Book review: Empirical Multimodality Research: Methods, Evaluations, Implications
Book review: Empirical Multimodality Research: Methods, Evaluations, Implications
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书评：实证多模态研究：方法、评估、启示
DOI：
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发表时间：
2022
影响因子：
1.5
通讯作者：
Alex Christiansen
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Alex Christiansen
多模态研究一直显示出对数据的强烈依赖。然而，该领域主要是围绕更小数据集的探索性、描述性和解释性工作发展起来的——正如我们在三个多模态密切的国际期刊（社会符号学、视觉传播学、多模态传播）上发表的一项元研究的结果所表明的那样。通过对定性-定量二分法的讨论和对实证的广泛定义，我们认为，支持多模态研究更坚实的实证基础的不仅仅是样本量或定量方法，而是理论和分析如何与数据联系的明确方向。为此，我们提出了实证实践的五个质量标准，即完成从理论到数据再返回的经验反馈循环，确保研究的客观性、可靠性和有效性，以及承认结果固有的尝试性。因此，为了进一步加强多模态理论和方法的发展，并鼓励多模态主义者的不同社区之间进行更激烈的交流，我们寻求将各种经验方法适当而富有成效地应用于新颖的（据说是熟悉的）意义生成形式的路径。
: Multimodality research has always shown a strong reliance on data. However, the field has primarily developed around more exploratory, descriptive, and interpretative work on smaller data sets — as suggested by results we present from a meta-study of contributions to three multimodality-close international journals ( Social Semiotics , Visual Communication , Multimodal Communication ). Framed by a discussion of the qualitative-quantitative dichotomy and a deliberately broad working definition of empirical , we argue that it is not sample size or quantitative methods alone that support a more solid empirical grounding of multimodality research, but rather an explicit orientation to just how theory and analysis make contact with data. To this end, we propose five quality criteria of empirical practice, that is, completing the empirical feedback loop: from theory to data and back, ensuring objectivity, reliability, and validity in research, and acknowledging the inherent tentativeness of results. We thereby seek to chart paths for an appropriate and productive application of various empirical methods to novel (and supposedly familiar) forms of meaning-making in order to further strengthen the development of theory and methods in multimodality, and to encourage an even more intense exchange among the diverse communities of multimodalists.