COM 308

• - understand: the content and structure of our text
• - investigate the variables: see how history relates to the future
• - interpret: makes sense of what happened

• transcript of communication: verbatim written version of what was said
• output of communication: messages produced by a communicator
• internal validity: is less of a threat in naturalistic methods

a systematic method for describing and evaluating the persuasive forces of messages embedded in a text

• - illuminate the purpose of a message
• - understand contexts, such as historic or cultural context
• - evaluate society
• - illustrate theory in practice
• - pedagocical function: used to educate other people

• historical: analyze the past
• historical case studies: look at one particular event in history to see what role communication played
• biographical studies: examine a person's life
• social movement studies: fighting for rights of someone

what are the characteristics of what is being said, the content

• quantitative CA: count the characteristics; unobtrusive bc they already exist
• qualitative CA: focus on the meaning of the message- what are the themes or patterns that are emerging

looking at how people interact

studying theory to understand a culture

• wants to study people in their own environment
• goal is to describe and interpret

• naturalism: need it in its environment and watch and observe what is happening in that specific situation
• phenomenology: focus fully on what is happening in its context; no preconceived notions
• interpretation: the researcher cannot be separated from what is being researched

• ethnography: emerse yourself in a certain context in order to study a specific group of people's behavior
• ethnomethodology: look at actual interactions between people in their everyday communication
• critical ethnography: one specific goal to provide social justice
• auto-ethnography: when you are describing your own life and communication behaviors while trying to make sense of the world around you

• context: what's the scene of what you want to study
• embodied practice: you are the instrument- you have to place yourself within the context to make observation
• tools: basic (tacit) knowledge and qualitative methods -one way we measure tacit knowledge is when people break the rules
• informants: person who is in your context
• execution: the actual act of emersing yourself within the context and adapt as you go
• theoretical understanding

• complete participant: no one knows you are doing research, complete member
• complete observer: you do not interact with people, just watch
• participant observer: you do as much as you can but people are aware that you are a researcher
• observer-participant: you primarily watch but on limited times interact

thousands of pages of field notes, recording from memory or in person of every detail possible

• focus: people's life experiences
• inductive: let participants tell their stories
• exploratory: unstructured, based on how long the participant decides to talk
• meaningful connections between researcher and participant

try to find people who fit a particular theoretical theory characteristic

• phenomenological: interview without your own assumptions - try to avoid asking why
• feminist: gain social justice
• ethnomethodological: recognize that while you are interviewing you may give off non-verbals that will influence the interview
• narrative: everything you want you have done in a storytelling way
• critical incident technique: ask about a most memorable or negative experience
• episode analysis: ask a person to reconstruct a timeframe in their life
• account analysis: ask someone about an account they observed
• protocol analysis: ask your participants to tell you about how they feel and what they are thinking while engaged in a specific activity
• stimulated recall: playback something for the participant and ask them to recall what they were thinking when they did it

group of people with common characteristics who interact. Used as a way to gain information about a topic at hand. At least 7-10 unfamiliar people required

• - identify the major objective for the meeting
• - carefully develop five to six questions
• - plan your session
• - contact potential members

• - use open ended questions
• - avoid why questions
• - questions should be systematically preped but have a natural flow to them
• - arrange questions in logical sequence
• - allow for unanticipated questions
• - pilot test: a group of people we test our questions on but not used in our research

• Transcription: raw data; the verbatim account of what happened
• Personal Notes: notes you take while conducting the interview such as non verbals and descriptors about people
• theoretical notes: most complex; interpretatons and notes we take during interview regarding how we see data relating to theory and literature

• On going process: takes a long time
• Reduction: Physical reduction is to reduce to a few key components we want to focus on and conceptual reduction is to focus on certain themes and categories
• explanations:
• - first order: researcher- participant responses, raw data
• - second order: when we add on the researcher
• theory development:
• - grounded theory: begin knowing nothing about what you are interested in, but as you keep reading you begin to know what you want to study
• - constant comparitive: have an idea of what you are looking for and constantly compare it to someone else's theory or prior work

a functional research design with the purpose of explaining certain variables impact on certain outcome variables