Research Methodologies in Communication Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Methodologies in Communication - Research Paper Example In the field of communication, quantitative research seeks to establish communication as a behavioral science. The researchers using this method use the scientific models to show the effect of different aspects of communication. Some of the research areas include areas such as, the effect of medical marijuana advertisements on the American population, and the effect of violence games on children. The qualitative research methods produce reliable and quantifiable data that can be generalized to represent a greater population. The weakness that this method has is that it removes the research from the human behavior perspective (Weinreich1996). This makes the information to lose touch with reality by ignoring the factors that were not included in the research. Qualitative research methods are important in exploring a singular occurrence of importance. The methods used include interpretation of data and observation through personal interviews and ethnography. These research methods seek to explain a research question or problem from the perspective of the population that the research is conducted (Mack, Song et al. 2011). When it comes to matters dealing with opinions, behavior, values as well as social contexts of a community, qualitative research methods are effective to do the research. Using this method is advantageous in that it describes complex situations of how people deal with, or perceive a particular research issue. In examining the occurrence, they make reference to the full context of the phenomenon.