COMM 2002 Lecture Notes - Inductivism, Ethnography

• School: Carleton University
• Department: Communication Studies
• Course: COMM 2002
• Professor: all

Document Summary

We need to be able to critically determine that what we are using as social scientists are reliable and valid. We are trying to bring a formal structure to our questions of social behavior. There are two distinct research strategies in communication studies. The two strategies differ in terms of: the role of theory in research, epistemological foundations and ontological basis. There are grand theories and then there are smaller more specific theories. Theory can play a different role depending on what we are researching. It can be a key player to the research or it can take more of a minor role. It is the questions that must be posed to decide what should be considered acceptable knowledge. These questions help decide if the social world can be studied scientifically (numerical, data) and also if it is appropriate to apply the methods of the natural sciences to social science research.