Sunday, September 20, 2009

YUKUN's Questions


The definition of qualitative

In Potter's book, Chapter discussed various definitions including direct definitions and indirect definitions. In my personal opinion, qualitative methods existed long before quantitative methods and lnclude various methods such as ethnography, textual analysis.... It is easier to define quantitative approaches. I support the contrasting-type definitions in chapter. I believe scholars should not focus on how to define qualitative approaches as a whole rather than focus on define individual qualitative methods. For example, what is ethnography? or what is textual analysis?

Three facets in Chapter 5

In chapter 5 Potter propose three facets: the Audience facet, the text facet, the institution facet. I am wondering if any scholar compared qualitative approaches and quantitative approaches in these three facets. Which approach is suitable in the first facet, the second facet or the third facet? In my opinion, qualitative approaches are more suitable in the institution facet. Qualitative approaches can overcome the limits of studying the institution. In this level, the qualitative approach has more advantages than its opponent.

How to build qualitative theories

After done Potter's Pauwels and Flick's articles, I wonder how we could build a qualitative theory. Most characteristics of building theories are not in qualitative approaches: generalize, replicate....... In addition, qualitative approaches always stress unique case. Therefore, those differences really confuse me. Or should we reley on triangulation to build our qualitative theory?

Triangulation between convergence and divergence

At the end of Flick's article, he wrote something about triangulation between convergence and divergence. Does the convergance of triangulation mean it is the one step of qualitative theory building? Besides, how do we deal with the conflicts between different methods? If there is a conflict among triangulation, does it mean a new research question?

Question about Pauwels article.

This article reminded me our discussion in last week. In my opinion, the new media seems open a new window for qualitative research. Especially, new media combines verbal and visual communication. Quantantative researches only focus on the manifest information. It is hard for a scholar to study images only by quantantative methods. Qualitative methods or triangulation are the solutions for this pitfall.

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