COMMUNICATION ARTS
RESEARCH CA3011
A. Parichart W. and A. Chulamani C.
Objectives



To introduce ways and tools for managing and
analysing quantitative communication research
data.
To introduce the steps involved in preparing
quantitative data from a survey for computer
analysis
To discuss the use of SPSS for the statistical
examination of dat.
How to enter data
Types of numeric codes
Two Types of Numeric Codes



They are used for the kinds if variables that you will find
on a survey questionnaire coding schedule:
Continuous variables (real number variables: Answers
are recorded in terms of ‘real’ numbers.
Ex. 28 years of age, 165 centimeters tall.
Categorical variables: Answers are recorded in terms of
arbitrary or nominal ‘codes’
Ex. Gender; male (the code=1), female (the code=2)
String variable (text variable) for
the open-ended question
Case, Variable, Values
Variable View
Data View
Case, