COMM 2000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Peter Mansbridge, Ethnography, Participant Observation

• School: Carleton University
• Department: Communication Studies
• Course: COMM 2000
• Professor: Heather Pyman

Document Summary

We are moving away from ethnography and the term ethnography and participant observation are used in the same breadth; we are now moving onto interviewing people. This could also be a part of an ethnography, but it does also have stand- alone structures to it. We will begin with individual interviews and then move on to group interviews. Qualitative are : less structures/standardized, take the participant"s viewpoint, encourage rambling", are more flexible, see detailed answers, aim to understand rather than generalize. A qualitative interview is a very effective way of getting to the beliefs, values and perceptions of the participant in their own view. We use these when observations alone do not let us get close enough to really understand the world around us and why they may believe certain things. Once again, we are not trying to generalize these results to an entire population. Unstructured or semi-structures: life history biographical.