Qualitative Research in Communication. Introductory Remarks

• Main Authors: Liz Yeomans, Corina Daba-Buzoianu, Loredana Ivan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (SNSPA), College of Communication and Public Relations, Bucharest 2016-02-01
• Series: Romanian Journal of Communications and Public Relations
• Subjects: qualitative methods, qualitative research, communication, epistemology
• Online Access: http://journalofcommunication.ro/index.php/journalofcommunication/article/view/164
• ISSN: 1454-8100; 2344-5440

The 20th century’s epistemological turn in social sciences (Denzin & Lincoln, 1994; Punch, 2013) acknowledged the importance of qualitative research methods. The need for this turn was also pointed out by Habermas (1979), who noticed that the way data was collected in social sciences affected the analysis and data interpretation. Research gained a comprehensive character and proposed a phenomenological approach of reality (Guba & Lincoln, 1994; Willig, 2008; Lindlof & Taylor, 2011). Nowadays, we notice a “more confident community of scholars” whose earlier endeavors had “opened up the study of cultures, meanings, symbolic performances, and social practices” (Lindlof & Taylor, 2002, p. xi).