Want to know what the buzz is this week? I will tell you… Qualitative research.
This has been a main topic we have been discussing in class for the past week. It is the type of research that deals with rougher, less refined results that need to be organized. Something that is essential to know about qualitative studies is that they do not provide specific answers to questions, but instead gain explanations and narrative stories.
So, if you are looking for specific and direct answers try again! For example, to answer the question how many students take public relations research, you would use quantitative research by giving a survey to students. To find out how the students actually feel about the class it would make sense to use the ever popular qualitative method of conducting a focus group. Focus groups are the most common qualitative research method, but there are many others methods public relations researches use.
A method that I learned about while doing my presentation was ethnographic research. This was a form of qualitative research that I had never heard of before.. It consists of studying human behavior in its most natural context which involves observation of their behavior in a physical setting. This method really interests me because the person is fully committing themselves to this study. This website explains how to go about this particular research method. It is a great source to learn how to document everything correctly and it is a useful guide in general when dealing with ethnographic research.
To me though..this is a textbook type reference which is good, but for a college student, what can they relate to?
MTV!
An example I used in my presentation was MTV’s new hit series World Of Jenks . I think this show is a phenomenal example because one.. its an MTV show so therefore almost all of college students if they haven’t seen it, have heard of it, so it is easy to relate school work to. He physically puts himself into different environments each week to try and observe and understand the culture. Jenks interacts with people that range from homeless, to star rappers.
The question that I would propose to you is… would you let Jenks spend a week with you conducting ethnographic research?
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