Scientific Research in Communication

Scientific Research in Communication

1. each of us can be considered

   • Comm as the fundamental human activity
   • Expertise” gained via human experience
   • “commonsense understanding”
     • Commonsense understanding has significant limitations
       • Inconsistency
       • Not generated systematically
       • Bounded by our experience
       • Self-bias
       • Scientific Inquiry
         • At its core, science is simply a means of inquiry—asking & answering questions
         • 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
         • 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

2. Communication Research Methods

   • Experiments
     • 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
       • Advantages
         • Observes behavior
         • Tight control allows for precise focus
         • Allows for logically strong conclusions
       • Disadvantages
         • Experimental scenarios may be unrealistic
         • Tightly control of situations may not represent real world
         • Resource/time intensive
   • Survey Research
     • info is obtained about individuals via standardized, indirect measures (e.g., questionnaires, interviews)
       • info is obtained about individuals via standardized, indirect measures (e.g., questionnaires, interviews)
       • Allow for inquiry in wide range of situations (e.g. actual experiences, hypothetical situations, etc
       • Advantages
         • Questioning (instead of observations) allows for broad inquiry
         • Allows for large samples/efficient data collection
         • Lower level of resources required
       • Disadvantages
         • Reliance on indirect measures
         • Requires survey instrument to be: Clear Accurate Sensitive
         • Less powerful logically then experiments
   • Content analysis
     • message content is measured, coded, & analyzed
       • Communication centric (message content)
       • Content is ‘coded’ to identify, tabulate, & categorize features/variables of interest
       • Content is ‘coded’ to identify, tabulate, & categorize features/variables of interest
     • Advantages
       • Reveals actual comm patterns in social systems v. perceived comm
       • Provides understanding of the place of a component in the larger system
       • Communication patterns can be linked to other characteristics
     • Disadvantages
       • Requires data on comm interactions, typically drawn from Network questionnaire Archived comm records Monitoring of comm
       • Does not consider message content
   • Challenges
     • Research into human behavior (social science) often requires exploring factors that must be inferred
       • Operationalization–specifying procedures used to tangibly measure intangible variables of interest
         • E.g., How might ‘affection’ between relational partners measured? --Use of a scale --Observation of displays of affection
         • Not about determining the ‘best way’ but about making an informed choice
     • A key issue is data collection is Sampling
       • Population—total set of individuals or phenomena that meet a specified set of criteria
       • 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
   • Conducting Scientific Research in Communication
     • 1.Determine target & goals of the research effort
       • 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
     • 3.Identify a (tentative) theoretical explanation based on review or insight. Often involves formulating hypotheses
     • 4.Choose research methods—methodology (e.g. survey, experiment, etc) and procedures for making observations
     • 2.Review existing knowledge—review previous and/or conduct informal observation
     • 5.Collect data—recruit participants, records observations, or identify pre-existing data for analyses
     • 6.Analyze data—in social science, typically via statistics
     • 7.Interpret analysis & draw conclusions—Were predictions supported? What other explanations may exist? What are the implications for future research?
     • 8.Report the results & the details of the study—vital for maintaining the open & cumulative aspects of scientific inquiry