Transcript chapter9

Interpreting Communication
Research
Ethnographic Observational Research
Chapter 9
Introduction to the Method
Research participants are observed as they behave in reallife situations
A major goal is to describe what people do in particular
settings, e.g., how politicians answer questions during press
conferences
Strengths and Weakness of
Ethnography
The main strength of ethnographic observational research
lies in its realism
The realism also accounts for its limitations
--lack of generalizability that survey research affords
--lack of control of variables
Coding Ethnographic Observations
Develop categories:
A. Inductively
- record what is said and done
-divide observations into categories
-discover the scripts, rules, codes
B. Deductively
-sort what is said into already established
categories
“Arguing for Justice: An Analysis
of Arguing in Small Claims
Court”
Working in small groups, summarize the study and
comment on its use of ethnographic observational
methods. For instance, could you defend the data
collection as validly describing communication
behavior?