Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research
Research provides data and said materials can be presented in multiple ways in order to be analyzed. In this blog, I will focus on the different methods of research and their contributions to mass communication.
To begin, I would like to highlight a point that I found to be very well written from a journal regarding research methods for media studies which stated that, “Qualitative research: You may have heard it described as research-lite, an approach for the math-phobic that’s less rigorous or even easier than quantitative research — but truth be told, qualitative research is actually just as challenging, time-consuming and difficult to get right as its quantitative counterpart. While qualitative research can be controversial, contradictory, and ambiguous, it can also be inspiring, invigorating, and enlightening” (Brennen, 2012). Although this method is often looked down upon as it is less numerical and structured, I find that the details shared via qualitative research allow for better interpretation.
Moving forward to the numerical form of research, quantitative methods provide more concrete facts — they allow users to understand and compare apples to apples. As stated in an article for Lumen, “Quantitative methodologies draw heavily from research methods in the physical sciences explore human communication phenomena through the collection and analysis of numerical data” (Introduction to communication).
Personally, the frontoparietal cortex of my brain is not as developed as the other areas. Therefore, I am not a math person and lean more towards creativity and reading. Data is more easily transmitted for me via qualitative methods where I can interpret words and sentences vs. numbers. Although I find that both methods of research have their pros and cons, the best way to interpret data is through a combination of both.
