This course has been very interesting and given me a lot. I found myself seeing things from new perspectives, learn about things I previously had no knowledge of, and question things I thought I already knew.
The course started off with questioning knowledge, what is knowledge? I found that incredibly interesting, and it raised some important questions. Coming from a background of media and focusing a lot on social media, I found myself thinking about how modern technology affects our knowledge and our perception. What is knowledge today? Is it our filtered reality? Just recently Göteborgs-Posten released an article with the headline “people who don’t read books are smarter” (1), all about how people don’t read articles before sharing on social media, most people only read the headline. Fact checking isn’t part of a lot of people’s reality today, it’s all about dramatic headlines, not the facts. So I have to wonder, do we not care about the truth? About knowing the facts? Do we no longer value knowledge?
During the enlightenment, facts, science, and reason were key words. The world was demythologized and media technology had great progress. Newspapers and the ability to transmit information and conquering time differences had huge progress. There was a great force behind promoting the idea of a strong human being, a movement for people to experience the same thing at the same time. The idea of being enlightened, of belonging, of being a part of something. Today, with social media, we are more connected than ever. The works by Adorno and Horkheimer and Benjamin were interesting to discuss and made me realize the complexity of modernization, it made me think, see a bigger picture, and better understand how things are connected. It highlighted the importance of constantly critically examining the world we live in, something I think is incredibly important in today’s society. Looking at the world we live in today, and all that is going on, I have to wonder how we got here? Adorno asked the question, how come people are just as blind in capitalist US as they are in Germany? Why are they not more Enlightened? And I find myself asking a similar question. With all the information available, with all the technology, all the history, all we should know? How come we are not more enlightened? More informed? And why don’t we seem to care?
One of the articles I read for the quantitative research method theme, was about a quantitative research about fact checking in the 2012 US election. The studied showed that a large percentage in fact did not fact check at all during the election, but those who did were more informed, less keen to make quick assumption, and more likely to vote based on facts and reason. Today we should be more informed than ever. We can easily check if facts are true or not, if a politician is claiming true statements, open up for discussion, and informed and intelligent voices can be heard. But what happens when we are fed with the wrong information? When we don’t fact check? When we only read the dramatic headline created to gain likes and shares? The base for a democracy is an informed electorate, at least I think so. So what happens when the electorate is no longer informed? When news outlets compete for advertisement, and the truth is not as important as getting the likes? What happens with democracy?
This post was supposed to be about reflecting on different ways of combining different methods in order to answer complex research questions. So let’s get into that now.
There are many was to approach a complex research question, you can focus on details, try to get a more general idea, dig deep into something, or scratch the surface. This course has thought me a lot about research and research methods, and it has been very valuable, especially when I’ll prepare for the master thesis. Mostly, I’ve understood how important method is. Before beginning it’s important for the researchers to ask themselves what is the purpose of the research? What do we want to find out? And which method would be the best for their study. Is it a quantitative, a qualitative method, or a mix of both? Are the hypotheses set from the start, or will it be developed later during the process? It’s important to understand the benefits and the limitations of their chosen method.
Misinterpretations of results, and misuse of methods, can be very problematic. It can be difficult to interpret results, and a lot of factors must be taken into account. If for example, a qualitative method is chosen, and the researcher does observations or interviews, it’s important to remember that no two people are alike, and the result will most likely be different if the same study is done with different people participating. Different methods are beneficial for different researcher. If data, different variables, and statistics is important for the study, a quantitative method might be the best option. If the researcher can quantify data, he or she may be able to find statistical patterns, and through that make analyses. Quantitative data more defines, whereas qualitative data is more descriptive. Qualitative data can provide more observations, opinions, and in-depth understanding of analyses. If what’s interesting is the process leading up to the result, instead of the result itself, a design oriented method might be the best option. A case study is another option, if the researcher wishes to combine the different methods and seek to understand a specific phenomenon.
There are several options of approaching things we do not now know but wish to find out. The opportunities are endless, which is the best part. I think research is really interesting as there’s always new things to discover and learn about, and you can research about almost anything. As my main focus has been media and social media, which is a fairly new field, I’m very excited to be able to participate in the research, discover things we didn’t know, and see how it will evolve in the future. This course has been a great stepping stone and has been very valuable, it got me interested in things I didn’t know before, and it got me thinking, and made me see things from different perspectives. For that I am greatful.
