Question 16
Averages - that is, the generalization of a population's gross characteristics - are good
instances of the difference between how grounded theorists and hypotheses testers
conceptualize their different approaches to communication research. How do grounded
theorists calculate averages?
4 pts
A. They take population parameters - people's ages, incomes, years of education, opinions, attitudes -
convert them to numbers (where they aren't already in numerical form), add them together, divide by
the number of people measured, and then they have an average.
B. Grounded theorists care less about numbers and more about how people make meaning of the
media environment in which they live. So, to calculate an "average" response to any given mass
medium, grounded theorists talk to people, interview them, observe them, read about them, and in so
doing, they get a sense, a feeling, the gist of how those people use and react to the mass media they
consume. It's that sense, that gist, for the grounded theorist, that defines an "average."
C. Rather than converting human behaviors and cognitions directly into numbers, grounded theorists
convert those statements about those cognitions and behaviors into numbers: "He was behaviorally
aggressive after watching the cartoon. So, I'll give him a numerical value of 10." One they do that, they
average those numbers.
D. The answer is both B and C.
