Theme 6: Qualitative and case study research - Pre-reflection

Research paper

Paper: Publicly Private and Privately Public: Social Networking on YouTube by Patricia G. Lange (2007)

Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication - Impact factor: 3.117

This paper is of a study done on YouTube habits and video sharing trends. The study was ongoing for one year and observations made several times a week. Each observation gathered data of videos posted and comments made. They also studied how the participants chose to share content, whether it was fully public who they were and to whom they shared or fully private and within selected reaches.

1. Which qualitative method or methods are used in the paper? Which are the benefits and limitations of using these methods?

A very apparent and sturdy fact that this study has used a qualitative method is that it went on for a whole year, gathering data several times every week. This means a very thorough research of fewer number of participants giving the authors a detailed view of their behaviour and sharing mindset on YouTube. To complement this comprehensive data gathering, semi-structured interviews were held with 54 participants, most of which were in their early 20s to get in-depth insight in their interaction on YouTube. These methods enabled Lange to initially get broad data of user interaction that was later on backup and and possible to further understand through the interviews. However, interviews always mean a risk for flaws since their outcome can be subjective or personal to that specific participant. One mustn’t forget that even though conducting a study this thorough can give great data it does require loads of time. A whole year for just the data collection.

2. What did you learn about qualitative methods from reading the paper?

The main thing I learnt about qualitative methods that added to my previous perception was more or less the insight of how methods can vary. Even though two different studies conducted over very different time spans, interview styles et cetera they can both be classified as qualitative. They can both be very time consuming or rapid or differ in a number of other ways as well.

3. Which are the main methodological problems of the study? How could the use of the qualitative method or methods have been improved?

Even though this study was very well executed with well thought through methods, no study is perfect. What would have made this study better is if it were narrowed down and target more towards a specific group. Thus also narrowing the age span of the interviewees, from the broad 9-45 and down to maybe 16-26.

Case study

Paper: Strategies for designing effective psychotherapeutic gaming interventions for children and adolescents by Dion H. Goh, Rebecca P. Ang, Hui Chern Tan. Published in Computers in Human Behaviour (Impact factor: 2.694) 2008.

1. Briefly explain to a first year university student what a case study is.

A case study is research with the mission for in-depth, close-up and detailed examination of the case’s topic. It can be either quantitative, qualitative or a combination of the two. According to Kathleen Eisenhart, published in Academy of Management, a case study is a strategy that focuses on understanding the dynamics present within single settings. It can involve multiple cases and levels of analysis and often combines different types of data collection methods.

2. Use the "Process of Building Theory from Case Study Research" (Eisenhardt, summarized in Table 1) to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of your selected paper.

In this paper, the authors aim to examine how the uprising trend of computer games can be used in the field of mental health problems. The overall task is to review literature and studies suggest a set of guidelines for designing psychotherapeutic games.

In order to conduct this study, the authors start of with by stating that there is little substantiated ground that supports the paper’s goal; how effective psychotherapeutic games can be. Previous research examining mental health of adolescents and children could not sturdy the study enough for any fair conclusions. These were based on online findings as well as articles and books that were of interest.

All the initial research laid base for hypothesis that games could, if designed right, function as a helpful measures when treating mental illness. But also highlighted the possible downsides that could follow if games were misused, issues such as addiction.

The bottom line ends up saying that the games can assist as treatment tools but not solely provide all measures necessary for full alleviation or recovery.