Case studies can be a useful resource to help understand a subject by gaining concrete, contextual and in-depth knowledge. In this lecture you will learn more about case studies, when to use them, and how to conduct them.
Case studies can be a useful resource to help understand a subject by gaining concrete, contextual and in-depth knowledge. In this lecture you will learn more about case studies, when to use them, and how to conduct them.
Take some time and review the learning objectives for this learning module. Be sure to ask yourself if you understand everything. If not, reach out for help or revisit the content from this learning module.
A case study is a detailed study of a specific subject. The subject could be a person, group, place, event organization, or phenomenon. A phenomenon is any problem, issue or topic that you choose to include in your research or investigation.
Case studies are used in social research. This can include a number of fields: Education, clinical research, media communication, the list is extensive. Most often case studies utilize qualitative research methods, however, quantitative methods can be incorporated. Quantitative research focuses on quantifying the collection and analysis of data. Essentially, it involves numbers. Qualitative research involves non-numerical data. The goal is to gather in-depth knowledge a rich, thick description of the subject you are studying. Case studies are great for understanding a subject through research. They allow you describe, compare, evaluate and understand different aspect of the research project.
Take a look at what we will cover in this lecture. At the end we will take a look at what a case study for this class looks like.
Case studies are a great avenue for research when you want to gain concrete, contextual, in-depth knowledge about specific real-world subjects. It allows you to explore the key characteristics, meanings, and implications of the case.
They keep your project focused and manageable when you don’t have the time or resources to do large-scale research project. You might use just one complex case study where you explore a single subject in depth, or conduct multiple case studies to compare and illuminate different aspects of your research problem.
Here you can see examples of research questions and corresponding case studies. You can see how you have a broader question on the left and more specific phenomenon on the right. Take some time to read the research question and phenomenon the researcher decided to explore in a case study format.
Often, a case study focuses on a single individual, a small group of people, or an event. You'll be conducting qualitative research to find specific details and descriptions of how your subject is affected. For example, an agricultural education case study might looks at how effective a six-week Critical Media Analysis Unit was in meeting its objective of training ag communications students in critical media theory. An agricultural communication case study might study a small group of public relations practitioners regarding their participation in crisis communication during a recall. When it comes to subjects, case studies are not designed for large group studies or statistical analysis.
Before we move forward, you will need to know the difference between prospective and retrospective research. Prospective relates to the future. When you are engaging in prospective research you are concerned with what is likely to come about. Prospective case studies perform new studies of their own, involving individuals or small groups. Conversely, retrospective is looking back or dealing with past events or situations. Retrospective case studies examine a small number of past cases related to the subject of study, and do not require new involvement with the subject of these cases
Let’s start with you getting a basic understanding of what theories are. In communication research, theories are explanations for how and why somethings work the way they do. As an example, Maxwell McCombs developed the Agenda Setting Theory. This theory essentially states that news media influences what topics people think about, not what they think about the topics. While case studies focus more on concrete details than general theories, they should usually have some connection with theory in the field. This way the case study is not just an isolated description, but is integrated into existing knowledge about the topic.
Including a theory in the case study ensures that it is not just an isolated description, but is integrated into existing knowledge about the topic. It might aim to:
• Exemplify a theory by showing how it explains the case under investigation
• Expand on a theory by uncovering new concepts and ideas that need to be incorporated
• Challenge a theory by exploring an outlier case that doesn’t fit with established assumptions
To ensure that your analysis of the case has a solid academic grounding, you should conduct a literature review of sources related to the topic and develop a theoretical framework. This means identifying key concepts and theories to guide your analysis and interpretation.
We have covered the difference between quantitative and qualitative data. More often than not, case studies collect qualitative data. This is done by using methods such as interviewing, observations and analysis of primary and secondary sources such as newspaper articles, photographs, official records, videos, etc. This not to say that case studies are void of quantitative data. When you employ both qualitative and quantitative methods we refer to this as Mixed Methods. Take a look at the example for a Mixed Methods case study. Pregnant Pause. The goal from this example case study is to gain as thorough an understanding as possible of the case and its context.
You need to gather background information regarding your subject, event, or phenomenon. If you are researching an organization, look into their history. If you are researching a person, look into their past. A good background knowledge of the research topic and similar case studies could help guide your own research, especially if you are writing a critical interest case study. Any case study, but especially case studies with a retrospective component, will benefit from basic academic research strategies.
When it comes to case studies, interviews are very important. Depending on the length of your case study (in terms of time) you might interview people weekly. Regardless of how many interviews you plan to conduct, you need to begin with creating interview questions. The goal of your interview should be to describe experience describe meaning and then focus in on the knowledge gaps.
Describe experience — ask the participant what it's like to go through the experience you're studying, or be a part of the system you're studying.
Describe meaning — ask the participant what the experience means to them, or what "life lessons" they take from it. Ask what mental and emotional associations they have with the subject of your study, whether it's a medical condition, an event, or another topic.
Focus – in later interviews, prepare questions that fill gaps in your knowledge, or that are particularly relevant to the development of your research questions and theories over the course of the study.
In writing up the case study, you need to bring together all the relevant aspects to give as complete a picture as possible of the subject. How you report your findings depends on the type of research you are doing. Some case studies are structured like a standard scientific paper or thesis, with separate sections or chapters for the methods, results and discussion. Others are written in a more narrative style, aiming to explore the case from various angles and analyze its meanings and implications (for example, by using textual analysis or discourse analysis). In all cases, though, make sure to give contextual details about the case, connect it back to the literature and theory, and discuss how it fits into wider patterns or debates.
As previously mentioned, case studies require you to collect data in the form of interviews, observations as well as from primary and secondary sources. Once you have collected these data, you need to analyze them. It is up to you to read them and make sense of them. You need to pull your information together and focus it before writing your case study, especially if your research was performed in intervals across months or years. Here are some ways to view/organize your data.
Put your data into different arrays or silos.
Make a matric of categories and place the evidence within categories.
Create data displays for examining the data.
Tabulate frequencies, means and variances of different events.
Put information in chronological order or some other temporal scheme.
Based on the research questions you designed and the type of case study you conducted, this may be a descriptive report, an analytic argument grounded in a specific case, or a suggested direction for further research or projects. Include your most relevant observations and interviews in the case study itself, and consider attaching additional data (such as full interviews) as an appendix for readers to refer to. If writing a case study for a non-academic audience, consider using a narrative form, describing the events that occurred during your case study in chronological order. Minimize your use of jargon.
After you have composed the first draft of your case study analysis, read through it to check for any gaps or inconsistencies in content or structure:
Is your thesis statement clear and direct?
Have you provided solid evidence?
Is any component from the analysis missing?
When you make the necessary revisions, proofread and edit your analysis before submitting the final draft.
Take some time and review the learning objectives for this learning module. Be sure to ask yourself if you understand everything. If not, reach out for help or revisit the content from this learning module.
