Scientific Research in Communication

each of us can be considered
1. Comm as the fundamental human activity
2. Expertise” gained via human experience
3. “commonsense understanding”
  1. Commonsense understanding has significant limitations
    1. Inconsistency
    2. Not generated systematically
    3. Bounded by our experience
    4. Self-bias
    5. Scientific Inquiry
      1. At its core, science is simply a means of inquiry—asking & answering questions
      2. Science—a systematic process of inquiry by which credible knowledge is generated
        Credible—worthy of being believed
        Why is scientific knowledge credible?
        Open —procedures & findings must be shared & are subject to scrutiny. Allows science to be conducted cumulatively
        Empirical & systematic —proceeds in a deliberate manner; knowledge based on systematic observation
        Can be tested empirically
        Over time science is self-correcting & self-improving
      3. Understanding Theory
        The credible knowledge produced by science is organized into theory, another oft-misunderstood term
        In everyday usage, we often take theory to mean guesswork which may be biased or unsubstantiated
        In scientific usage, the term does not have these negative connotations
        Scientifically, theoryis not an uninformed guess, but a framework for systematically organizing available info about various phenomena in such a way as to provide meaningful understanding & explanation
Communication Research Methods
1. Experiments
  1. Use of a highly controlled situation in which a researcher can manipulate & measure the impact of variables of interest. Attempts to hold constant or control for any extraneous factors
    1. Advantages
      1. Observes behavior
      2. Tight control allows for precise focus
      3. Allows for logically strong conclusions
    2. Disadvantages
      1. Experimental scenarios may be unrealistic
      2. Tightly control of situations may not represent real world
      3. Resource/time intensive
2. Survey Research
  1. info is obtained about individuals via standardized, indirect measures (e.g., questionnaires, interviews)
    1. info is obtained about individuals via standardized, indirect measures (e.g., questionnaires, interviews)
    2. Allow for inquiry in wide range of situations (e.g. actual experiences, hypothetical situations, etc
    3. Advantages
      1. Questioning (instead of observations) allows for broad inquiry
      2. Allows for large samples/efficient data collection
      3. Lower level of resources required
    4. Disadvantages
      1. Reliance on indirect measures
      2. Requires survey instrument to be: Clear Accurate Sensitive
      3. Less powerful logically then experiments
3. Content analysis
  1. message content is measured, coded, & analyzed
    1. Communication centric (message content)
    2. Content is ‘coded’ to identify, tabulate, & categorize features/variables of interest
    3. Content is ‘coded’ to identify, tabulate, & categorize features/variables of interest
  2. Advantages
    1. Reveals actual comm patterns in social systems v. perceived comm
    2. Provides understanding of the place of a component in the larger system
    3. Communication patterns can be linked to other characteristics
  3. Disadvantages
    1. Requires data on comm interactions, typically drawn from Network questionnaire Archived comm records Monitoring of comm
    2. Does not consider message content
4. Challenges
  1. Research into human behavior (social science) often requires exploring factors that must be inferred
    1. Operationalization–specifying procedures used to tangibly measure intangible variables of interest
      1. E.g., How might ‘affection’ between relational partners measured? --Use of a scale --Observation of displays of affection
      2. Not about determining the ‘best way’ but about making an informed choice
  2. A key issue is data collection is Sampling
    1. Population—total set of individuals or phenomena that meet a specified set of criteria
    2. Research Sample—population subset from which data is collected. Used as a basis for drawing inferences about the entire population. Shouldbe representative & of sufficient size
5. Conducting Scientific Research in Communication
  1. 1.Determine target & goals of the research effort
    1. Identify process, concept or real world situation of interest. Develop Research question(RQ) –a carefully constructed query which precisely specifies the goal of a research effort
  2. 3.Identify a (tentative) theoretical explanation based on review or insight. Often involves formulating hypotheses
  3. 4.Choose research methods—methodology (e.g. survey, experiment, etc) and procedures for making observations
  4. 2.Review existing knowledge—review previous and/or conduct informal observation
  5. 5.Collect data—recruit participants, records observations, or identify pre-existing data for analyses
  6. 6.Analyze data—in social science, typically via statistics
  7. 7.Interpret analysis & draw conclusions—Were predictions supported? What other explanations may exist? What are the implications for future research?
  8. 8.Report the results & the details of the study—vital for maintaining the open & cumulative aspects of scientific inquiry

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Scientific Research in Communication

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	Created by chamalhe over 10 years ago