Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research

Reading Summary

Quantitative research tries to isolate elements and use numbers to measure the relationships between variables. It is often considered to be more authentic and scientific because it deals with numbers. Qualitative research, on the other hand, is more theoretical and interpretive. The rise of qualitative research methods emerged to challenge the status quo, as some thought that attempts to understand human emotion and behavior should be measured differently than if one is studying the natural sciences. Cultural theorist James Carey refers to the two different understandings of communication as the transmission view and the ritual views of communication. The transmission view focuses on sending messages over distances in order to distribute common knowledge and ideas. On the contrary, the ritual view associates the communication process with the ancient notion of communication. According to this perspective, people share customs, beliefs, ideas, and experiences, which reinforces a common culture. Textual analysis is all about language, what it represents and how we use it to make sense of our lives. In qualitative research, we use the term text to describe cultural artifacts or material documentary evidence. Texts are things that we use to make meaning from. Books, magazines, websites, and music are examples of the types of texts that qualitative researchers interpret in an effort to understand the relationships between media, culture, and society. Qualitative researchers look at the social practices and representations about our lives that are revealed in texts. The development of textual analysis is linked to a publication by Siegfried Kraucer, a sociologist and critical theorist who questioned the use of quantitative content analysis by disputing the reliability and objectivity of a method that broke things down into separate pieces and parts and they counted them. Semiotics is the study of signs that exist in our social lives. Semiotics can be seen as a type of textual analysis that helps us to interpret codes and signs in order to understand how aspects of a text work with our own cultural knowledge to make meaning in our lives.

Outside Example

Mardi Gras revolves around tradition, and one of the ways that it has been able to stay alive is through media, most notably music. When reading about the ritual view of communication, I instantly thought of how Mardi Gras music in New Orleans helps to keep the culture and traditions of Mardi Gras alive even throughout different generations. Every year at Mardi Gras, my family listens to the same songs that my parents listened to when they went to Mardi Gras parades as kids. Additionally, a group called the Mardi Gras Indians, a group that has paraded for over 100 years, play the same songs and parade along the same routes. The music helps to keep the same traditions alive despite changing times.

Connection to Reading

The ritual view of communication has the perspective that people share customs through media texts, which reinforces a common culture. This is especially true of Mardi Gras as it reinforces a common culture through the same music being played from generation to generation. The ritual view of communication is important in qualitative research and understanding the traditions, contexts, usages and meanings of words, concepts, and ideas.