Overview:

The purpose of this course is to help communication students develop skills in finding and interpreting print and electronic documents, skills you will need for other communication courses. It is a course in which you ‘learn by doing,’ so the bulk of the mark (75 percent) derives from research assignments. The course begins with a study of corporate research, since corporations are key players in communication industries. We look at basic forms of corporate organization, print and electronic sources of information, financial information and communication/information industries. Then we enter a general discussion of libraries and documents and survey the resources we use to do communication research: computer databases, the Internet, and the library's print and electronic resources. Next we discuss the types of documents produced by government, the non-profit sector and the courts. The course ends with a discussion of access to information and how knowledge gained in this course can empower citizens.


Prerequisites:

CMNS 110 or CMNS 130


Required Texts:

Rubin, R.B., Rubin, A.M., & Piele, L.J. (2000), Communication Research: Strategies and Sources, 5th ed. Belmont CA: Wadsworth

Other readings will be available on Library Reserve. We will also use the Library's Communication web page <http://www.lib.sfu.ca/kiosk/sroberts/comm.htm> as a basic orientation.

We will make extensive use of SFU Library's databases and the Internet, so you will need an SFU computing account to take this course. Most print documents will be found in the SFU Library's Social Sciences and Government Documents section on the third floor.


Course Organization:

A two-hour weekly lecture presents the background concepts and sources necessary to do the assignments. A one-hour weekly tutorial (held in the 5th floor seminar room in the library) is available to provide group and one-on-one help in undertaking the assignments.


Grade Distribution:

(to be confirmed at the first class)

Week-by-week outline

Week 1: Introduction to the course
Week 2: Corporate research 1 -- context, concepts, sources
Week 3: Corporate research 2 -- financial and business information
Week 4: Corporate research 3 -- the broader context
Week 5: Libraries and archives; structuring research projects
Week 6: Print and electronic publications
Week 7: Documents and databases
Week 8: The Internet -- research and evaluation
Week 9: Government documents 1 -- executive branch documents
Week 10: Government documents 2 -- legislative branch documents
Week 11: Non-profit organizations as document generators
Week 12: Legal research -- the process explained
Week 13: Conclusion -- research and access to information

The School expects that the grades awarded in this course will bear some reasonable relation to established university-wide practices with respect to both levels and distribution of grades. In addition, the School will follow Policy T10.02 with respect to "Intellectual Honesty" and "Academic Discipline" (see current Calendar, General Regulations section).