Lost, found, and made: Qualitative data in the study of three-step flows of communication

Bruhn Jensen, K. (2011). Lost, found, and made: Qualitative data in the study of three-step flows of communication . Zagreb conference: "New challenges and methodological innovations in European media audience research". 7-9 April 2011.

Abstract: This paper, first, suggests that the current media environment can be captured in a model of three-step flows of communication, encompassing new configurations of one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many communication. Second, these new configurations amount to networks, as commonly associated with contemporary society and culture; networks provide both theoretical and analytical categories for media and communication studies. The complexity of networked communication returns the field to classic methodological issues of how best to design and apply quantitative, qualitative, and multi-method approaches in empirical research. Third, digital networks, in and of their operation, document aspects of technologically mediated communication that were mostly lost in previous media – meta-data that can be found, and which invite further research. Fourth, whereas network analysis has mostly taken a quantitative route, multi-step communications lend themselves to qualitative studies, as well. In conclusion, the paper discusses the complementarity of different data – found and made – and different methodologies – quantitative and qualitative – in the attempt by research to grasp the wider social and cultural implications of digital media and three-step flows of communication.