I selected a media technology research paper "Social news, citizen journalism and democracy" from "New Media and Society" (2011 Impact Factor: 1.394). Its author Luke Goode uses qualitative methods in a good, and also most traditional way, I believe: in a form of the case study.
After giving the detailed information and discussing some theories on the subject of citizen journalism and new media author moves to the practical examples. He supports his theories with the cases of three chosen Web 2.0 Social News Websites. Luke Goode gives a detailed description of these websites: Digg.com, Guerilla News Network, Newsvine. He provides a historical overview for each site, describes its functions and audiences.
Personally, I find the case study very illustrative and easy to analyse. It gives comprehensive data and therefore helps to make more accurate hypotheses.
Still, the important difference from the quantitative method of research is that data here cannot be random. The researcher chooses the object, which is usually unique, or the most outstanding. It makes the observations limited. Also, qualitative method can look subjective, as the researcher works with the examples of his choice, it makes this analysis look a bit less scientific, but still qualitative method is perfect for the analysis in philosophy, psychology, sociology etc., because it helps to see the dynamics, a time-line of the event or phenomena, as in this paper.
As to the methodological problems of this study, I am positive that the author could use more examples and more types of research methods also, such as interviewing and participant observation. Nevertheless, Luke Goode proposes the usage of various methods when talking about further research, hopefully they will include more personal involvement into the subject.
The question of the article «Comics, Robots, Fashion and Programming: outlining the concept of actDresses» by Fernaeus and Jacobsson actDresses is about the usage of actual physical clothing, labels, and accessories in order to control machines. The term for this symbols is «actDresses», and it helps to personalize digital devices, as humans like to anthropomorphize objects.
ActDresses are meant to represent and produce perceivable actions in the computerised system, being shown in the immediate physical context of the object having the feature represented by the sign. There are two main examples in the paper: fashion style and comics can be used as an inspiration for the design of visual programming languages, and these clothing and labels can help to control the behaviour of digital devices.
Having a background in fashion and also in psychology, I can see the point of this innovation: it is entertaining, makes it easier to memorize and act accordingly to the functions of the machines. I also can see a potential marketing profit. Personally, I found this research quite exciting and psychologically helpful, as it is always great to have anthropomorphic devices, but I also can understand scientists who would find it a waste of time and resources.
Question: How to make qualitative methods of research maximally objective?
Question: How to make qualitative methods of research maximally objective?
