This week we once again had to read through our classmates blogs and comment on their topics and previous posts. Last week, we posted about qualitative research and how it is conducted and used in various aspects of the public relations field. The knowledge was mostly based off our classmate's presentations so there was a vast array of methods to choose from. I personally talked about ethnographic research in sports and how when a high school athlete is sent on recruiting trips for colleges they are immersing themselves in the culture of the university and becoming one of them, if only for a weekend. I was curious to see what other's took from class presentations and how they were able to apply it to their blog.
The first blog I looked at was Steph Ferris' post about blogs and qualitative research. She brought up some interesting topics and points I never would have thought of, or associated with qualitative research. She talked about how qualitative research is good at telling a story from the participants perspective. I thought that was a good way of putting it because we usually just talk about how it is their opinions and beliefs, but by phrasing it as them telling a story, it gives more credit to the participants.
She then took this one step further and said that blogging is the perfect example of qualitative research in this angle because blogging is a way for a subject to tell a story. The connection Steph made is something I would have never thought about or linked together. Another thing that was brought up was the idea of a diary being qualitative research. It is again a story being told by a certain subject. I wouldn't have ever thought of diaries being research because typically they are a private journal.
Overall Steph brought up the importance of social research and that it is going to be a great asset as social media continues to bloom in the industry.
Katerina Torres also focused her blog on social media, but instead of blogging she focused on social medias such as facebook. She brought up the fact that facebook has pages for companies, celebrities and products and that they often offer a discussion page. This discussion page is where the research is conducted. People can post their opinions on certain issues and from that researchers can go on and collect data.
The example Katerina used was about her favorite, and much of the country's favorite show, Glee. She mentioned how there is a character on the show whom happens to be her favorite, but often gets negative publicity for being rude or insensitive. Katerina went onto her facebook page to see what people were writing about her and found out that in fact the majority of facebook followers love her and had only good things to say about her. By Katerina doing this, she was conducting qualitative research. I never thought of this as being research because it was something we so often to. She really emphasized the point that research does not have to be formal or expensive or planned, but in fact we do it multiple times a day, everyday.
This made me think, if Katerina, a fan is doing this, are producers or editors or publicists doing this? It is a great way to find the new, hot, popular celebrity to use for an upcoming appearance or movie or photo shoot. It is a great way to get information on how the public receives your client or product. This form of research is definitely something that could be converted into a much more formal process.
Both girls talked about social media and the connection to qualitative research. I never really put the two together and always was under the impression research costs money and takes time, but they proved me wrong. It is simple, cheap and can be conducted under your own roof. It really is a great way for unobtrusive research to be conducted and for information to be gathered.
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