The discipline of communication is marked by an increasing number of ways to understand. Given the research explosion, specialization has accordingly become a major way of dealing with research and methodological diversity. Within this context, this analysis is predominantly definitional, seeking to isolate the unique features of qualitative research. This analysis first provides a survey of six major definitions of and approaches to qualitative research. Second, commonly shared characteristics of qualitative research are outlined, including the role a natural setting plays in the research design,, the role of the research as both observer and participant, how subjects influence the content of a communication study, the influence of subject intentionality on the research report, and the pragmatic uses of qualitative research. Third, it is suggested that qualitative research is theoretically unique, satisfying the requirements for grounded theory. Finally, it is concluded that qualitative research is increasingly finding its own identity when viewed in terms of the goals and procedures of quantitative and critical approaches to communication.
Keywords: Qualitative, research, ethnography, grounded theory.
James W. Chesebro (Ph.D., University of Minnesota, 1972) is Distinguished Professor of Telecommunications in the Department of Telecommunications at Ball State University, Muncie, IN 47304-0540. Email: jwchesebro@bsu.edu. Deborah J. Borisoff (Ph.D., New York University, 1981) is Professor in the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University, New York, NY 10003. Email: djb1@nyu.edu.
This special issue of Qualitative Research Reports in Communication aptly deals with the question, “What makes qualitative research qualitative?” Despite the fact that the Eastern Communication Association already has a journal by this title, the question is entirely appropriate for several reasons.
First, the rich variety of every increasing methods within the discipline makes questions of definition more important than ever. At the broadest level, ways of generating knowledge are, at least, divided into three diverse camps: scientific, social scientific, or quantitative approaches; critical approaches; and quantitative approaches. In this regard, some rather amazing claims are made about differences among these three basic approaches. For example, while outlining his conception of the method of content analysis employed within a quantitative orientation, Krippendorff (2004, pp. 87-89) has maintained that qualitative scholars “tend to find themselves in a hermeneutic circle, using known literature to contextualize their readings of a given texts, rearticulating the meanings of those texts in view of the assumed contexts,” “resist being forced into a particular sequence of analytical steps,” “search for multiple interpretations by considering alternative voices,” and “apply criteria other than reliability and validity in accepting research results.” Because particular references to specific qualitative studies are not provided as these observations are made, it is difficult to determine the frame of reference guiding Krippendorff’s analysis. However, for a variety of qualitative scholars, these claims would be, at least, startling as a description of their orientation.
Second, each of the basic approaches to the study of communication has been continually growing its methodological complexity over time. Criticism constitutes a ready example of the growth in methodological complexity. In 1972, when Scott and Brock originally recognized the existence of diversity in rhetorical criticism, they spoke of the “plurality” in criticism created by three specific perspectives, each of which had two specific approaches or methods, namely the “Traditional” (neo-Aristotelian and historical approaches or methods), “Experiential” (eclectic and sociocultural-psychological approaches or methods), and “New Rhetorics” (grammatical-semantical and dramatistic approaches or methods) perspectives. Some thirty years later, in her third edition, Foss (2004) identifies some ten particular “critical approaches” to rhetorical criticism. At the same time, her list excludes approaches such as media and critical/cultural studies criticism. Moreover, the distinctions among “fantasy-theme criticism,” “feminist criticism,” and “ideological criticism” are not always clear, and it is unclear how these critical approaches are and are not distinct from the system of content analysis outline by Krippendorff as quantitative. But, there can be no denying that a marked increase in the number of diverse methods employed has occurred in communication.
Third, complicating matters even more, the language used to distinguish these basic approaches is often diverse, if not apparently contradictory. In this first section of this essay, we survey six of the different labels that have been used to deal with different dimensions and characteristics of qualitative research. We fully recognize that each of these labels deserves attention, and we fully recognize that each begins to reveal an important feature of what can be meant by qualitative research. At the same time, such diverse labels, each with a different set of referents and references, possesses the potential to confuse as much as it might clarify.
Thesis and Preview
Given the current state of research, it is more than appropriate to ask some essential definitional questions about what qualitative research is. In this analysis, we isolate some of the foundations that might be employed for identifying the province and unique features of qualitative research. We approach this task in four ways. First, we survey the diverse labels and definitions that have been used to define qualitative research. Second, we isolate five common characteristics that we ultimately think constitute a unifying definition of qualitative research. Third, we identify some important kinds of research questions and theoretical issues that define the concerns of qualitative researchers. Fourth, we return to our original point of departure in this essay and identify parameters for distinguishing quantitative, critical, and quantitative ways of knowing or basic approaches to understanding human communication.
Six Formal Definitions of Qualitative Research
One can, of course, speculate about why one basic approach to communication research might have so many labels. Certainly, as Lincoln and Denzin (2003) demonstrate in Turning Points in Qualitative Research, qualitative research has undergone profound transformations as new philosophical questions have been raised, as new theoretical orientations have been posited, as new methods have been articulated, and as the results of new applications have been integrated into existing philosophies, theories, and methods. For others, such as Wolcott (2005), quantitative research is being fundamentally and formally reconceived as an art rather than science. Finally, for others, such as Saldana (2003), qualitative research has been fundamentally redefined as an enterprise that should be understood in terms of time, and specifically in terms of a longitudinal framework. Any one of these explanations is tempting. We would embrace these perspectives as potentially revealing, but we also think that we have diverse labels for qualitative research because the scholars, researchers, artists, and critics associated with each label actually had a different conception and view in mind when they opted for the label they employed to characterize their endeavors. In each event, at this point, we think each label warrants attention.
1. Naturalistic Research Two dimensions have traditionally been used to define“naturalistic research” (Willems, 1969, p. 46). First, the researcher seeks to make the research experience as much a part of the subjects’ everyday environment as possible. A question of degree, the more a research project blends into and is a part of the daily experiences of subjects, the more the research findings are viewed as “naturalistic.” Second, research is viewed as more “naturalistic” if the behavior studied is restricted as little as possible by the researcher or by the design of the research project. In this regard, if a researcher asks you to complete a questionnaire in a classroom and the questionnaire provides you with only a limited number of responses to each question or statement on the questionnaire, the environment and the nature of the questionnaire itself would suggest the research project is extremely artificial rather than natural. On the other hand, if a researcher is one of your friends and you are unaware that he or she is observing your behaviors for a research project, you might believe your friend has been acting unethical and in a deceptive fashion, but the research project itself would be classified as “naturalistic” because the study was conducted in your everyday environment and the behaviors you displayed were not restricted, in any way, by the researcher or the design of the research project.