torsdag 28 november 2013

Theme 4: Quantitative Research


This week I have read the article “Facebook and texting made me do it: Media-induced task-switching while studying” by Larry D. Rosen, L. Mark Carrier and Nancy A. Cheever (2013).

In this study 263 Middle School, High School and University Students were observed during a study session of 15 minutes in their own home. They did this by educating 263 student observers, in how to take minute-by-minute notes on what the subject of study was doing (on-task studying, texting, browsing the internet, eating etc.). Each observer could chose up to three friends to observe while studying for a period of 15 minutes in his/her own home. The authors hoped to come up with strategies on how to cope with technical stress and how to make studying more efficient and on-task.  

All these minute-by-minute notes were collected, and by using regression analysis they could see several interesting patterns regarding study attitude and how likely a student would be off-task while studying during these 15 minutes. For instance: students, who had a preference to finish one task before moving on to the next task, were significantly more likely to be off-task while studying, and that students who checked their Facebook at least once during the 15 minute study period did in fact have lower grade-point average than the average study group person.

The limitation to this study is that they had to depend on the observers, who had no other experience than the received training session on how to take notes. The authors had no means to check whether notes were taken in a correct or uniform way.  It is also likely that the subjects who were observed tried harder than usual to stay on task during these 15 minutes of study as compared with if they would have been alone in their room. The benefit with being observed by a friend, and this was important for the study, was that the studies could take place in an environment as normal as possible for the students, and without feeling uneasy about being observed by a stranger.

In this paper, as well as the paper I read last week, I found it interesting how they excluded tests persons from the study and on what grounds they did so. I guess you have to exclude people, because not everybody will conform to the study or respond to questionnaires, it just had not occurred to me that you need to declare also those people in the research paper.  I also realized that I am not up to date with all the statistics calculations they perform.

As discussed above I think the main methodological problem in this study is that the test persons who are being observed while studying might not behave like they normally would, even though they tried their best to make them feel comfortable at home. If they had filmed them during a week with a video camera, it might be more realistic as the test people might forget about being observed. This however would make the study more expensive and it would be more difficult to collect all the data (like number of open pages on the computer during the study session).  

Quantitative methods:

In a quantitative research the goal is to determine the relationship between one thing (an independent variable) and another (a dependent or outcome variable). In my study above the independent variable was "distractions during studying" and the outcome variable the "grade point average".

The benefit of using a quantitative method is that it tries to control the study environment in order to isolate and recognize the variables in study. It aims to collect a large amount of data to study, and when it comes to study people, it tries to use a large and random group in order to have results which are representative over the entire population. The limitations lie in setting up the test case not tainted with outside-the-study variables, as well as finding a test group that is in representative of everybody.   

Qualitative methods:

Qualitative research method try to investigate the how and why of question, and generally investigates the human side to problems and peoples experiences. It generally generates rich, detailed data that leave the participants' perspectives intact. With this kind of study the difficulty is making sure your results are broad enough to make general recommendations. It is often more difficult to collect a large amount of data using this method, and you need to rely on a narrower field of view or results. The smaller data-references might make it more difficult detect false or fabricated and unrealistic answers.   

References:


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Reflection on Research and Theory

The main focus during this week was “theory”, and on this topic we studied “The Nature of Theory in Information Systems” by Gregor (2006) as well as the paper with the unusual title “What Theory is Not” by Sutton & Staw (1995). During the two seminars this week we have reflected on the definition and use of “theory”, both in scientific ways and in daily use.

The concept of theory (in short being a proposition that is scientifically verified by empirical tests) might come across as not that complicated to understand, especially when compared to lots of other principles we need to digest as students of KTH. What makes it confusing, in my opinion, is the rather contradictory way we use the word theory in our daily life. When we say “I have a theory about this”, we imply that the idea we have is not backed up by any evidence about the underlying facts. Our daily use of “theory” more resembles the definition of a hypothesis, and it drains the “market value” of the scientific term theory.

In marketing I would compare this theory-confusion with brand names that have become everyday nouns, like “Thermos”, “Band-aid” or “Frisbee”. At a first glance it might seem like great PR for the product, but in fact it generally becomes a real trouble for the company who tries to advertise the original trademark as it is worn out by everyday use and confused with other products of lower quality, which all reflect back on the authentic and typically high quality product.    

