RESEARCH REPORT

PRO302 Public Relations Project

Seminar 3 Research design

Seminar objectives

•  To discuss collecting and analysing data •  To investigate ‘methodology’ and ‘epistemology’

and what these terms mean for your project

•  To present on their individual projects (as a work-in-progress) to harness feedback and engage students in the research process.

What is Epistemology?

Epistemology

•  The theory of the nature of knowledge: how do we know something? What does it mean ‘to know’? How is knowledge best produced?

•  These questions are important because they underpin the selection of methodology and influence choices about method.

•  Epistemology defines how a researcher conceptualises their role in producing knowledge.

Epistemological positions

•  Do you believe that detachment and objectivity from participants is the best way to generate ‘good’ knowledge?

•  Do you believe that closeness and engagement with participants is the most appropriate way to generate ‘good’ knowledge?

•  Do you think that ‘good’ knowledge is concerned with social change?

Why does it matter?

•  Locating the researcher: your beliefs and experiences shape the research you do

•  Justifying the choices you make in your research design: why did you choose interviews? A case study?

•  And identifying how this epistemological orientations influences your analysis and interpretation

From Dr Fitch’s PhD •  I work within a social constructivist epistemology

for the research reported in this thesis. … I do not believe historical sources, be they archives or interviews with participants in historical events, offer “a direct, unmediated and uncomplicated access to the past” (Thomson, 2012, p. 102) … as a researcher I am not a neutral instrument or data collector but part of the meaning-making that occurs through data collection, analysis, and interpretation and in the construction of an historical narrative. I therefore acknowledge my subjectivity in this study by identifying my involvement with the field under study as well as my philosophical orientation to history and research.

Research design

•  Different terms: methodology, research method, design of the research

•  Research design allows you to locate yourself in relation to the research, identify your epistemological perspective, and show how and why you designed your research this way.

•  You should draw on scholarly work to justify these design choices.

•  You should identify the scope and limitations of your study (including the limitations of your design).

Questions?