Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

An introduction to empirical research methods in diverse traditions of communication enquiry. Some methods recognize communication as everyday interactions; others analyze communication as a process; still others blend traditional scientific empiricism with analytical and critical methods derived from the arts and humanities. Topics include: ethics, paradigms, conceptualizing and operationalizing research, sampling, interviews, surveys, unobtrusive observation, content analysis, and the role of statistics in communication research. Quantitative.

COURSE DETAILS:

Overview:

This course is an introduction to ways of conducting empirical research. Empirical research uses techniques of direct and indirect observation to test hypotheses and develop new ideas. The course will introduce students to basic principles and tools in research design and data analysis.

The goal of this course is to help students develop the skills necessary to read and critically evaluate research reports and scholarly articles. The course provides useful knowledge for upper-level coursework, and opportunities for students to learn skills many employers hope new university grads will have.

Empirical research guides decision-making in matters that concern all of us.   Understanding how research is done is an essential step in assessing appropriate uses of research in real world applications.

TENTATIVE OUTLINE OF CLASS SESSIONS:

This is a preliminary schedule. Changes to this schedule will be announced in class.

Part One: INTRODUCTION TO SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY

Week 1: Introduction and course administration.
·        Scientific inquiry and types of empirical research.
·        The role of theory in research; paradigms, differing approaches and their implications for research methodology.
·        Concepts and empirical research as observation.

Part Two: ELEMENTS OF RESEARCH DESIGN (Quantitative and Qualitative)

Week 2: Core elements of research design.
·        Research questions, conceptualization and operationalization, levels of measurement, units of analysis, the language of variables, cases and contexts.

Week 3: Ethics and contemporary research practice, reviewing scholarly literature.

Week 4: Measurement, reliability and validity, scales and indices.

Week 5: Sampling and selection criteria.

Part Three: DATA COLLECTION & INFORMATION-GATHERING METHODS

Week 6: Interviews and survey research (quantitative approaches).

Feb 14: Reading Week (No Class).

Week 7: Qualitative interviewing, fieldwork, focus groups.

Week 8: Experimental research, unobtrusive research and research using available data.

Part Four: INTRODUCTION TO QUANTITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS

Weeks 9-11:
·      Data processing, cleaning and analysis.
·      Results with one variable (univariate analysis), measures of central tendency, dispersion, variance, standard deviation, sampling distributions.
·      Results with two variables (bivariate analysis), cross tabulation, frequency distributions, measures of association.
·      Results with more than two variables, control variables, elaboration model.
·      Multiple regression, statistical significance, type I & II errors, the null hypothesis.

Part Five: OTHER RESEARCH METHODS

Week 12:
·      Selected topics (non-reactive qualitative research; qualitative text analysis; historical comparative research; other techniques).
·      Mixed methods, catch-up and review.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING: