Aspects of the Paradigmatic Analysis - Literature review Example

Research Paradigmatic Analysis Introduction Since their introduction by Thomas Kuhn, the notions of paradigm, revolutionary science and paradigm shifts have become influentially used in humanistic scholarship as well as in social sciences, which include the interdisciplinary field of communication (Jensen and Neuman 2013). According to Kuhn (1970) describe paradigms as fundamental points of views used to characterise science. Taylor, Kermode and Roberts (2007) define a paradigm as a broad view or perspective of something. Weaver and Olson (2006) define it as “patterns of beliefs and practices that regulate inquiry within a discipline by providing lenses, frames and processes through which investigation is accomplished” (p. 460). A paradigm helps clarify both the methodological choices and structure of inquiry. There are four paradigms developed by social scientist for looking at communication. They include; positive paradigm, systems paradigm, interpretive paradigm and critical paradigm. According to Jensen and Neuman, “Paradigmatic analysis is pervasive in the field of communication” (2013, p. 232). The term paradigm has been used in this field to denote tensions and transitions in the field of study. Overview of Analysis Articles This paper is a review and contrast of two contemporary research based journal articles within the field of communication; ‘Maternity clinic going online: mothers’ experiences and online health information for parent support in Finland’, a study carried Palmen and Kouri (2012) and ‘A strategic framework for targeting generation Y via social media: public relations results and implications’ by Todd and Campbell (n.d.). The two papers were settled on since they focus on the use of social media, an area that is shaping communication paradigms in the contemporary times. Intellectual reassessment has been necessitated by changing historical conditions. Therefore, new paradigms are trying to emerge due to the contemporary digital environment and the forms of media use it presents. The review and contrast will focus on the paradigms, methodology and methods used in communication research. Palmen and Kouri (2012) study is an exploratory qualitative study that examined the experiences of seven mothers using a web service offering social media tools and health information for parental support. This service was created in a pilot service innovation study as an extension to standard preventive and counselling services that are provided by a local primary care maternity clinic in Finland. The study reported that social media was an important tool in creating a virtual community as well as creating a feeling of belonging, through which a maternity clinic can offer social support to parents with small children. The health information provided through the service was not sufficiently utilised as the study found out. On the other hand, Dodd and Campbell (n.d) is a survey which examined Generation Y’s desires and expectations in regards to organizational social media use and compared it with the findings of Wright and Hinson (2009) study) which examined the use of social media by Public Relations (PR) practitioners. The study established that there is need for PR practitioners to increase their efforts to engage the Y generation in dialogue through the use of social media tools. This would enable them to draw closer to the expectations of the Y generation. Methodologies According to Ellen (1984), methodology is “an articulated, theoretically informed approach to the production of data” (p. 9). These are ways of determining whether theories used represent reality or not in ways commonly agreed. Methodologies used in communication research could be either qualitative or quantitative. Qualitative research is interested on depth rather than breadth (Ambert et al 1995). In addition, “the aim of qualitative research is to learn about how and why people behave, think and make meaning as they do, rather than focusing on what people do or believe on a large scale” (Amber et al 1995, p. 880). Qualitative research focuses on discovery rather than verification. On the other hand, a quantitative study is a structured investigation that is focused on numerical, mathematical and statistical data. Quantitative research involves counts and measures of things. The measurements used in a quantitative study are important since they link the quantitative data obtained to the empirical observations made (Kormak, 1991). Burns and Groove (1987) says that this method uses the deductive approach of obtaining knowledge to test, examine and describe cause and effect relationships. Dodd and Campbell (n.d) is a qualitative research using the survey method while Palmen and Kouri (2012) is a qualitative exploratory study. Dodd and Campbell (n.d.) compare their findings to those of a study carried out in 2009 by Wright and Hinson. The study had explored the use of social media by PR practitioners while the current study uses Generation Y and their expectations and desires in regards to how organisations use social media. The variables in the study are PR practitioners and their use of the social media and Generation Y’s expectation on organizational use of social media. The sample population is generation Y – members from mid-sized universities born between 1982 and 2001. This survey used closed ended-questionnaires and demographic measures to filter Generation Y, that is, year of birth and gender. Naturalistic qualitative research include characteristic like questionnaires, ethnographic studies, in-depth interviews and participant observations. As Amber et al. (1995) notes, qualitative research does not focus on what people do on a large scale but it rather focuses on a particular group and investigate, not what they do, but how and why they do what they do. On the other hand, quantitative methodology deductively test theory from existing knowledge by coining hypothesized relationships and projected outcomes for the research (Cormark, 1991). Palmen and Kouri (2012) use an exploratory methodology to “understand the behaviour of the mothers in the digital social and information environment and to explore their