VITTORIO CESCHI’S SUMMARY
CM2006-Qualitative Methods in Media and Communication
Summary
Week 1
Chapter 1 – Getting Started
The cultural approach to communication taken here understands its process as a means of
production that is based on the discourse of individuals and groups and is produced within a
specific cultural, historical and political context. It is through our use of language that we
make meaning and construct our own social realities
Quantitative vs Qualitative Research
➢ Quantitative research attempts to isolate specific elements, and it uses numbers and
numerical correlations within value-free environments to measure and analyze the
“causal relationships between variables” → numbers as more reliable than thoughts
➢ Qualitative research is interdisciplinary, interpretive, political and theoretical in
nature. Using language to understand concepts based on people’s experiences, it
attempts to create a sense of the larger realm of human relationships
How socially constructed realities are created through language → symbols: symbolic reality
can alter our perceptions, and manipulate our feelings, our mood and our tastes
Qualitative researchers tend to use a variety of different methodologies in their work;
incorporating triangulation: the use of multiple methods to increase the rigor of their
analyses and to develop in-depth understandings of social experience.
Conceptual orientations - Both qualitative and quantitative researchers like to draw on
intellectual maps and models to help them represent their philosophical worldviews.
- These intellectual maps are often referred to as paradigms, and these paradigms
provide a set of views and beliefs that researchers use to guide their work
Transparency → when researchers openly describe their theoretical foundations and
research strategies, along with the basis for their decisions, intentions and motivations,
readers become aware of the potential uses and implications of the research
, Chapter 2 – Doing Qualitative Research
Two different understanding of communication process emerged in Western cultures
during the 19th century:
➢ Transmission view: envisions communication as a process of sending, transmitting
or delivering information in order to control others/distribute knowledge and ideas
➢ Ritual view: associates the communication process with the ancient notion of
communication → a process that reinforces and maintains a common culture
These perspectives also serve as metaphors that illustrate fundamental differences between
qualitative and quantitative research
Ethics of Qualitative Research - Overall, a primary goal of contemporary qualitative
researchers is to emphasize the collaboration and cooperation with research participants, as
they work to build trust and empathy, while they strive to limit the exploitation of at-risk
individuals, groups and cultures
The Qualitative Research Process
1. Choosing a research topic – i.e. studying mass communication as:
o A product – look at elements of media as texts that represent “integrated
strategies of symbolic action”
o A practice – cultural practices through which people make meaning of their
lives
o A commentary – commentary on relationships between media and society
2. Crafting Research Questions – clearly states, specific, researchable; make sure that
the question you want to research can be answered
- It is also helpful to narrow your research topic to a particular group of people,
geographic region or time period
➢ Open-ended in nature, encouraging you to understand a variety of potential
responses, experiences and connections
, ➢ See pp. 21 for guiding questions to build up a RQ
3. Gathering Evidence – gather all evidence one can find and immerse in all relevant
materials related to the research; context is a central part of the interpretive process;
interpretations have to be placed within the relevant historical, cultural, political
and/or economic contexts
4. Analyzing and interpreting evidence - Using Big Data: access to a variety of big
data sets that offer a wealth of information on media-related topics; provides valuable
information, but may rise ethical concerns regarding informed consent, privacy,
corporate control, and restriction on basic freedoms and liberties
5. Crafting a Research Report - Qualitative researchers want to join in the ongoing
scholarly conversation, and they strive to provide thoughtful and insightful
interpretations that will enlarge our understandings of important communication
issues. While some qualitative research reports are primarily descriptive in nature,
many are analytical, drawing on concepts and theories to analyze and interpret key
findings. Still other qualitative reports are theoretical and philosophical discussions
about important media studies issues and concerns.
Lecture
Four Principles for Qualitative Research
1. Meaning-making, NOT numbers
2. Complexity, NOT causal relationships
- Observe phenomenon in natural context
- Comprehensive view NOT causal explanation that can be generalized
3. Micro insights NOT macro picture
4. Different epistemological, ontological, and methodological positions
• Paradigms
- A model or pattern for something that may be copied
- A theory or a group of ideas about how something should be done, made, or
thought about
Doing research: how do you see the world? – 3 conceptual elements of research:
➢ Epistemology: the study of knowledge; examines the nature, origin, conditions and
scope of knowledge and knowing, asks “how do we know the world?; What is the
relationship between the researcher and the known?”
- Constructivist epistemology: socially constructed, notions of family, gender that
filter what you see
- Positive epistemology: only “facts” derived from the scientific method can make
legitimate knowledge claims; sees observable evidence as the only form of
defensible scientific findings/knowledge
➢ Ontology: the study of existence; what is the nature of the (social) world?
Different epistemologies + ontologies → lead to different approaches to the research process
– aka paradigms
, ➢ Methodology: set of beliefs about how to study the social world + practices of
studying it (methods)
Instructions: how to collect & analyse data + reasons/arguments
Dominant Media and Communication Paradigms – qualitative research is not a unique
paradigm but rather is influenced by several distinct paradigms, including:
• Predictive: - very quantitative
o Positivism – belief in a singular, universal truth; unified reality; consider
reality to exist and scientific truth to be knowable and findable through
rigorous testing that is free from human bias; focuses on explanation,
prediction and control while knowledge accumulates as factual building
blocks in the form of “generalizations or cause-effect linkages”
o Post-positivism – similar to positivism, but responds to some criticism of it;
post-positivists consider that because people are flawed, they may not be able
to actually understand it --- post-positivists argue that the ideas, and even the
particular identity, of a researcher influences what they observe and therefore
impacts upon what they conclude.
- While Positivists seek to verify their hypotheses, Post-Positivists use a variety of
experimental methods in an effort to falsify their hypotheses.
Both views see researchers as neutral observers who primarily rely on quantitative methods
to test, verify, falsify, or reject their research hypotheses
• Descriptive: - qualitative
o Constructivism/-ionism– anti-foundational understanding of truth; reject any
permanent “standards by which truth can be universally known”; they work to build
consensus and favour negotiated agreements made by community members
o Critical Theories consider reality and truth to be shaped by specific historical,
cultural, racial, gender, political and economic conditions, values and structures
o Participatory/cooperative inquiry – transformative perspective that
emphasizes the subjectivity of practical knowledge and the collaborative nature of
research
- Both views believe in multiple interpretations of a little – “t” understanding of
truth and envision many constructed and competing notions of reality;
researchers’ subjectivity as integral to the research process
Qualitative researchers do not pick a method they wish to use and then frame their research
questions around their chosen method. For qualitative researchers, the choice of method
comes from the questions they wish to ask.
➢ Each of us will develop a specific view of the world that makes sense to us. After
some trial and error, each of us will discover a paradigm and/or conceptual
perspective that fits with the specific way that we see the world
Core features of Qualitative Research
1. Insightful
2. Complex
3. Emancipatory – free from prejudices, developed, spregiudicato
