Interpretive Inquiry as Qualitative Communication Research

Qualitative communication research approaches vary from grounded theory and participant-observation to Q-sort, content analysis, and ethnographic inquiry—to name but a few. What often rests outside the qualitative rubric is the hermeneutic tradition of interpretive scholarship. This essay unites interpretive inquiry and qualitative research in summary fashion by outlining a macro understanding of qualitative communication inquiry, an interpretive approach to communication scholarship within a philosophical tradition entitled philosophical hermeneutics, and finally a public roadmap of how to understand and engage interpretive inquiry as a form of qualitative research in communication. This essay advocates interpretive inquiry as an additional contributor to the ongoing tradition of qualitative research in communication.     

Advancing communication as a science: Research opportunities from the federal sector

The centrality of communication in health promotion is described in Healthy People 2010: Objectives for Improving Health, which noted that "health communication can contribute to all aspects of disease prevention and health promotion." In this paper we build on this argument by suggesting that communication science can be advanced by pursuing a "big-science" strategy where important and challenging questions about the role of communication in modern life are studied through rigorous research designs and research findings are applied to addressing significant social issues and problems. A significant dimension of a "big-science" strategy is the pursuit of programs of research using longitudinal designs and large samples with adequate controls. Given that such large-scale studies necessarily involve funding, we review some major funding initiatives and programs in different agencies of the federal governmental.     

Advancing communication as a science: Research opportunities from the federal sector

The centrality of communication in health promotion is described in Healthy People 2010: Objectives for Improving Health, which noted that "health communication can contribute to all aspects of disease prevention and health promotion." In this paper we build on this argument by suggesting that communication science can be advanced by pursuing a "big-science" strategy where important and challenging questions about the role of communication in modern life are studied through rigorous research designs and research findings are applied to addressing significant social issues and problems. A significant dimension of a "big-science" strategy is the pursuit of programs of research using longitudinal designs and large samples with adequate controls. Given that such large-scale studies necessarily involve funding, we review some major funding initiatives and programs in different agencies of the federal governmental.     

Investigative Reporting in the Networked Media Environment

The internet and social media sites are used extensively by violent extremist actors, providing new areas of inquiry for journalists reporting violent extremism. Based on 26 in-depth interviews with Norwegian media professionals, the present article describes how journalists monitor, assess, and make use of online information in investigative reporting of violent extremist groups in today’s networked media environment, characterized by complex interaction patterns, a plurality of voices, and blurred boundaries between private and public communication. While existing research on journalists’ use of social media as a source has tended to emphasize breaking news, the present article focuses on longer-term investigative efforts of journalists. The article gives insights into journalistic investigative practices in the networked media environment, in general, and in reporting violent extremism, in particular.     

Philosophy of Communication: Qualitative Research,Questions in Action

Qualitative research meets and gathers insight and information, commencing with the particular. Qualitative research moves us from reductive and abstract engagement to experience of the subject matter before us. Philosophy of communication, understood as qualitative research in action, centers inquiry on questioning, reading, writing, editing, thinking, and interpretation. These five qualitative acts of inquiry are not isolated categories, yet they are simultaneously distinct characteristics within philosophy of communication scholarship. I contend that these five coordinates facilitate the performative engagement of philosophy of communication inquiry. I offer a story centered on five research coordinates, explicated with scholars repeatedly referenced in philosophy of communication literature. I engage these scholars in a manner akin to Walter Benjamin’s (1968) “pearl diving,” seeking insight from selected parts of their copious contributions. Their collective insights function as threads with which I weave a story about the doing of philosophy of communication.     

ICV：信息交流的可视化模型*

针对如何研究信息交流的复杂过程这一问题,提出一种基于信息可视化的方法。在分析信息交流本质的基础上,选取最能反映信息交流本质的特征进行可视化,给出一个信息交流可视化的ICV模型,设计原型系统说明其可行性,在企业决策、社会问题分析中的实用性;最后指出下一步的改进。     

In-the-works of understanding workaholism

Ethnographic research probes both contextually situated and personally resonate values in ways that may provoke ethical tensions for researchers. Reflecting on my fieldwork, I demonstrate how my engagement with recovering workaholics disturbed the ontological security underlying my long-held understandings of “work ethic” and success. Subsequently, I encourage applied communication scholars to embrace the uncertainties they discover through their work—not as sites for resolution, but rather as sources for ongoing, heuristic inquiry.     

Diffusion of Innovations: Communication Evolution and Influences

Diffusion of innovations research has altered the research trajectories of those in the field of communication. In this article, the authors briefly explore the evolution of diffusion research, in terms of theoretical influences and applied research advances, and then address how the evolution of diffusion of innovations provided the impetus for a communication discipline identity search. An explication of how diffusion of innovations can be viewed as mechanistically affecting media convergence is presented. This piece closes with a call to return to diffusion research, especially given the face of current communication vehicles and media convergence.     

What is Your Fitness Tracker Communicating?: Exploring Messages and Effects of Wearable Fitness Devices

Although studies have investigated how the technical features of wearable fitness trackers promote physical activity, we understand less about how communication surrounding such devices may contribute to their success. Addressing current opportunities for inquiry is important, as the popularity of fitness trackers and other wearable devices grows. Through interviews with 25 people wearing fitness devices, this study elucidates how and with whom people communicate fitness tracker messages and explains the effects of sociomaterial practice on interactions between wearable fitness device users. Our findings show the vital role of communication in sharing and encouraging physical activity.     

