contemplating digital orality

Vaitkus, S. (2000). Phenomenology and Sociology. In Bryan S. Turner (Ed.). The Blackwell Companion to Social Theory. Second ed. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers.

In this chapter from the larger text on social theory, Vaitkus discusses phenomenology in general and specifically, the sociological approach. He details phenomenology as originating with Edmund Husserl and explains the difficulty in clearly defining it, since it is seen by different scholars as different things from a philosophy, a paradigm, a school, and even “a general orientation or style of methodological thinking in systematically analyzing the world” (270). Other key scholars of phenomenology include Merleau-Ponty (see Phenomenology of Perception), Sartre, and Heidegger. Read the rest of this entry »

Creswell, John W. Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design : Choosing among Five Traditions. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1998.

For my dissertation study, I chose to use a qualitative method (or series of methods), due to its multi-method focus, interpretive approach, and purpose. Qualitative studies analyze and interpret observations to discover meanings and patterns of relationships including social/human, classification, and other. Conversely, quantitative methods are aimed more toward using mathematical models, such as statistics, to gather measurable information. Creswell defines qualitative research as, “an inquiry process of understanding based on distinct methodological traditions of inquiry that explore a social or human problem” (15). In this way, it is logical to apply a qualitative perspective since my study is largely about social interaction, distance communication, and the way that participants perceive the experience of communicating through asynchronous video means. Read the rest of this entry »

Here is the methodology from my final pre-proposal submitted in May 2010. I am posting it now, since the blog posts over the next three weeks will all be on my dissertation methods.

The nature of this study–examining an online communication method–is one of social acts. Using a social phenomenological inquiry to examine this subject as an intrinsic case study model, this study will critically examine and apply an embedded analysis on the use of the OVC in the AOC to determine the participant-perceived social presence level, the characteristics that lead to that perception, how participants interact through this method, and the features that allow or invoke that interaction. “A phenomenological study describes the meaning of the lived experiences for several individuals about a concept or the phenomenon” (Creswell, 1998). In this type of study, researchers search for the essence of the phenomenon and the meaning of the experience for participants. Read the rest of this entry »

Here is the Methodology that I intend to use for my dissertation. I will likely need to modify this a bit as I get closer to finalizing my proposal and to the point at which I will need to analyze the content. For now, this seems solid and logical for the topic and data that I plan to collect. Read the rest of this entry »