Week 8: Post 3

I think that the most interesting part of the chapter besides the different research methodologies is the systematic ways of knowing. There is so much information that comes through research and these researchers need to make the decision of what is good data and what is bad data. I think the most interesting part of this section is when the book states that “researchers often set out to challenge a set of commonsense beliefs;” they are challenging old beliefs and creating new ones. One of the most important things to a researcher would be the research itself and for research to be useful it should have six basic characteristics. These characteristics are: is it question oriented, methodological, replicable, self-critical, cumulative and self-correcting, and cyclical. If the research does not incorporated these characteristics I suppose it is worth using for purposes other than learning purposes. This made me think of science classes and the research and experiments that we would conduct for the class. We were made to do lab write ups and I can remember that each experiment that we did all had the above criteria.

Week 8: Post 2

What comes to mind immediately when asked what moral dilemmas ethnographers face is: al the sneaking around and not telling people everything that is happening. First of all in ethnography there are times when researchers go “under cover.” Also, the researcher tries not to impose their own values and morals on the data which could in turn compromise the morals of the researcher. I feel like the only ways in which someone could resolve these problems would be to just block out the moral dilemma and tell yourself that everything you are doing whether it is right or wrong is for the research. Ethnographers are observing people and while they are observing people it is professional and scientific and not personal. If the researchers are keeping things professional and not personal then morals should stay out of it. I think that this is my least favorite chapter. All the others are so interesting because they can be applied to EVERYDAY life while this chapter is pretty much only relevant if you are doing some type of research.

Week 8: Post 1

I think that the most interesting of the research methodologies is the experimental research. Not only do you get to watch and see what happens you actually get to participate and control certain aspects of the research. If I wanted to study some aspect of deception…I really have no idea what this means. I suppose I could pose a question such as “How many people lie under pressure?” or something like that. To answer that question I suppose I could use the survey research but the problem with that is that people might not be completely honest which would ruin the study. Another research methodology that could be used in the situation could be the experimental research route which would just be more work but it would be more accurate. I think that ethnography would be the best for this research question. Because people might not want to be completely honest we could “go undercover” and find our answers as a participant.

Week 7: Post 3

The concept that stuck out to me in chapter 8 was the section on informal structures of organizational communication. These are the structures that are not necessarily taught with the intention of people using them, they are the structures that happen just by human nature. The grapevine for example cannot be assigned as a structure of communication, it is something that just happens by doing what we do best, talking. The book says that the grapevine is put into use when “people have personal interests and needs that are not satisfied by formal channels. I think that most people automatically think of rumors when we hear that someone “heard it through the grapevine” but apparently the majority of information that travels by way of grape vine is actually information that is valid and useful, while only a small portion is actually rumors. I had never really thought of the grapevine as a useful way to pass information because it is usually associated with passing rumors so I’m glad they included that.

Week 7: Post 2

I definitely agree with Marshall McLuhan in that “the channel through which a message is transmitted is as important as the message itself.” It makes complete sense to me. He uses the example of print media and that the message is displayed through linear logic which is a way of transmitting information “word after word, idea after idea.” After that he tells us that television uses a mosaic logic which is a bombardment of changing bits of information. The first thing I think of when I read this part of the chapter was that there are certain forms of media for almost everything that needs to be advertised. It would be more appropriate to advertise a concert on the radio or in print then on the television and it is now more appropriate to show news footage on the television that it is in print.

His idea that television is the cool medium is all about the people who are presenting the information to us. If you are straight to the point and super honest you’re considered “hotter” while if the viewer has to actually pay attention and try to figure you out, you’re considered “cooler.” It makes sense that television is a cool medium because you do have to “fill in detail” when you watch whoever is presenting information instead of just listening like we would on the radio.

Week 7: Post 1

I have never formed a relationship in cyberspace, but I do have relationships I have made in real life that now only exist in cyberspace. I have not created friendships through cyberspace because of the whole security issue. It is one thing if you just have a relationship over the internet but I think that meeting that person would be a little scary. You never know what you’re really going to get and that scares me. The reason that some of my friends that I have met f2f only exist in cyberspace now is because they were an acquaintance and Facebook just makes it so easy to keep track of your friends without ever really talking to them, kind of creepy I know. I think it would be interesting to have a friendship over cyberspace, just someone to talk to; you could tell them your darkest secrets and know that they are pretty safe. It would kind of be like a pen pal that you have never seen.