Last weeks theme was not my favourite. I already learned a lot about theories in my bachelor so it was more a repetition for me. Nevertheless reading the texts "The Nature of Theory in Information Systems" (Gregor) and "What Theory Is Not" (Sutton/Staw) was very interesting and I really liked the statements in the second text about what theory is NOT. As we discussed in the seminar it is difficult to find the one and only definition about what a theory is. Many factors, like the discipline in which the theory is created, the knowledge and situation at this time or the perspective on how one looks at a special case, are important to consider when describing what theory is. The discussion in the seminar showed very clearly how hard it is to bring up all the necessary components of theory.
This time I did not really feel that the lecture helped me understanding the themes most important point. I agree that the philosophical discussion about what is man is very interesting, but I did not get the link to what theory is. I liked the second part of the theme better, because choosing a journal and an article requires the practical use of all the theoretical things we learned until now and I could use lots of things I learned in my bachelor about the criteria of good research and what are benefits and limitations of different methods. Characterizing the theories used in the paper according to the table in Gregor's text was in the beginning a bit challenging and I needed to read most of the paper a second time to figure out where they fit best. During the lecture and the seminar I missed the discussion about how we choose our journal and the article from it. For me it was the most interesting part of theme 3.
This time I did not really feel that the lecture helped me understanding the themes most important point. I agree that the philosophical discussion about what is man is very interesting, but I did not get the link to what theory is. I liked the second part of the theme better, because choosing a journal and an article requires the practical use of all the theoretical things we learned until now and I could use lots of things I learned in my bachelor about the criteria of good research and what are benefits and limitations of different methods. Characterizing the theories used in the paper according to the table in Gregor's text was in the beginning a bit challenging and I needed to read most of the paper a second time to figure out where they fit best. During the lecture and the seminar I missed the discussion about how we choose our journal and the article from it. For me it was the most interesting part of theme 3.
Your reflections are as insightful as ever, therefore it was a joy to read them! I felt the same way about this week's theme and the difficulty of defining theory. Your research paper seems to break ground on an uncovered topic, but indeed one that will grow in importance in the following years. Social media has obviously a lot of advantages, however it is interesting to see it from an objective news perspective. Since I also belong to the category of 'news selector', I wonder how this shapes my perspective in the long run. Realistically, I probably miss out on news coverage I would have stumbled on by reading a newspaper, which intends to cover a range of topics for a wider audience. It will be interesting to see how digital journalism will develop further on and moreover, how journalists will keep their integrity.
AntwortenLöschenSeeing it as you already had good understanding about the weeks concepts, it's interesting to see that even you could take some new things with you! I felt the same way about the lecture. It was very very basic and did not really bring anything new to the table, but the texts themselves were more interesting to read. I also agree that the "best" text was about what theory is NOT since it felt like something new to read. Like we're not really used to being presented with contradictions in order to learn about both sides of the theme of the week.
AntwortenLöschenKeep it up!
Hi Hannah!
AntwortenLöschenI understand that the theme perhaps was less interesting if you felt that you aldready had an idea about what theory is since it was the main concept of the week. I for one found the differene between scientific theory and theory in the more casual setting, which is pretty much a hypothesis, very rewarding! And also the discussions on how theory relates to the concept of truth.
My group discussed the papers we had chosen during the seminar's smaller group discussions! I think that if you want to discuss something you should just say it :)
Let's hope you learn more during future themes!
Keep it up
Hi Hannah! I also agree that choosing journal and research paper was the most interesting part of this theme. I selected the research from the same journal. The article that you choosed is interesting. Especially I use social media as source of news more often than news portals or newspaper as well. In social media subjective judgments just replace independent review of event/emergency/etc. I think that definition of theory fro research paper in terms of suggested categories of theory helps us to understand better nature and structure of theory.
AntwortenLöschenHi Hannah,
AntwortenLöschenThank you for a reflecting post, and I can say that I agree with you that it had been great if we, during the seminar at least, have had the opportunity to discuss our own selected journals. Because I think that was the one big part in the preparation for the first blog post of this theme since we were supposed to apply the facts of which theory they were using in the journals. But anyway I think you have made a good work and keep it up!
Hi!
AntwortenLöschenI enjoyed reading your reflection, and I agree that reading a paper from a journal of our own choosing was the best part of the week.
I think that most of us considered it a bit difficult to charecterize the theories used in the papers since it's not something we haven't done before.
I like that you bring up that you discussed how many factors come into play when trying to define theory.
I like the analysis of the paper you chose, it was detailed and informative. You say that you already have covered this topic and the definition of theory. Despite or even because of this I would have liked you to take position to the definitions about theory we had in our lecture. I would have find it interesting if you might agree with the definition of theory as an explanatory framework. Furthermore, I would like to mention the importance of research in order to gain data to built a theory upon.
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