Interactivity and Generalizability: New Media, New Challenges

Abstract

This paper discusses potential challenges to research generalizability in studies on interactive communication. In interactive media contexts where users are enabled to individualize their communication, the generalizability of individual studies is likely lower than it is in studies on more conventional one-to-many communication. We discuss research strategies related to sample size and heterogeneity, focus on structural-invariant elements of communication media and processes, and finally refer to the recording and analyses of messages and communication processes as potential remedies to generalizability problems. A more explicit reflection on generalizability both in empirical studies as well as in the way the discipline deals with replication of previous work seems to be necessary.