own interpretations and meanings given to it.” (p. 192). Explorative research offers a greater understanding to a situation. Rather than providing measurement that quantifies data, an exploratory research design provides a better understanding of a concept about a topic. Certain characteristics typify an exploratory descriptive research design. It is flexible and allows for the examining of all aspects of the problem being studied. It also aims at developing new knowledge. Furthermore, descriptive research provides and accurate description of a situation. Both studies explored the expectations of social media users; mothers and Generation Y. According to Ambert et al. (1995) there is an interweaving between theory data and methods. Some researchers prefer not to commit themselves in developing theoretical implications and opt to let it flow from the data that emerges. However, as Strauss and Cobin (1990) assert, there is need to clearly state the emerging theoretical framework and it should be correlated to existing empirical literature. None of the study explicitly states the research assumptions and the guiding theory. However, the theory of social identity is used in both studies. According Ashforth and Mael (1989), social identification is acuity of oneness in a group of people. Social identity theory creates the feeling of oneness by bringing people who belong to a particular social group together through activities congruent to the identity of the group. Social media is a virtual way of creating groups whose activities help them belong together. Paradigms The two papers centre around organizational communication since Palmen and Kouri (2012) deal with the use of social media sent to the maternity mother through the social media while Dodd and Campbell (n.d.) seeks to find out how communication sent by PR practitioners is taken by Generation Y. Putnam (1982) says that there are four major paradigms that surround organizational communication; radical humanist, radical structuralist, interpretive and functionalist. Some of the paradigms in communication research include early positivism, social-psychological and cybernetics. Researches that look for external and psychological causes of communication behaviour are seen to have the impact of positivism. Researches that look at media effects have been cited to use the positivist perspective. Thus Palmen and Kouri (2012) study used this kind of perspective. Positivist paradigm is based on the belief of an objective reality, studies variables and seeks to explain whether there are causal relationships between the variables and if there are, it seeks to explain them. In Dodd and Campbell’s (n.d.) study, Generation Y has exist in the era of technological advancement and use of the internet. Therefore, this generation would have expectations and desires to access PR services through the popular medium; the social media. This is also reflected in Palmen and Kouri (2012), where mothers of these post-modern times expect and use as important a service as maternity care and counselling through the social media. However being done in the contemporary times, both studies contain the paradigms of modernity and post-modernity. Technology is a major determiner of the paradigm adopted. Social media has been viewed as a post-modern way of life and organization trying to understand what the audience need in terms of organizational services offered reveals the nature of post-modern perspective. Katz (1987), observes that communication paradigms keep on changing especially with technological advancement. The technological paradigms, as Katz (1987) comments, have shifted communication focus from influence to information. By measuring the interests of media uses, for different purposes, the two studies explore how ordinary people think about the power that media has. The views and perspectives of mothers have on using social media to obtain maternity counselling in Palmen and Kouri’s (2012) study as well as the perspectives and perceptions Generation Y have on the use of social media by PR practitioners denotes what researchers term as radical humanist view. Here, Ethnography is used to study both community and individuals use media to interact and mobilise. Both studies fall in the category of organizational communication and the use of social media in meeting the expectations or needs of their audience. Interesting to note, trends on globalization focus on the youths and females. While Palmen and Kouri (2012) used mothers as their sample, Dodd and Campbell (n.d) used gender as a major measure to select their sample. This serves to emphasis communication paradigms shift to feminism. According to Feree (1990) feminism is another paradigm in qualitative research. Ambert et al. (1995) explains that in feminism, there are overarching concerns and a general paradigm to explain the structural position and the existential experiences of women” (p. 882). Although not radically expressed feminism in this two studies is evident and the underlying theory is social constructivism as well as social identification. Conclusion Communication research, like many other fields of research has been evolving over the years. Nevertheless, one underlying factor is that communication research uses triangulation or multiple approaches. In addition there is a marrying of traditional paradigms with contemporary ones in most communication researches. Communication research majorly used the qualitative methodology since the methodology aims at explaining the social phenomena. However there are studies that adopt the quantitative methodology. This appraisal found out that technology and gender consciousness mark communication research paradigms. Both studies used for this analysis concentrated on social media use and skewed towards gender. In addition, the use of technology has shaped and will continue to shape the refining of communication research paradigms. Traditionally communication research concentrated on media effects, but apparently, social constructivism and social identity, embedded in the use of social media, shift the focus on gratification and how the audience determine media use. 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