International Encyclopedia of Communication Online

Extract

While the term “case study” (or “case method”) is widespread in social methodology and media research, it is nevertheless a complex concept. McCartney (1970 , 30) defines a case study as “a descriptive report analyzing a social unit as a whole (e.g. individual, family, organization, etc.) in qualitative terms.” With a different focus but in a comparable manner, Robert K. Yin defines a case study as “an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real life context, especially when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident” ( Yin 1994 , 13). In the case of working definitions like these, three main aspects become evident. The first is realizing that a case study is not a methodological choice of data collection and analyses but a choice of what is studied. A case study can combine completely different methods (qualitative and quantitative ones; →  Research Methods ) and analytical approaches, but is defined by the circumstance of focusing on a case (or a number of cases) and is especially established in qualitative media research (being also the main focus of this entry). Second, the term “case study” is rather vague as it can name either the process of doing research or the presented result. And, third, a main problem when doing case studies is the construction of the case borders. All in all, case studies can be located in ... log in or subscribe to read full text