[Article] Mass Media and Communication Research and the Methods of Knowing

Scientific research is an organized, objective, controlled, qualitative or quantitative empirical analysis of one or more variables. The terms that define the scientific research method describe a procedure that has been accepted for centuries. In the sixteenth century, for example, Tycho Brahe conducted years of organized and controlled observation to refute many of Aristotle’s theories of the solar system and the universe.

All research, whether formal or informal, begins with a basic question or proposition about a specific phenomenon. For example, why do viewers select one television programme over another? Which sections of the newspaper do people read most often? Which type of magazine covers attracts the most readers? What type of radio format will attract the largest number of listeners? Which websites attract the most visitors? Which types of advertising are most effective in communicating messages to consumers? These questions can be answered to some degree with well-designed research studies. However, the task is to determine which data collection method can most appropriately provide answers to specific questions.

Methods of knowing in Communication Research  

There are several possible approaches to answering research questions. Kerlinger and Lee (2000), using definitions provided nearly a century ago by C.S. Peirce, discuss four approaches to finding answers, or methods of knowing: Tenacity, Intuition, Authority and Science. To this list, Wimmer and Dominick added Self-discovery.

v  Method of Tenacity: A user of the method of tenacity follows the logic that something is true because it has always been true. The idea is that nothing changes – what was good, bad or successful before will continue to be so in the future. For example, a business owner might say, “I don’t advertise because my parents did not believe in advertising.”

v  Method of Intuition: In the method of intuition, or the priori approach, a person assumes that something is true because it is ‘self-evident’ or ‘stands to reason.’ Some creative people in advertising agencies resist efforts to test their advertising methods because they believe they know what will attract customers. To these people, scientific research is a waste of time, and their advertising effectiveness usually suffers as a consequence.

v  Method of Authority: This method promotes a belief is something because a trusted source, such as a parent, a news correspondent, or a teacher, says it is true. The emphasis is on the source, not on the methods the source may have used to gain the information. During the late 1990s, this was shown not to be true.

v  Method of self-discovery: This method refers to things we learn and know without intervention from an outside source. While we may use information gathered from other sources to provide an answer to a question or problem, self-discovery is evident when a person synthesizes a variety of information to come to a decision about something, or maybe even to invent a new product or service. Self-discovery involves using one or more of the other methods of knowing, but the difference is that the discovery was made alone.

v  Scientific Method: This is a series of small steps, and unlike the other methods of knowing, it has several definable characteristics.

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Mass Media Research by Wimmer and Dominick