Methodological Frameworks
"Paradigm" is defined by Guba and Lincoln (1998) as the "basic belief system or worldview that guides the investigator, not only in choices of method but in ontologically and epistemologically fundamental ways" (p. 195). The authors discuss four key research paradigms in social science: Positivism, Postpositivism, Critical Theory and Constructivism. The latter two differ most substantially from the former in epistemological considerations that understand knowledge to be constructed by and between people rather than to exist as an objective reality external of our values, experience and meanings (p. 208). In other words, the paradigms of Critical Theory and Constructivism stress the importance of interpretation based on understanding a perspective about reality rather than seeking existence of an external reality to individuals and the social or a generalized and universal truth.
Our research methods stand in the constructivist tradition that has evolved through various media audience research and drawing on feminist media research methodologies as well. Our constructivist approach is a step away from the long-standing media "effects" tradition to an "interpretive paradigm that centers the meaning-making process in a form and context that is available to us: the accounts and narratives of interviewees as they reflect with us on their experience of media in daily life" (Hoover, 2006, p. 292). "The term constructivist refers to the social construction of knowledge recognizing that knowledge is always generated in relation to the context—or series of contexts—in which it is created" (Hoover, Clark, and Alters, 2004).
Moores (1993) lists four key areas of contribution made by qualitative audience research: a.) Questioning the power of media to determine the meanings of a text, b.) Explaining how media genres appeal to diverse taste publics, c.) Highlighting the importance of the social relations, outside cultural influences, and the context of media consumption in understanding how media is used by audiences, and d.) Bringing attention to the ways in which media technologies are themselves used as symbolic inventories for meaning making (p. 5).
For a listing of key methods literature, click here.