i'm doing an essay for Media & Comm... we have to answer a bunch of questions based on a scholarly article.
the article i chose studies everyday friendship networks in New Zealand, and NZ uni students' use of mobile phones & texting within these networks.
i have to decide which epistemology has been used in this study: objectivism, constructionism or subjectivism. i've ruled out objectivism, i think, because the object is the mobile phone, and the students surveyed/interviewed associate various different meanings with a mobile phone.
i've neglected this subject though, so i'm only just now researching these epistemologies, and i really can't tell the difference between constructionism and subjectivism and can't decide which of the two is being used, or if both are. (i'm leaning towards constructionism because, as i understand it, the difference between the two is that constructionism says meaning occurs when the subject becomes aware of the object and there is a meaning transfer or some bullshit, and subjectivism says that the object has no meaning whatsoever and the meaning is made by the subject.)
any help appreciated!!