Theme 2

What theory is, and what theory is not:

The first year student probably have some difficulties to distinguish what theory is, and what theory is not. The good thing is that from now I came up with ideas how to explain to this student what is “to be or not to be”  if we talk about applying theory in our research. Let’s see what is considered to be “not theory”.

Before starting to write a paper try to think about a few “rules”, which help to do it properly. The first one: you need to prove why the theory results in a new theoretical question. Its not just enough to put a list of references in the paper because it seems like “a smoke screen to hide the fact that we didn’t understand the phenomenon in question”. You have to build  a new theoretical case with those references not just including them in the text. The second rule is that theory is not primarily based on data. I mean that empirical results can support the theory but they are not the theory themselves. The data helps to confirm or discredit existing theory and lead to the development of a new theory. The third recommendation is to avoid making theory besed on well-defined variables and constructs. They don’t compose theory but could state predictions in some equations. And the forth rule is to know that diagrams and figures are rarely forms of theory. It’s more thoughtful to apply them in building causal relationships in a logical odering. Finally hypotheses can be just links between theory and data and not as an independent theory. Futhermore, they are considered to be brief statements what is expected to occur not why.

The major theory in the  selected paper:

I selected Communication research journal (IF: 2.014) and a paper Good news for the future? Young people, Internet use, and political participation by Bakker, T. P. De Vreese, C. H.  This article  examines the relationships between media use (newspaper, Internet, and TV) and offline/online forms of political participation. Recent studies concede that Internet use is not just a unidimensional concept and it does not affect all groups in society in the same way. Moreover, its effects depend on a complex combination of personal and social characteristics, the specific content and context of the medium, and usage patterns.

In the selected paper the theory of explanation and prediction (EP theory) is used.  EP theory involves both understanding of underlying causes and prediction. It also describes  theoretical constructs and the relationships among them.

Some specific terms have been used to show diverging forms of civic and political involvement, which were ranging from social capital and civic literacy, political and civic engagement to more concrete terms (membership, political knowledge, and turnout). This paper primarily focuses on offline and online political participation in the  Netherlands. The authors have investigated five hypotheses.

Many research methods can be used to examine thoroughly aspects of the EP theory type.  The selected article includes an online survey conducted in the Netherlands. Ten thousand people in the age  group of 16 to 24 were sampled by inviting to fill in the questionnaire via email.

Examining both the traditional media and the Internet, the researchers found that using  the Internet for news is a positive predictor for all forms of participation. The authors made some predictions on traditional passive and active participation, as well as digital passive participation.

This type of theory can have contributions from both  process studies and  variance studies. With EP theory it is acceptable to have an overall dynamic theory but with feedback as in general system theory. The author could test hypotheses deduced from the theory in variance studies.