afl 521 interpretive

Media Research Methods:

Understanding Metric and

Interpretive Approaches ni James

Anderson

Randy T. Nobleza

11481161/ CLA PhArFil

3rd Term 2014-15

AFL 521d: Riserts sa Araling Filipino

Cross section

Chapter 11: Protocols for Experiments

Chapter 12: Coding Text

Chapter 13 Discursive Protocols: Creating Texts

Chapter 11: Protocols for Experiments

Experiments are the method of choice when testing

questions or hypotheses that involve causation – the

effect of one variable on another.

Experimental design attempts to isolate the relationship

between the variable that is thought to be the cause the

variable that will show the effect so that only those two

variables are in play.

The arguments follows Mill’s classic canon for A being the

cause of B: whenever A, then B (the sufficiency clause);

and no A, no B (the necessity clause). We demonstrate

Mill’s canons every time we flip a light switch: when the

electricity flows (A), the lamp glows (b): no flow, no glow.

Components of Experimental Design

There are four overarching components of experimental

design:

Causality

Theory

Control

ecological validity

Causality

Experimental design is built on a causal model. It is a test

of the possibility that one condition or set of conditions is

the result of another condition or set of conditions. The

first requirement of a competent experimental design,

then is the reasonable basis to hold the possibility of a

causal relationship between two variables or variable

sets.

Theory

Smith and Boster (2009)

This study begins with the premise that individuals attend

to mediated messages in the copresence and under the

extended influence of others/ that presence and

influence creates some part of the context in which

messages are interpreted.

Control

The purpose of experimental control is to establish

conditions such that the hypothesis provides a complete

explanation for the outcome. If the hypothesis fails to be

supported, it can be declared falsified. If it is supported, it

can be certified as supported.

Ecological Validity

Refers to the transferability of the results found under the

conditions of the experiment to the ordinary conditions

under which the constructs under study might present

themselves. Unfortunately, the issue of transferability is

fundamentally irresolvable

Chapter 12: Coding Text

Coding is a process that seeks to reach below the

surface manifestations of symbolic and discursive texts for

the purpose of identifying the underlying characteristics,

structures, social meanings and cultural work that such

texts have, produce, or enact.

Coding is done in both metric and interpretive research.

In metric research one typically has a template that

guides the investigation; in interpretive research, that

templates emerges from engagements of the texts.

Introduction to coding texts

A text is any symbolic or discursive form. A symbolic form

might be a framework of dance, a set of photographs, or

a visual narrative as well as a genre of music or natural

sound recordings.


Discourse is any extended language and symbolic use

that is under some common governance. A classroom

lecture, a magazine article, a strategic communication

campaign, a newspaper story, and even a tweet are all

discursive forms, because there are implicit rules that

govern topic, construction, word choice, and

performance that are recognizable in their performance

in their violation.


The analysis of texts is the bridge between metric and

interpretive in order to be complete. Theorists and

methodologists, naturally disagree on the relative

balance between these two. One of the reasons for this

disagreements is that the balance changes according to

the purposes of the analysis.

Analysis of Intentionalities

Any media text will show all of these intentionalities –

author (industry), text, auditor (audience), interpretation

(auditor/analyst) – either encoded in material fact or

latent in its potential for actualization.

Author (industry)

The usual method is to hold the source of the effect of

interest constant or common and let the other sources

vary. For example, if an analyst was interested in the

contributions of an author (actor/artist/auteur/etc.) the

analyst would look at a body of works by that author.

(Media) Text

of course a text cannot have an intention in the sense of

a foresight as to what the author should write next or how

the reader should make sense of it. But clearly, both

writer and reader have a set of expectations as to what

will come next based on what has preceded. Once even

the first few words are written or read, only certain

subsequent elements can be competently elaborated

while others will necessary be excluded and suppressed.

Auditor (audience)

Content analysis has a conflicted relationship with

audiences. On the one side, the reason we study content

is because we presume there is an audience for it and

that the content characteristics interact with or have

effects on that audience. On the other side, content

analysis, per se, cannot demonstrate either of those

presumptions.

Interpretation (Auditor/Analyst)

The intentionality of an auditor’s interpretation – the

action initiated or behavior produced – or the

governance of an interpretive community is even more

distant from the content analysis itself. Again, however it

is part of the justification for the analysis. The real

consequence of one’s engagement with content occur

in how the individual lives her or his life in interaction with

that content.

Chapter 13 Discursive Protocols:

Creating Texts

Producing and coding research texts

Whether it is a list of responses to an “Other” response

alternative or a set of stories told by respondents,

researcher-initiated or produced texts need to be

examined for both the conditions under which the texts

are produced and the analytical framework that is

applied to the subsequent texts themselves.

Coding texts: pulling it all together

The current fashion in media analysis is to use the term

text to refer to any semiotic (meaningful) object or

performance around which the analyst can place

plausible boundaries.

Consequently, radio and television programs, magazine

articles, the front page, blogs, tweets, social networking

site pages, the family performing “watching television”

interviews, stories, recorded observations, and even field

notes are all considered texts.

Any text can be coded.

Coding texts: pulling it all together

The texts of the problem

Approach to analysis

Unit of analysis

Coding

Analysis

Implications and Conclusions

Discursive protocols are not journalistic reviews of

particular programs, articles or other texts. Their purpose is

to draw some conclusion about larger issues.

afl 521 interpretive

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