The complementarity of qualitative and quantitative methodologies in media and communication research

The legacy for media and communication research from a century of sometimes intense conflict within the general theory of science has been a set of conceptual dichotomies that used to divide the field into two main camps with some additional internal fronts and alliances. Even while studies of scientific practice have shown that the reality of laboratories and libraries may rarely conform to textbook models (e.g., Hacking 1983; Latour 1987), these conceptions have had real and largely counterproductive consequences for how different research traditions have understood both themselves and their ‘others.’ The perception of fundamental difference has generated various kinds of response – from ‘imperialism,’ seeking to subordinate or delegitimate other approaches, to ‘apartheid,’ protecting one’s own worldview through insulation from those of others (see Jensen 1995: 141-145). This chapter presents an overview of the current, ongoing convergence in the practicecomplementarity of different types of empirical media studies.