Another thing I have realized this week is the importance of defining and limiting your research properly. In early research this might make us readers frustrated as it seems too simple, and they seem not to be able learn a lot by their experiments. One very interesting example we discussed during our seminar was an early study of vision-replacement by sound. A study was able to prove that blind test persons could match two socks with the same color, when they listened to a noise which varied with color. 

It was interesting to both read and talk about the large variety of research papers which have been studied this week. The variety of information and scientific research which actually is available online continues to amaze me. Maybe Adorno and Horkheimer were right, and we should worry about how much time people choose to spend looking at pictures of cute kittens, rather than “enlightenment”.  


References:
Gregor, S. (2006). ”The Nature of Theory in Information Systems.” MIS Quarterly, 30(3), 611-642.

Sutton, R. I. & Staw, B. M. (1995). “What Theory is Not.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 40(3), 371-384.

English Teacher Melaine, “Vocabulary – Xerox, Kleenex, and Roller Blades: When Brand Names Become Regular Nouns!”, Published on March 14, 2012, last updated (no date).  Available here: http://www.englishteachermelanie.com/vocabulary-xerox-kleenex-and-roller-blades-when-brand-names-become-regular-nouns/
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torsdag 21 november 2013

Theme 3: Research and Theory

Journal Description:

The Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication (JCMC) was established in 1995. It is an online peer-reviewed scholarly journal and is published quarterly. It focuses on social science research on computer-mediated communication via internet and wireless technologies. It has a general view and publishes material from a range of science disciplines; such as communication, media studies, information science, and sociology.  In the spirit of the topic, the founders wanted it to be an open-access, online journal with high quality standards. It is widely read and cited among CMC scholars around the world.

Impact Factor: 1.778 (2013)
Five Year Impact Factor: 4.748 (2013)


Research paper:  

Wells, Valacich, Hess (2011):  “What Signals Are You Sending? How Website Quality Influences Perceptions of Product Quality and Purchase Intentions”, published in MIS Quarterly.

The focus of this research article is on eCommerce websites, and how its quality and signals affect the consumers’ perception of the product quality. It has an explanatory purpose and uses applied research.

The main concept as described by the authors Wells, Valacich, Hess (2011): “Signaling theory provides a framework for understanding how extrinsic cues— signals—can be used by sellers to convey product quality information to consumers, reducing uncertainty and facilitating a purchase or exchange.”

They refer to signal theory, as described in previous studies, where the signal is a cue that a seller can use “to convey information credibly about unobservable product quality to the buyer”. I liked that the authors managed to keep their voice heard throughout the article and explained the background of the underlying theories in their own words, only with short and relevant references to previous studies. 

The authors defined four testable hypotheses, and set up six case-study scenarios in order to study the different effects on the potential buyer. The data studied was of qualitative nature (perception of the website and its products), and the subjects had to share their experiences in a pre-defined questionnaire.  

The aim of the paper was to provide a guideline on how signals and cues affect the customers’ view of the perceived product quality, as an online customer cannot get a feel of the product before the purchase. The findings clearly support that a high quality website helps improve the perceived product quality, especially when the information about the product is low, and they were able to show what signals are beneficial to the customer and when.     

I chose this article, not because I want to open an online shop, but I was hoping that this information on what signals are important in order to appear as a high quality website could be used in other disciplines as well, i.e. providing trustworthy information, news or advertising. The results are definitely worth considering even for other types of online services.   


What is theory?
Charles Darwin formulated the theory of “evolution by natural selection”. He proposed that the diversity on earth was caused by mutation and natural selection in order to adapt to the surrounding environment. 


Isaac Newton formulated another famous theory, “theory of motion”: “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”.


A theory is a fact-based framework, a description of phenomena. It is built on hypothesis or constructs, and is formulated in such a way that it is possible to specify the relationships between the hypotheses. Moreover, it must be possible to verify the hypotheses and/or their relationships by tests.

A theory is not the same as a hypothesis. A hypothesis is a proposed explanation, which needs to be empirically tested.  Anything that is not verified and which cannot be linked together by strong set of convincing arguments cannot be called a theory; in other words, data, diagrams, references to other scientific research papers etc. are not theory. 


Major theory in my selected paper:
The major theory formulated by Wells, Valacich, Hess (2011), is that signaling theory does provide a useful theoretical foundation for understanding the value of website characteristics. The theory was backed up by four testable hypotheses which provided both a prediction and a causal explanation, therefore I draw the conclusion that their theory can be classified as a type 4 theory (Explanation and Prediction), according to Gregor (2006).

