Theme 6: Qualitative and case study research-reflection

The theme was case study and qualitative research. Since most of the case studies have qualitative methods, or both of quantitative and qualitative methods. We have learned the quantitative methods in previous theme, so it’s easier for us to understanding the case study.

In the seminar, we were divided into some small groups to discuss the case study. Our groups were focused on the advantages and disadvantages of case study. Help with that, it’s easier for us to know how we can use the method in different cases.

Also we have discussed that the simplest way for a case study which is a combination of methods. I have also mentioned it in my previous post that a combination of methods is the simplest way to do a research.

The theme was a really good last theme for this course which combine the qualitative and quantitative methods, which will “product” more new theories and hypotheses in the future.        

Theme 5: Design research-reflection

The papers which need to be read for this theme, there were very interesting to read. The lectures were also interesting.

The one of lectures was given by Eva-Lotta Sallnäs and it was focus on her research which about the haptic technology. It was quite interesting to know how the research was processed step by step. The most important part of a research that it not only doing a research with one method. The qualitative or quantitative method is really useful for search, but if we combine them with each other. They will give us more advantages, so the mixed method is the best way to do a search.

The other lecture was gave by Haibo Li, this lecture was very interesting and funny to listen. It gave me many inspirations about the process of idea to product. The important part when solving a problem is not only to think how to provide a solution, it’s how to define the problem in the simple way. Even though many ways can give a conclusion of the problem, but the simple way is always better the complex way. 

Theme 6: Qualitative and case study research

The paper I selected is called “Facebook and Online Privacy: Attitudes, Behaviors, and Unintended Consequences” Debatin, B. et al., 2009. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 15(1), pp.83-108.

Which qualitative method or methods are used in the paper? Which are the benefits and limitations of using these methods?

The one of important qualitative methods used in this paper is interviewing. This paper aim to give a discussion about how the benefits and risks of utilizing Facebook are perceived by users’ cognition. Firstly, they make some research questions about the subject, and they interviews eight participants with those questions who are chose from an earlier survey on the subject.

The benefit of using the method is the researchers can obtain the results which are individuals think and feel about the subject by participants. The method is very useful for research questions in this paper, because the researchers want to have answers which not only contain the explaining for the assumptions, but also the explaining for the reasons.

The limitation of using the method is maybe time consuming, to make the research questions which have to be short, enough close to the subject and contain the important part of subjects and so on. Then the researchers need find interviews correct participants and analyze those conclusions etc. This need a good plan and enough time to do it.

What did you learn about qualitative methods from reading the paper?

The qualitative methods are very useful to have a conclusion about the research question which cannot be answered only by data. In this paper, those research questions are impossible be answered by data. This is why, they used a qualitative method as interviewing, but at the same time the method has a big disadvantage which is the time consuming. So if the researchers want to use it, so they need a good plan and different analyzing methods at the beginning.

Which are the main methodological problems of the study? How could the use of the qualitative method or methods have been improved?

The main methodological problems in the study is that the interview participants were chosen largely based on how they had answered the previous surveys. So the results will depend on the chosen participants. The research questions can be describe more generally in the research area , so the results maybe can more accurately.

Briefly explain to a first year university student what a case study is.

A case study is a research method which is based on one case or several cases. A case study can be study of a person, a small group, an organization. The method can be used in both quantitative and qualitative research.  

 The paper I have selected is called “Social media competitive analysis and text mining: A case study in the pizza industry” (2013), He, W., Zha, S. & Li, L. International Journal of Information Management., 33(3), p.464-472

Use the “Process of Building Theory from Case Study Research” (Eisenhardt, summarized in Table 1) to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of your selected paper.

Strengths:

The biggest strength of this paper is that they combine both quantitative and qualitative

Research methods. The results will be more synergistic view of evidence and more different perspective on their researches than the research just use one method. Different analysis’s method and tools to analyze data which is another advantages in this paper. Then the results can be analyzed in more detail processes. The conclusions are more specifically.    

