Theme6 - Pre study

Select a media technology research paper that is using qualitative methods. The paper should have been published in a high quality journal, with an “impact factor” of 1.0 or above.

The paper I select is Joseph B. Walther, Jeong-woo Jang, "Communication Processes in Participatory Websites" Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication Volume 18, Issue 1, October 2012 (pages 2–15)

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

This paper is a content analysis based on a qualitative method. It has defined four common message type in participatory websites which are proprietor content, user-generated content, deliberate aggregate user representations, and incidental aggregate user representations, the authors gave a detailed instruction for each type and provided research examples for that message types to illustrate the function and influence the played in transforming online social interaction. The authors also gave six empirical studies to analysis what theories, functions and message types they focus on.

    By using this way, I think I have a depth understanding for the concepts the authors offered in this article how did they influence and make a progress in Web2.0 or social web sites. However they don’t have some interactions for those progress to feedback users feeling when they use these social networking sites, it will makes the research lack of accuracy without data supports.

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

By following and analyzing the author’s descriptions in this article, I noticed that qualitative methods research objects with different ways than quantitative method. The qualitative method in this article is a pure qualitative research, the main aspects of qualitative research based on theoretical and empirical; following generally accepted axioms, logic and historical to describe and analysis the research object. However it is lack of quantitative analysis, the result is often a general conclusion.

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

This article used a pure qualitative research to investigate communication processes in participatory websites, however, it is not have any data analysis that can ensure the accuracy of author’s study results. As my opinion, the qualitative method is the base and guidelines of quantitative method, maybe the author could add some interaction to collect feedback on their research, thus the accuracy could be ensured for their study.

Select a media technology research paper that is using the case study research method. The paper should have been published in a high quality journal, with an “impact factor” of 1.0 or above

The paper I select is Nicole B. Ellison et al (2007) The Benefits of Facebook “Friends:” Social Capital and College Students’. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. Volume 12, Issue 4, July 2007, Pages: 1143–1168 which I think is a typical case study.

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

A case study involves an up-close, in-depth, and detailed examination of a subject. It is a research strategy which “focuses on understanding the dynamics present within single settings”. Case studies combine data collection methods such as “archives, interviews, questionnaires, and observations”. Case study research should not be confused with qualitative research, it can based on any mix of quantitative and qualitative data. The case study can also be used to provide description, test theory or generate theory.

2.    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.

It seems that the paper I choose in this part is strictly in accordance with the form provided by table 1 in the paper of building theories from case study research. Starting with a clearly research purpose for the benefits of using facebook can taken. Put forward the hypothesis with case study of previous literatures, by using qualitative and quantitative method combined a tailored survey to collect data and analysis make the results of social capital items shows more detailed. The conclusion established on empirical data analysis that gave a strong demonstrate that a robust connection between Facebook usage and indicators of social capital.

   However, it is not good enough for the design part, limitations to this study that they just examined only one community and can not to generalize the findings in this paper to other kinds of communities or social network tools. The questionnaire is a one-time survey and can not used to establish causality. They also didn’t have a related analysis for the enfolding literature part in their end.