SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION

CMNS 260-3

INTRODUCTION TO EMPIRICAL METHODS FOR COMMUNICATION RESEARCH

Prerequisites:

CMNS 110 or 130.

Research begins with a question. How many of these are also those? Why do so many of those end up in these circumstances? How often does this happen? This course is about research – the process of asking questions about the world around you, and getting answers to those questions. In particular, it is about empirical research – research in which the questions are about things that exist or happen, questions about people or events or circumstances in the world that do or do not happen – and in which the answers are obtained by somehow observing things in the world.

Week Topic

1. Scientific vs. non-scientific enquiry. Paradigms, theory, explanation,
research. Conceptualizing: concepts & variables. Ch 1, 2, pp 171-172.

2. Research questions. Operationalizing research. Measurement. Four kinds
of numbers. Categorical vs. continuous. Levels of scaling. Ch 3, pp 175-180.

3. Validity and reliability. Sampling: non-probability and probability sampling.
Ch 4, 5, pp 173-175.

4. Univariate descriptive statistics. Central tendency: mode, median, mean.
Dispersion: range, IQR. Variance, standard deviation. The computational
Method. Z-score. Ch 6.

5. Distributions. The normal distribution.

6. Mid-term exam #1. Sampling variability, sampling distributions, standard
errors. Ch 9.

7. Confidence intervals, Z-test of a single mean. Ch 10.

8. Bivariate descriptive statistics: cross-tabulation, discrete relationships. Ch 11.

9. Continuous relationships: covariance, correlation, regression. Ch 13, 14.

10.Mid-term exam#2. Inferential statistics: statistical significance – sampling variability . . .or not? The null
hypothesis. Testing the null hypothesis. Chi-squared Ch 15, 16.

11.Z-test for difference between means. Testing correlations. Ch 17, (18).

12.t-test for difference between means. ANOVA. Ch 19.

13.Research design, experiments, survey research. Ch 20.

Required Text:

William D. Richards, The Zen of Empirical Research. Vancouver: Empirical Press, 2002.
Grading:
1. Mid-Term exam #1 week 6 14%
2. Mid-Term exam #2 week 10 24%
3. Final exam Final exam period 38%
4. Weekly problem sets wees 3,4,5,7,8,9,10,12 24%

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 the current Calendar, General Regulations section).