Quantitative Research vs. Qualitative Research

Summary:

The chapter first discusses the differences between quantitative and qualitative research. While quantitative research is based on statistics and objective data, qualitative research is interpretive, showcasing a “variety of values, meanings and truths” (4). Qualitative researchers use a variety of different methodologies based on their research question(s), their theoretical framework and historical context relating to their topic. Qualitative methods emerged following a rejection of mass communication as a quantitative social science. Scholars such as Neil Postman suggested that the study of human feelings and behavior should not be considered a science given the difficulty in showing cause-and-effect relationships. The debate over our understanding of the communication process began in the 19th century with the transmission and ritual views of communication. The transmission view considers communication as a process of “sending, transmitting and delivering information in order to control others” while the ritual view underscores the role of the audience in creating meaning. When doing textual analysis, researchers evaluate the multiple meanings found within the text and try to understand how language helps us construct our social realities (make sense of our lives). Siegfried Kracauer, a German sociologist and critical theorist, is credited with the development of textual analysis. Criticizing quantitative content analysis (basing the importance of a concept or idea on how many times it appears in the text) as “incomplete” and “inaccurate analysis”, Kracauer suggested that a text should be considered in its entirety, including its surface and underlying meanings (194). To analyze a text, a researcher may study semiotics (the study of signs that exist in our social lives) to understand how we create meaning, examining both the connotative and denotative meanings of a sign. 

Personal Example: 

One example I thought of while reading the chapter was my parent’s frustration with today’s slang. As the youngest member of the family, the language I use varies greatly from what my parents are accustomed to. Using phrases such as “There’s beef in the friend group.” in conversation or over text with them is difficult as they 1) don’t understand what I’m saying and/or 2) take what I’m saying completely literally. 

Connection to Reading:

Here, the role of semiotics in deciphering the slang of today is clear. A sign (word or phrase) is the product of the relationship between the signifier (physical letters, shapes, sounds) and the signified (idea characterized by the word, shape or sound). The meanings of a signifier and a signed are established through a culture’s ideas, codes and conventions. It is therefore often difficult for my elders to understand current slang as they lack contextual knowledge, having grown up in a different time, place and culture.