The benefit for using a theory type providing both explanation and prediction is that they have done empirical tests on their causal explanations and predictions and are able to provide a more solid base of understanding for the eCommerce provider to use this information as a means to improve their platform. 

The limitations to this study, is that the bases of investigations was done on one single type of shop and product, which might not necessarily be transferrable to other products.  More expensive products might require stronger signals. Future studies are needed in order to be able to provide a design solution theory.       
  

Sources:


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onsdag 20 november 2013

Reflection on Critical Media Studies

While reading the “Dialectic of Enlightenment”, mainly the chapter about "The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as a Mass Deception", I could not help but thinking that these are the words from a person who is experiencing a major culture shock; and I was intrigued to hear that this was indeed the case. 

We can not imagine the torments these Jewish philosophers had been through during the Second World War, and then ending up (likely more by fate than by choice) in Los Angeles, USA. Not only did this pair of culturally very conservative philosophers find themselves living in a superficial pop-cultural society filled with commercials, mass media and a culture industry they obviously did not appreciate and understand. As this book was written and published before the end of World War 2 you can add to their frustration that they might be thinking they would never be able to return to the home country Germany, and by which they must have felt betrayed. It is not difficult to see where this shock comes from. In a state of culture shock it is very common to refuse and distance yourself from the new culture you are in. In my opinion this gives an explanation the very one sided opinions and arguments in favor of their own ideas of high culture.  

I very much enjoyed the lecture and the historical background of the texts we have read. It gives a much broader understanding of the text when you have a description and a setting from where the ideas have sprung. It was interesting to hear about the Frankfurt group and the high cultural level of Germany at the time before the wars. It would have been worthwhile to also read a text by Benjamin as a comparison to the negative views of Horkheimer. Benjamin was part of their group and tried to fit in and alter his writing to correlate to the opinions of Adorno and Horkheimer, although he did not always agree.

The seminar was great; it is interesting to hear the opinions of the peers and their views on the topic. Again, the insight and knowledge of Leif Dahlberg, really helped put a label and context on our sometimes rambling ideas and thoughts, and he was able to frame those various comments in the text we had just read.


It has been said before, but it is amazing how this text can feel so contemporary although it was in fact written 70 years ago. Sure, the media industry looks different today compared to then but we can all feel recognition in their descriptions. The soap operas still feel stupefying, and we can still feel pacified by the never ending supply of entertainment, which get nothing else done. 

During the seminar we discussed how everything today comes with a little commercial as an attachment; when reading your letters by email - who gets paper-mail anymore?, while watching TV-programs, while chatting or keeping in touch with friends on Facebook, and while listening to music on Spotify or radio-unless you pay yourself free of the never ending ads in our lives, etc. etc. Maybe Adorno and Horkheimer would consider themselves lucky not to have to live through “Top Model” and “2½ Men” on TV. 




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fredag 15 november 2013

Critical Media Studies

The knowledge of the common person before enlightenment was primarily based on myths and magical beliefs. Adorno and Horkheimer claim that enlightenment should free people from myths, fairy tales and fear. They wanted to substitute belief for knowledge, and refer to Francis Bacon, “the father of experimental philosophy”, who claimed that knowledge through enquiry would establish man as the master of nature.  The authors seek to liberate humans from the circumstances that enslave them, such as old rituals, religions and ideologies. (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; Critical Theory).

The function of the myth is to give an explanation to various natural phenomenon and the evolution of the world and the humans. It was a way for people to describe what was happening around them, and why. An example from the Swedish mythology was when the god ‘Tor’ was waving his hammer in the heavens; thunder could be heard amongst the humans. By this definition myth is already a form of enlightenment, as it seeks to explain natural phenomenon.   According to Adorno and Horkheimer (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; Critical Theory) “Myth is already enlightenment, and enlightenment reverts to mythology”, they claimed that mythology has contributed to enlightenment and these religions and rituals still have something worthwhile to contribute.

When Adorno and Horkheimer talks about the by the new media, a concept they are highly critical of,  what they refer to seems to be the mass production of cultural material, such as soap operas, cartoons and stunt movies etc.  It is the easy consumption of popular culture on TV, radio and movie theatres that creates passive and stupid consumers (people).

The opposite of this, the old media, they seem to refer to quality productions, such as classical Garbo-movies, Tolstoy-plays and concerts by Beethoven or Mozart, all of which does not offer a simplified plot, a reduced vocabulary, and that does not make a fool of the audiences’ intellectual ability.  

