).
• Observations may include the researcher in a
  direct way (participatory) or may attempt to
  remove them from the population being observed
  (naturalistic).

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1b. Observation and Serendipity

• Sometimes, we learn interesting things about the
  world when we are focusing on something entirely
  different than what we originally were looking
  for.
• For example
• The Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov (1849-1946)
  discovered classical conditioning when studying
  the role of gastric juices in saliva during
  digestion.
• Swiss philosopher and scientist Jean Piaget
  (1896-1980) formed preliminary ideas about
  developmental stages when observing that children
  routinely answered certain questions on
  intelligence tests incorrectly.

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1c. Research Inspired by Observations

• One famous example of research inspired by an
  observation is found in Latane and Darley (1970)
• Their work on bystander apathy was initially
  inspired by the tragic death of Kitty Genovese in
  New York
• Banister in P. Banister et al., 1994, p. 18.

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1d. Considerations for Observation

• How will the observation be structured?
• What will I focus on?
• How much information will I have access to in
  regards to the participants and their activity?
• What will I tell my participants?
• Who will I observe? How many? How long will I
  observe them for?
• How will I record my data?
• How will I debrief my participants?
• From Banister in P. Banister et al., 1994, p. 20

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1e. Observation and Ethics

• How might certain participant observations be
  labeled as act of betrayals?
• What can be done to mitigate or eliminate such
  instances?
• Naturalistic observations are somewhat safer in
  this regard.

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2a. Ethnography Fieldwork

• Ethnography is a type of qualitative research
  that uses fieldwork to provide a descriptive
  study of human cultures and societies.
• Fieldwork involves spending extended periods of
  time living within populations of interest and
  acting as participant observers.
• Ethics should be carefully considered so as not
  to disrupt communities or confound the research
  questions.

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2b. Ethical Considerations

• Relationships
• Do they continue after the study? Have they
  affected the way in which your data was
  collected/presented?
• Objectivity
• Can a researcher actively participating in a
  community be truly objective? Does he have the
  right to impose judgment upon his findings?
• Communication
• How does the researcher choose to communicate her
  findings? Journalistic, narrative, or academic
  style? How does this impact her findings?

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2c. Ethnographic Techniques

• Direct observation
• Participant observation
• Conversations (formal or informal)
• Detailed interviews
• Genealogies
• Working with consultants
• Discovery of cultural beliefs and customs
• Longitudinal research
• Case studies

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3. Case Studies

• Often do not use random sampling. Why not?
• Three types of cases
• Extreme or deviant cases
• Critical cases
• Paradigmatic cases
• When generalizing from case studies,
  falsification is a very powerful method for
  revealing flaws or problems with the
  generalization.

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4. Focus Groups

• A focus group involves a group of people being
  assembled and asked about their feelings or
  attitudes toward a particular concept/product/serv
  ice/idea.
• Used often in business and marketing settings.
• Often uses a set of predetermined questions (or
  prompts) to help elicit and categorize feedback
  from participants.

• Image credit http//www.equsgroup.com/Images/focu
  s_group.jpg.

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5. Grounded Theory

• Unlike quantitative research methods, in grounded
  theory, data is collected before hypotheses are
  formed. Good notetaking is essential! (see
  handout).
• There are usually four stages of analysis
• Coding (anchor points for data)
• Conceptualization (grouping of anchor points into
  common themes)
• Categorization (grouping of themes into
  categories)
• Theory (distillation and analysis of collected
  data into a guiding framework)

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6. Narrative Studies

• Narrative studies often are used in combination
  with other qualitative methods such as fieldwork
  or participant observation.
• Types of narrative studies
• Collected stories from patients, employees,
  professionals
• Analysis of literature or nonfiction texts
• Generation of narratives for particular research
  scenarios
• Can also be more casual (e.g., Randys book).

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7a. Sensemaking

• Sensemaking is the process of making sense of
  complex or ambiguous situations.
• Several psychological processes are at work in
  sensemaking
• Mental models
• Situational awareness
• Decision making
• Metacognition
• Sensemaking can be an important method of
  inquiry for those interested in social and
  organizational tasks using digital media.

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7b. Sensemaking

• Image credit http//www.anecdote.com.au/DIK_2DDia
  gram.jpg.

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7c. Weicks 7 Properties of Sensemaking

• Grounded in identity construction
• Retrospective
• Enactive of sensible environments
• Social
• Ongoing
• Focused on and by extracted cues
• Driven by plausibility rather than accuracy
• From Sensemaking in Organizations (1995) p. 17

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8. Discourse Analysis

• Discourse analysis treats the social world as a
  text (Parker in P. Banister et al., 1994, p. 93)
  which can be read, analyzed, and discussed in
  scholarly contexts.
• The diversity of meaning is a critical issue.
• See handout (Ian Parker) for a sample discourse
  analysis of a set of instructions from childrens
  toothpaste.

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Qualitative Research Design

• What are the guiding research questions?
• What types of data will be collected?
• How will data be gathered?
• How will data be stored?
• How will data be evaluated?
• See the Silbey handout for an interesting essay
  exploring some background about qualitative
  research and for some practical guidelines for
  planning qualitative research.

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Planning and Preparation

• Though the methods of qualitative research differ
  from those of quantitative research, the degree
  of rigor necessary to conduct a study is no less
• As Susan Silbey (see handout) asks, why should
  qualitative research be any less well designed
  (or specified) than quantitative research?
• Dont let a qualitative research approach be a
  crutch for poor planning or a lack of thorough
  and careful preparation.

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Part II

• Activity

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Activity 2 (20 minutes)

• Working in small groups, use the handouts on TV
  genres to select a genre and a time period to
  work with. Identify several other programs that
  fit within that genre and time period.
• Each group needs to choose a separate qualitative
  research methodology and develop some strategies
  for answering the following question
• What can we learn about Western society and
  humanity in general by studying this particular
  genre of television during this particular period
  in history?

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Part III

• Assignments

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Assignments

• By 7/9
• Read Creswell Ch. 11
• Post blog entry 6
• Reminder Dont forget that your final research
  project is due in 2 weeks on July 23!
• Next weeks lecture mixed methods research and
  how to prepare (and deliver) a research
  presentation.