Breaking Boundaries: Can We Bridge the Quantitative Versus Qualitative Divide Through the Study of Entertainment and Politics?
Year: 2013
Type: article
Abstract: The breaking of boundaries extends to those among different theoretical and methodological traditions. In this essay, I attempt to clarify and critically assess two such divides: those between “positivism,” “critical studies,” and “cultural studies”; and the related but distinct divide between quantitative and qualitative research. Drawing on and critiquing Anderson and Baym, I make the case that (a) positivism has potential as a complement and supplement to, and perhaps even a collaborator with, critical and cultural studies; (b) quantitative methods, once untangled from some of positivism’s more restrictive tenets, can be a useful tool for critical and cultural studies scholarship; and (c) the study of entertainment and politics may provide a unique opportunity for rethinking some of our field’s reified boundaries in ways that could produce a more integrated approach to the study of media and politics.
Author: Michael X. Delli Carpini
Language: English
Subfield: Communication
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W1489318608