Research Daily 1

“Radio, television, film, and the other products of media culture provide materials out of which we forge our very identities; our sense of selfhood; our notion of what it means to be male or female; our sense of class, of ethnicity and race, of nationality, of sexuality; and of "us" and "them." Media images help shape our view of the world and our deepest values: what we consider good or bad, positive or negative, moral or evil.”-Douglas Kellner said. Nowadays, media becomes part of our daily life, we cannot live without the media, which has we always saw the advertising when we go to work or school, and we always using the social media on the smart phone in anywhere and anytime. We need to do academic research is important to this modern world is non-stop to changing. Media like a socially driven to drive human the life to having changes, even the language or technology produces.

We can use two research methods: Qualitative Research and Quantitative Research.

For qualitative research, the strengths are that researcher can easy to gain clearer understanding about the targeted market for the reason that the types of questions asked during the process starts with “Why”. Moreover, the data in qualitative research depends on human experience and this is more compelling and powerful than data gathered through quantitative research, and the direction and framework of research can be revised quickly as soon as fresh information and findings emerge. On the other hand, the weakness is that the quality of research is heavily dependent on the skills of the researcher and can be easily influenced by personal idiosyncrasies and biases of researchers.

For quantitative research, the strengths are that study findings can be generalized to the population about which information is required easily and quickly, and it can clear documentation can be provided regarding the content and application of the survey instruments so that other researchers can assess the validity of the findings. On the other hand, the weaknesses are that this research method is inflexible because the instruments cannot be modified once the study begins, and many kinds of information are difficult to obtain through structured data collection instruments, particularly on sensitive topics such as domestic violence or income.

At last, I suppose to use qualitative research method for my research paper of online communities. I would like to interview 10 of 20 years old to 40 years old the users of golden forum, which is the most famous digital sites in Hong Kong.  I would like to find out how the online platform to gather a group of people to form a community in cyber space and why the users love to go to this kind of online communities.

Reference

1. Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism, and Media Culture (Citations: 47) Douglas Kellner

http://academic.research.microsoft.com/Publication/2915287/cultural-studies-multiculturalism-and-media-culture

2. Strengths and Weaknesses of Quantitative and Qualitative Research, Demetrius Madrigal and Bryan McClain, September 3, 2012

http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2012/09/strengths-and-weaknesses-of-quantitative-and-qualitative-research.php

student name: Ip Man Yee