Adorno and Horkheimer have a very negative perception of what they call the “Culture Industry”, the commercial marketing and mass production of culture.  (The Culture Industry p.108) “The culture industry has abolished the rubbish of former times by imposing its own perfection, by prohibiting and domesticating dilettantism, while itself incessantly committing the blunders without which the elevated style cannot be conceived”.  They refer to the culture industry in the wider term, also incorporating the marketing and advertisement industries which feed the entertainment industry, making it possible for them to produce a never-ending stream of easily digested culture for the masses.

According to the authors the media industry are mass producing culture to the extent that everything is interchangeable. They claim that the  plot of the movies are so alike that if you enter a cinema after the movie has started showing, you cannot be sure of which movie you are watching as they are all the same. They go so far discussing the sameness of the movies that they even claim that (The Culture Industry, p.99)  “Lacking both contrast and relatedness, the whole and the detail look alike.” 

By all of this they imply that the media industry is cheating the audience (deception of the masses) on a true experience. The audience on the other hand is so deceived and obsessed by the amusement mass productions produced by the culture industry that they do not notice, or – maybe worse - do not care.  (The Culture Industry, p.111) ”The culture industry endlessly cheats its consumers out of what it endlessly promises. The promissory note of pleasure issued by plot and packaging is indefinitely prolonged: the promise, which actually comprises the entire show, disdainfully intimates that there is nothing more to come, that the diner must be satisfied with reading the menu.”

As I am lucky enough never to have had to live through a war, I was especially intrigued by the statement on page 132, referring to advertisements: “In wartime, commodities which can no longer be supplied continue to be advertised merely as a display of industrial power.” And they go on quoting Goebbels statement: “l’art pour l‘art” - advertising for advertisings sake, the pure presentation of social power.

I cannot help but wonder if this would be the case also today; is the branding value so important that you need to keep advertising your products even though you cannot produce them, and people cannot buy them.  

 This made me think of Coca Cola’s (the pinnacle of capitalistic consumer product) marketing in third world countries where the majority of people cannot afford the luxury of a soft drink; and a story I read in a Chinese magazine a year or so ago, about a desperate mum from a poor village in southern China who one day realized that her son had sold his kidney in order to buy a MacBook and an iPad. The power of marketing and the “I-want-factor" of consumer products is huge also today.






References:



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torsdag 14 november 2013

Post-Reflection on Theme 1

What struck me the most while reading Russell’s book “The Problems of Philosophy”, was the statement in chapter 15: “those questions which are already capable of definite answers are placed in the sciences, while those only to which, at present, no definite answer can be given, remain to form the residue which is called philosophy."

This made me remember when I started to study mathematics at the university, and we discussed Eulers problem of the seven bridges of Königsberg. This to me is a good example of the close relation between Philosophy and Science. Eulers formulated the philosophical question: Are you able to visit each part of the city of Königsberg, crossing each of the seven bridges only once. Being a brilliant mathematician Euler was able to prove that it is not possible.





Being students of science and technology we are trained to think about facts, and answers to difficult problems. We have learned to seek answers, and that there is a solution out there waiting and needing to be discovered. We have not so much discussed the questions themselves. Why are we asking these questions, and can we ask them in a different way? In modern society this is called “thinking outside the box”, which can have some remarkable effects when you do. Look at some great business-entrepreneurs who changed the market by making entirely new statements; Ryan Air is a great example with its low cost business model that turned the entire aviation industry upside down.

What we as science students can learn from the dialogue by Plato that we read this week is to think about the question or problem we have at hand. Is this a relevant problem, or can we formulate the idea in a completely different way and still reach the same outcome?   

Having read several posts on Russell’s text I believe that the definition of “proposition” , “statement of fact” as well as the “definite descriptions” was difficult to grasp, and proves that us being science students are looking for the true fact out there. Unfortunately we did not get the chance to discuss this further this week, but it was interesting to read everybody’s answers and reflections. Many different points of view and formulations about the same ideas gave me a wider understanding of the topic.

I have two cats at home and I can sometimes watch them spy on a bird outside the window. They can sit there for hours, completely focused on nothing but the moves of the bird. At those times I think that maybe what differentiates animals from humans is our constant need to analyze and think about stuff. We cannot concentrate on a single thing for even a few minutes without having our minds wander somewhere else, distracting us from what we really should be focusing on. On the other hand, maybe exactly that is what is forcing us to move forward and reaching increasingly new scientific, cultural and societal breakthroughs, whether big or small. 



