CMN3103- Midterm Exam Guide - Comprehensive Notes for the exam ( 38 pages long!)
5 Oct 2017
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Document Summary
What is qualitative research: effective in capturing complexity of communication phenomena, what, why and how questions, sensitive to social construction of meaning, interested in the small t truth, big t(ruths): empirical truths (ex. The earth is round: small t(ruths): socially constructed truths, based on experiences, emphasizes communication environment of interactants, interactantants: people who are interacting. Philosophical worldviews: set of beliefs that guides the researcher"s actions as they conduct the research, focus of research philosophies: Positivism/post-positivism: description / understanding, any given theory is revisable, believe in different ways of knowing and truth as a reality, characteristics: scientific, objective, validity & rigor, generalizable, one reality (could be considered quantitative) Intepretivisim: explanation / interpretation, not only how, but why, characteristics: interpretive, understanding, multiple realities, conceptual, situation specific (could be considered qualitative) Key similarities: both rely on empirical evidence, provide useful information for describing, understanding and explaining human communication behavior, and are, needed to develop complete picture of communication.
