Category: Brad Mu

As functionality on the internet evolves, understanding audiences, how they seek information, how information is distributed to them is invaluable.  Whether it be journalism, politics, advertising, marketing, whatever, as an interactive designer I have to know what is going to be received successfully by the audience.  Since theory isn’t knowledge, I have to understand theory to “get at” knowledge.  I have to understand theory so I can apply what I learn in school to the projects I work on.  As much as I’d like simply to create animation, interfaces, etc that I think look great and provide functionality, I can’t do that.  I need to be able to apply theories and understand “scales,” “constructs,” how research is conducted.  In understanding this, I’ll come to understand communication science.  When I understand communication science, I’ll be a better interactive deigner.  Rosenberry and Vicker say it well at the end of chapter 2: students will find a clearer and deeper understanding of mass media when they understand the way media is studied and how theory can explain those findings.

At the beginning of the week I was concerned about my ability to be critical of theories and research reports we read throughout the semester.  In a general sense I need to understand how an individual research report is carried out.  I need to understand the group of people they analyzed.  I need to understand the scale and be sure it’s being applied appropriately.  The measurement of data gathered is an important part of whether research is worth anything.  Roseberry and Vicker, when talking about the import of measurement, discuss reliability, validity, power and efficiency.  They go on to make the obvious point that correct measurement is especially important in quantitative research.  Rosenberry and Vicker talk about reliability as accuracy and consistency and validity as whether the variable is actually measuring what it should be measuring.

Quantitative research relies on numerical measurement of the variables as evidence of the relationship at the center of the hypothesis.  Quantitative uses surveys, content analysis and experiments.  That empirical data is then put into numbers then statistics and trends become visible.  The methods of gathering information can be mail surveys, online surveys, face to face interviews, phone interviews.  Surveys can be trend surveys, cohort surveys and panel studies.  The sampling for the surveys can be simple random, systematic random, stratified random and cluster.  How is the content going to be analyzed?  Objective, systematic, quantitative and manifest are listed and cited to Stempel as definitions of content analysis.  Proper content analysis is necessary for the results to be valid.  The book cites Neuendorf’s nine-step process for developing an effective content analysis.  The quantitative method also allows for experimentation.  But experimentation does have drawbacks.  Experiments are usually conducted with small groups of subjects and the results cannot be validly applied to a larger group.  Rosenberry and Vickers also raise the question of how much the experiment environment affects human subjects.  The experimental designs are listed as single-group, single test with control group, pre and post test with control group and four group design.  I am skeptical of experiments with human subjects, the outside variables affecting a subject are vast.

Qualitative research relies on texts and logic as evidence, it describes situations, behaviors or texts.  Qualitative research allows researchers to make sense of a case as a whole.  Qualitative research uses observation, interviews, focus groups and documentary analysis.

Qualitative and Quantitative compliment each other well.  Where one has a weakness the other has a strength.  Quantitative, if carried out correctly, can be conducted by someone with little knowledge on the subject.  Qualitative must be carried out by an individual well versed in the subject.  Qualitative is much more encompassing than the statistical content afforded by a strict survey.  The two approaches, if used together, would give a wide ranging but in-depth look at a specific subject.

1.  How will understanding theory and the study of mass communication help me as an interactive designer?

2.  Throughout the semester, as we read studies and research others have done, how can I train myself to be analytical of the research?  Most of these studies will be looking at human behavior, which is  difficult to make sense of.  How do I learn to judge a study as valid or flawed?

3.  Qualitative versus quantitative.  In a broad sense, I understand these two terms.  But I want to know specifics.  What are the common research methods in both categories?  When should one be used instead of the other?  Does one carry more weight/significance than the other?  Can the two methods be married for a better understanding of the subject?