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fredag 8 november 2013

Pre-Reflection on Theme 1

Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy (1912), discusses the theory of knowledge, and the fact that knowledge is not as precise and certain as one might think.

"Sense data" and why does Russell introduce this notion

Sense data is introduced by Russell as a way to describe what we know about an object based on how it appears to us; what color it has, how it sounds, and feels if we touch it etc.  The sense data about an object is individual and varies with the observer; it may for instance depend on your angle of view of the object. The sense-data that we are experiencing does not need to express the truth about the object, only how we perceive it and it does not take into account the existence of the object when it is not being observed. The sense-data describes the knowledge we have about an object, and the familiarity with what we are acquainted with associating with the object.  

 Meaning of the terms "proposition" and "statement of fact", and how does propositions and statement of facts differ from other kinds of verbal expressions

Statements of fact, can be true or false, and articulates factual information without argument. This is clarified by Bertrand Russell himself in a lecture "Facts and Propositions" (1918-1919) “Gravitation varies inversely as the square of the distance,” my statement is rendered true by astronomical fact. If I say, “Two and two are four,” it is arithmetical fact that makes my statements true. On the other hand, if I say “Socrates is alive,” or “Gravitation varies directly as the distance,” or “Two and two are five,” the very same facts which made my previous statements true show that these new statements are false”.

Russell (1918-1919) further explains the propositions: “A proposition, one may say, is a sentence in the indicative, a sentence asserting something, not questioning or commanding or wishing. It may also be a sentence of that sort preceded by the word ”that.” For example, “That Socrates is alive,” “That two and two are four,” “That two and two are five,” anything of that sort will be a proposition.”
Both the propositions and statements of fact may or may not be true, just like other verbal expressions, but they are both are precise, deductible and not vague. They also require some kind of acquaintance with the object (regardless if true or false).   

Meaning of the notion "definite description"

Russell discussed that there is knowledge you have from being acquainted to something, and there is knowledge you know by description; like what you know about Julius Ceasar, as you cannot be acquainted with him since he is since long dead. According to Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (revised 2013), you can separate definite and indefinite descriptions by phrases of the form ‘the F’ (definite) and ‘an F’ (indefinite). Definite expressions are referring to the object, whereas indefinite expressions are talking about an quantifiable object. Examples of definite descriptions are on the form “the-so-and-so”, like “the golden mountain”, “the round square” etc.    

 Russell (1910-1911): “We have descriptive knowledge of an object. When we know that it is the object having some property or properties with which we are acquainted; that is to say, when we know that the property or properties in question belong to one object and no more, we are said to have knowledge of that one object by description, whether or not we are acquainted with the object.”

Traditional problems in theory of knowledge (epistemology)

How can we know anything at all? How do we know that what we know is true? How can we know that the sun will rise tomorrow, just because it always has in the past?
Russell argues that philosophical knowledge is not different from scientific knowledge, but holds the philosophical main characteristic “criticism of knowledge”. However, the result of that criticism seldom gives reason to claim that man is incapable of possessing the knowledge we have.   

We need to be acquainted with the constituents (=components) in order to understand a statement or proposition, however it is not necessary to be acquainted with its denotation (= explicit or direct meaning of a word or expression). According to Russell (1910-1911) “Every proposition which we can understand must be composed wholly of constituents with which we are acquainted. From what has been said already, it will be plain why I advocate this principle, and how I propose to meet the case of propositions which at first sight contravene it. Let us begin with the reasons for supposing the principle true.”” The chief reason for supposing the principle true is that it seems scarcely possible to believe that we can make a judgment or entertain a supposition without knowing what it is that we are judging or supposing about”.


References:
  • Bertrand Russell (1912), The Problems of Philosophy 
  • Bertrand Russell (1919) "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism". The Monist (Oct 1918, Jan, April, July 1919); Lectures 1 & 2. "Facts and Propositions" and "Particulars, Predicates and Relations";  available on the The Bertrand Russell Society’s website: http://www.users.drew.edu/~jlenz/brtexts.html
  • Bertrand Russell (1910-1911) Knowledge by Acquaintance and Knowledge by Description  Source: Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, New Series, Vol. 11 (1910 - 1911), pp. 108-128 Published by: Blackwell Publishing . Available on this website: http://wsblog.iash.unibe.ch/wp-content/uploads/Russell.pdf
  • Stanford Encyclopeida of Philosophy, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descriptions/. First published Tue Mar 2, 2004; substantive revision Tue Jun 25, 2013

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