Exponential Random Graph (p*) Models as a Method for Social Network Analysis in Communication Research

Since the 1970s, communication researchers have utilized social network analysis to understand mass, health, organizational, and interpersonal communication. This article introduces communication researchers to a new class of social network analysis methods, exponential random graph (p*) models. This new method represents the latest advancement in social network methodology and will enhance the trajectory of social network research in the communication discipline. The benefits of this class of models include allowing for the simultaneous estimation of attribute and structural parameters, accounting for the interdependent nature of network data, and retaining the complexity of network observations throughout the analysis. An example analysis using data from Shumate, Fulk, and Monge (2005) is provided to illustrate the potentials of exponential random graph modeling. Five different social network software programs capable of the analysis discussed in this article are introduced with regard to their respective benefits. Finally, a brief tutorial based on data from Palazzolo (2005) is given on how to conduct an ERGM analysis using the PNET software program.     

Does communication matter in social influence during small group discussion? Five positions

Social influence has been a central area of inquiry since the beginning of research in small group communication. Nonetheless, controversy concerning whether communication matters in group discussion is relevant to the hypothesized impact of communication on social influence during discussion. In this paper, five positions concerning the functions that communication performs in social influence during group discussion are described, each with enough research backing to be considered viable. The question of whether communication matters in social influence during group discussion boils down to the question of which of these functions “count as” communication mattering.     

What I had,what I needed: First-year students reflect on how their high school experience prepared them for college research

This article is a continuation of the First-Years study (Valenza et al., 2022) that investigated college research readiness among novice and non-novice first-year students. This paper offers analysis of additional qualitative data from first-year college students reflecting on their high school preparation, levels of confidence regarding research and specific information literacy (IL) skills and how academic research differed from their previous inquiry experiences. Findings of this study hold implications for the instructional design of IL and underscore the need for heightened preparation in research and IL skills at the high school level and particularly for moving beyond the mechanics of research toward a focus on the critical thinking aspects of inquiry. Based on these findings, the researchers offer a three-part taxonomy of IL skills: information management, critical thinking, and metacognitive skills that could be used to guide the instructional design of IL at both the high school and college levels.     

A Theory of Political Campaign Media Connectedness

The study of political mass communication information outlet effects has been dominated by two types of studies, those which focus on a single outlet and those which look at the comparative influence of multiple outlets. The current study seeks to advance a third study type by offering a theory of political campaign media connectedness. Three axioms are offered in this work. In addition, a series of hypotheses involving five political communication campaign information outlets (conservative political talk radio, FOX cable TV news, daily newspapers, national network TV news, debate viewing) are posited. This work emphasizes the need to understand how various information outlets function in coordination with one another to produce a potentially diverse set of direct and indirect political campaign media effects. Future lines of theoretical inquiry and empirical research are outlined.     

The Behaviorist in the Boardroom: The Research of Frank Stanton,Ph.D.

In 1946, at the age of 38, Frank Stanton was named President of CBS. While much of Stanton's work as a corporate executive has been chronicled, his accomplishments as one of America's earliest scholars of radio audience measurement remain neglected in media scholarship. This article reviews Stanton's research efforts between 1933 and 1942, and in doing so it places his work within the contexts of contemporaneous social and psychological media inquiry. Discussions of Stanton's methodological approach, his innovative dissertation, his scholarship, and his collaboration with key figures in the history of communication research are informed by primary and secondary sources.     

It Takes an Academic Village: The Library’s Role in Supporting Interprofessional Communication through a Book Club

Book clubs offer a unique opportunity to support interprofessional learning on academic campuses. The purpose of this article is to discuss how a health sciences library partnered with the Center for Interprofessional Healthcare Education to develop a book club that fosters interprofessional communication. The article includes a discussion of the opportunities, approach, results, and challenges.     

Ontology,Epistemology, Methodology,and Methods: Information for Librarian Researchers

Abstract

This article will help librarians understand how different philosophical stances influence the process of developing a research question and the different methodologies and methods available to help answer that question. Understanding this will help librarian researchers make appropriate choices regarding methods and methodology for the research questions they are seeking to answer. Also included is a table showing the two main types of inquiry (qualitative and quantitative) with their associated methodologies and methods, the basic assumptions underlying each, and the pros and cons of each methodology.     

The Value of Communication Science

In communication science, the distinction between applied and basic research is often accompanied by a discussion of the relative value of each. However, the idea that there is a value distinction to be made between applied and basic research is fundamentally inconsistent with scientific epistemology. Rather than different modes of inquiry with different relative value, communication science is a whole, constituted by applied and basic researchers who focus on different goals of science: to explain, to predict, and to control. An example is provided of a highly successful communication intervention created via the cooperation between applied and basic scholars.     

The Interplay Between Media Use and Interpersonal Communication in the Context of Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors: Reinforcing or Substituting?

This study aims to explore how media use for health information and interpersonal health communication interact in the context of healthy lifestyle behaviors. This study hypothesizes that media use for health information and interpersonal health communication will serve as substitutes for one another. To test this hypothesis, this study uses a nationally representative survey of 2,107 civilian, noninstitutionalized adults in the United States. The results show that the associations between television use and Internet use and healthy lifestyle behaviors are enhanced among those who talk about health issues with their family and friends less frequently, which supports the substitution model. The implications that these findings have for future research are discussed.     

Measuring Value in Open Access Repositories

Open access institutional repositories were created to promote access to information, encourage scholarly communication, and demonstrate institutional prestige. While these repositories have been widely adopted, the quality of their contents often fails to represent their institution's scholarly output. Moreover, current research uses measurements of quantity, not quality, to assess their value. In response, this article opens new areas of scholarly inquiry by assessing the quality of contents. This is accomplished through a cross-sectional study of repositories at American colleges and universities across the academic spectrum, using citation indexing to identify an institution's articles and authors of highest impact.