Weaknesses:

The research focuses on different types of data mining. To understand the how business should work towards social media, it is not enough to just using the data mining. They might be use other methods in their research to understand that problem, then they will get more interesting results. To research how consumer behaviors are changing, it’s easier to do it by using interviews with customers and businesses than just doing the data mining.

Theme 4: Quantitative research-reflection

This theme talked about the benefits and limitations of quantitative research methods, also I have studied the benefits and limitations of qualitative research methods. Because both methods are related on each other and they are very useful for our study. Since we will do a lot of media research in the future.

I think that is very necessary to have some of this kind knowledge before we are going to do a real research in media market. It will give us a lot of good methods for solving our research question. The seminar of this theme was a bit different from the earlier seminars and it is quite interest for me. We did not just sit, discuss and listen, this seminar was more likely a game. I really liked the structure of this seminar, we learned something when we were playing. After the seminar I got a clearer picture about the benefits and limitations about the quantitative and qualitative research methods. The paper vs web questionnaires was an interesting discussion. My understanding is the different case needs different way to study it. It is difficult to have a conclusion about which sort of questionnaire is better for a general case.     

Theme 5: Design research

1.      How can media technologies be evaluated?

To evaluate a media technology is the usability, according to this paper “Turn Your Mobile Into the Ball: Rendering Live Football Game Using Vibration” as We need to read. The usability can describe as a product of media technology can bring the efficiency and satisfaction to the customer when they use it for specific goals in particular environments. The efficiency and satisfaction are evaluated by ask different people with questionnaires in this paper, the way to evaluate products of media technology is the simplest and most effective.

2.      What role will prototypes play in research?

This is not enough to release a new media product just by using the market survey and general users’ experience. This why we need a prototype to obtain feedback from the users, those feedback can provide more useful information which can help researchers to upgrade the product to satisfy users’ request. This way is more suitable for develop a media product than make questionnaires. A successful product always is based on a prototype.

3.      Why could it be necessary to develop a proof of concept prototype?

A proof of concept (POC) is a realization of a certain method or idea to demonstrate is feasibility, or a demonstration in principle, whose purpose is to verify that some concept or theory has the potential of being used by Wikipedia. This means the POC is using for testing a design idea or assumption for develop a prototype. To develop a prototype that it basic needs money and time, so a good POC will lower the risks for waste money and time. Also a good POC will shows high interest for investors invest on the prototype.

4.      What are characteristics and limitations of prototypes?

The characteristics of prototypes: The prototype will not have fully functionality which the final product will have. It mostly use for obtaining feedback from users, so it will be free to use.

The limitations of prototypes: The prototype will not has all the problems, because it will just have a part of functionality of the final product.

5.      How can design research be communicated/presented?

In this paper, the result gets from users’ feedback is very usability and satisfaction of the research and the researchers get it from the questionnaire. The questionnaire let the design research be communicated and presented. The prototype will comes out after the questionnaire and it will help the researchers obtain more useful data for the final product.

6.      How does a collaborative setting differ from a single user setting as regards methodology used and the results obtained?

The difference between the collaborative setting and a single user setting is the collaborative setting there is at least two participants, a single user setting there is only one participant at a time. In a collaborative setting participants are more about the researchers share their own thoughts and experiences with each other to obtain results. In a single user setting, the researchers will have more focus on the individual tasks to obtain results. This is why, the obtained results are different depend on the different settings. The collaborative setting might not fit all test cases, because the result might be affect with each other. But the collaborative setting may have a result in a deeper knowledge than a single user setting would.

7.      How can qualitative and quantitative methods in the same study complement each other?

The qualitative methods are used for answer the question about why the phenomenon likes so, when the quantitative methods are used for answer the question about if the phenomenon likes so. We complement them when if a research includes both qualitative and quantitative aspects in a case. By using the quantitative methods to create an assumption which support by different data, then by using the qualitative methods to explain the assumption which support by different theory.

