Research Diary 1

Media and culture are closely related to our daily lives. Our understanding of the media and culture, feelings, values are different. In the context of cultural studies, not text only, but also includes film, photography, fashion or hair and all meaningful cultural products. Similarly, the "culture" concept has also been expanded. For us, it also includes all activities and everyday meaning. How media affect culture and how culture affect media? Therefore, based on the biased of our personal experience and what the experts say , we need to have the academic research on culture and media. 

Quantitative research and quantitative research are the research methods that we usually use in research. Quantitative research means the use of statistical, mathematical or computational techniques and other methods to carry out social phenomena. The main scope of the study is including what the fact is, the reliability and validity of issues, opinions, behavior, awareness and rationality of people. This research method conclusion can be inferred that the overall market situation, and through statistical analysis can identify the main cause of impact, the findings can be used as basis for the decision. It is useful for studying large number of people or subjects. The research findings can be generalized with random samples. Also, The research results are relatively independent of researcher. The researcher's design can eliminate the influence of many variables. 

There are some weaknesses of quantitative research. Quantitative research fails to distinguish people and social institutions from the world of nature. Research process is time-consuming, cannot quickly get the final result, the content cannot be changed during the study, and the project costs are relatively high. The measurement process posses and artificial sense of precision and accuracy. 

Qualitative research aims a better understanding of human behavior, and why. It is mainly investigating the reasons and methods of human decision-making, not just what decisions that people make, when and where only.This research method can be more deeper, using multi-angle and multi-channel to explore motivation of people. The researcher can study dynamic processes. It provides in- depth or individual case information. Data are usually collected in naturalistic settings. The time required for the project is short and it is most suitable for exploratory research. Although the qualitative analysis is more rough, but it is suitable when there is insufficient data. 

There are some weaknesses of qualitative research. Qualitative research generally takes more time to collect and analyze the data. The result are more easily influence by the researcher's personal biases. It can not be inferred overall and difficult to set a conclusion the market. Also, the knowledge produced might not generalized to other people or other settings. 

In my research project, I prefer to choose the topic of online communities. Many people in the online space, the actual level of participation is higher than in the family, school and public policy areas. This trend has been maintained for a period of time, even it is a rising phenomenon. Using online communication, will the interpersonal communication strengthen or weaken our physical interaction? I found that it is the most attractive topic that I interested in. 

Qualitative research method would be appropriate for my research topic. Using observation and in-depth interviews to get the first hand information. Advantages of observation not only observe the reasons for action of the observer, attitude, action decisions. By participating, we can get the feel of being a member of particular social context, which can fully understand from the action. Then, using the inductive method, gradually transformed from concrete to abstract, as well as the formation of theory.

Student Name: Yip Tsz Yau, Grace