Research Methodology

The method of most interest to me was the unobtrusive method. I found this method of research interesting because it initially struck me as a bit off from what I considered to be normal research. I normally consider research to be asking questions of people, looking through books or manuscripts. I guess the observation of the impact, measurements of erosion, or evaluating which communication methods are more popular would also fall into the category of a voiceless audience which this method of research seems to epitomize. Another aspect of this method of research that I found interesting is that it could also be a falsely built framework of understanding. If one considered the prevalence of a message to be popular, or more accurate, then the group with the largest printing press would always win. This seems a bit counter intuitive to me, as sometimes the more meaningful messages are those of the smaller variety. This can happen when the groups or individuals who have a large influence disagree or are attempting to suppress the message. There are a great many examples of this, the book burning done during the World Wars, or a political candidate who is unable to obtain airtime because he cannot afford the outrageous prices set by the news networks are a couple of these examples.