8.      How can using both subjective and objective methods give a better understanding of a phenomenon?

The subjective methods can describe as qualitative methods which are related to knowledge, experiences and theories, then the objective methods can describe as quantitative methods which are related to data, histograms and hypothesis. To give a better understanding of a phenomenon to our, we need use the subjective methods to find relationships with our knowledge, experiences and theories to set a question: why the phenomenon looks like so. Then we use the objective methods to collect different data to set some questions about what it can be happened according to those different data. At the last we analyze data with our knowledge etc. (subjective methods) to get conclusion about the phenomenon.

Theme 3: Research and theory-reflection

I did not take the lecture and seminar because I have been away, but I read the texts and lecture slides at there. Then I discussed with classmates about the theme when I was back. This theme is more related to my study than the previous two themes, because it is almost about theory which can be used for fields of technology. Even though I have read or used theory in somewhere, I still cannot explain clearly for someone what theory is before I learned it. However, the discussing with classmates and reading other blog was very helpful to me get an idea about the theory.

A theory can describe as a system which can be used to discuss a phenomena by using different definitions and explanations. A theory is built upon some hypotheses which have been proved by definition and explanation. The definition and explanation usually use data, diagrams to explain and define the hypotheses. So the new hypotheses which have proven will help us to get a new theory. During the seminar discussed the differences between knowledge and theory what I heard of classmates. This is quite interesting for me, because I thought it will be very depth relationship between them at the start. The difference is quite easy for me now, when I heard the example. The knowledge is about what we know about the cognition of object (size, color, length etc.). The theory is about why it is so. We know the fire is heat, this is our knowledge. Then why the fire can be heat, this is theory as a way of thinking.

My selected paper is a common ideal of the theory. The paper will get a conclusion for why it is by using many different data, diagram, interview to make hypotheses then analyze and discuss it. At the end the researchers get a conclusion for why the phenomenon just like so.    

Theme 4: Quantitative research

The paper I chose to read is called “The growth of TV news, the demise of the journalism profession” by Carey L. Higgin-Dobney and Gerald Sussman (2013). This paper is published on Media, Culture & Society, 2013, Vol.35 (7), pp.847-863 with impact factor 1.139

1.      Which quantitative method or methods are used in the paper? Which are the benefits and limitations of using these methods?

The quantitative method used in this paper are collection of empirical data.

The benefit of collection of empirical data in this paper is that the researchers will be able to get a large among quantitative data to analyze later. The quantitative data will provide more persuasive to the arguments as the researchers want to know. And this method is very economical than other methods. For example in this by using data from different age to prove the growing of one-man band in media industry which means a person do everything by himself for example the interview, shoot, report etc. At the end, according to these data which are be analyzed as provide in this paper, we shall know how one-man band phenomena in media industry growing now. The limitations can be that the subjects were limited in a specific time period, this can lead to that the results only can represent the time period they did the collection. This is why the data will determine the precise of argument.

2.      What did you learn about quantitative methods from reading the paper?

In sociology, quantitative research refers to the systematic empirical investigation of social phenomena via statistical, mathematical or numerical data or computational techniques by Wikipedia. This paper use the quantitative method to collect numerical data to answer a simple specific question as asks at the beginning.

3.      Which are the main methodological problems of the study? How could use of the quantitative method or methods have been improved?

The methodological problem of this paper is the researching and collection of data are based on the top-25 media market, so the results cannot represent the global media market. My suggestion is this paper need do another researching and collection of data on the small media market, then compare with the results as get from the top-25 media market. So the paper can give us a global view over the whole media market.

Read the paper written by Olle Bälter and colleagues

4.      Which are the benefits and limitations of using quantitative methods?

Benefits: Researchers can easily get a large number of data by using the quantitative method, and this method is very economical. Those data are very easy to analysis, almost data are based on mathematical, and then researchers can use the results from data as analyzed to answer questions which will the researchers want to know.    

Limitations: The method is based on data which collect from testers, the data are according to the testers’ thought at that time. So the data can be affected at that time and will not have high accuracy. This why the researchers always use the method for general fields of researching.

5.      Which are the benefits and limitations of using qualitative methods?

Benefits: The method is suitable for the rigorous fields of researching, because those data are more trustable and accuracy. Since the researchers do the research by themselves and they do not need any non-professional’s thought for the researching.

