Interpreting Communication Research

1. Interpreting Communication Research Ethnography

2. Overview Ethnographers describe how communication occurs, rather than making “if-then” predictions or critiquing messages Ethnographers seek to infer patterns in Ss’ communication.(e.g., the opening of a telephone conversation, roles, ethnic groups, rules of etiquette and social class, behaviors deemed appropriate and competent) Ethnographers build theories from the ground up, rather than approaching their work armed with a theory

3. Overview Ethnography usually involves fieldwork they have direct contact with the people they study--they “gain entry” Ethnography studies communication as it occurs naturally in ongoing social context, e.g., in a home, business, or institution Ethnography is especially applicable when researchers want to study how people interact in a particular setting

4. Overview Ethnographers tend to subscribe to a symbolic interactionist approach to human communication As symbolic interactionists, ethnographers take the position that what people do is influenced primarily by their interpretations of (meaning they ascribe to) themselves, others, and the situations they are in This is in contrast to a positivist or behaviorist orientation that leads experimental researchers to seek universal laws regarding human behavior (see p. 248)

5. Conducting Ethnographic Research To describe interactions and to identify patterns that underlie them, ethnographers take one or both of these approaches: (a) External (etic) Approach (b) Internal (emic) Approach

6. Etic Approach • Focus on observable communication phenomena • cultural forces • environmental forces (OBSERVE)

7. Emic Approach • Infer a pattern from the observed data • how subjects think about their communication • what categories, assumptions, rules guide the Ss’ behavior (INTERVIEW)

8. The Logic of What Ethnographers Are Doing What they are not doing is testing a priori hypotheses They are themselves gathering and analyzing their own data They must take care not to impose their own preconceptions on their data--they are like a foreigner learning things afresh

9. Some Things Ethnographers Don’t Do or Can’t Do • They Don’t study a large and random sample from the population being investigated • They Can’t easily check on reliability • They don’t collect all their data and then analyze it--instead, collecting data and analyzing go back and forth

10. They Don’t Go from hypothesis to data collection They go from data collection to hypothesis--grounded theory