Limitations: The results are whole dependent upon the researchers’ researching. The results are usually not generally answers for generally questions. It will take a long time for researchers to get the results, because they need a rigidly conclusion about the question.  

Theme 2: Critical media studies-reflection

For this week’s theme I need read two reading materials for preparation which are Walter Benjamin’s essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Technical Reproductivity”(1936) and Adorno coh Horkheimer’s Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944) (chapter’s The Concept of Enlightenment” and “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception”). I felt that the reading materials was more readable and understandable compare to the reading materials which I read last week, which could be of several reasons. It could be the reading materials are not written a long time ago compare to the reading materials by Kant and Plato, or maybe my increasing experience in reading philosophical texts.

The lecture discussed a part about how the capitalism, fascism and liberalism by using the mass media to restrict the spreading of other arrangements of ideas or spread their own arrangements of ideas to nationals.    

Benjamin argues that technology is changing art, just like our changing perceptions. All art is replicable, which brings into question the worth of the art if it is not “original”. Copies do not duplicate that original aura. This continuous reproduction affects our modes of apperception and causes a decay f not only the aura but our understandings of space and time. For example, photographing the mountains gives us a secondary experience of the aura-the natural “distance” is gone. Film or movies can be mass distributed but the actor’s aura cannot-their aura is false and generated by lighting and headshots, whereas the stage actor has charisma. Dadaism distracts the masses via “shock” and anti-art borne from the elitism of traditional art. Fascism allows for expression; capitalism creates only class structure and dose not value aesthetics in political life. Fascism is capitalism without votes; it tries to organize the proletarian whereas capitalism creates the proletarian.

I was back at last week there is unable to use some websites which like Google, Gmail etc. So I couldn’t upload my text at there. I will upload all text as soon as possible

Theme 3: Research and theory

Journal

Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication

Impact factor 2.019

The journal is focused on social science research on communicating with computer-based media technologies.

Paper

Petter, B. Brandtzæg (2012) Social Networking Sites: Their Users and Social Implications – A Longitudinal Study, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Volume 17, Issue 4, p. 467-488, July 2012.

Impact factor 2.067 

This paper depicts about the social networking sites (SNSs) raises important questions about the social implications of such usage. There are four social capital dimensions to look at, face-to-face interactions, number of acquaintances, bridging capital and absence of loneliness. The first three social capital dimensions got a higher score, the results are that users of SNSs, whereas non-user got a higher score on the last one. Which means even though users have a more face-to-face interactions, a larger number of acquaintances and more bridging capital, they are still more loneliness compare to a non-user of SNSs. In the conclusion described about how accurate this paper: “However, the conclusions in the present study should be interpreted with caution; the effect sizes were rather small and it was not possible to inferring causation from a statistical association between SNS-usage and social implications." It also seems that they use one source much more than others, namly Turkle (2011), and you should always broad your perspective.

1.      Briefly explain to a first year university student what theory is, and what theory is not.

In my opinion, a theory can be described as a system of ideas to understand why something happens. The theory has to be tested and accepted by a majority of experts in their own filed, then the researchers can use it as facts and evidences to support own views or explanations for phenomena. Researchers usually use it for facts, phenomena, systematic reasons of evolution, logical, and causal relationships explanations. The reference, data, variable, diagram and hypotheses are not in themselves theory, but the theory can be supported by them.

2.      Describe the major theory or theories that are used in your selected paper. Which theory type (see Table 2 in Gregor) can the theory or theories be characterized as?

       In my selected paper they have reached and looked mostly at statistics to come a conclusion. So the theory type (see Table 2 in Gregor) can the theory be characterized as Analysis.

3.      Which are the benefits and limitations of using the selected theory or theories?

       The benefits with analysis is “The theory does not extend beyond analysis and description. No causal relationships among phenomena are specified and no predictions are made.” That it is not so restricted compare to other theory type. The limitations with analysis is that it is hard to get conclusion.   


I was back at last week there is unable to use some websites which like Google, Gmail etc. So I couldn’t upload my text at there. I will upload all text as soon as possible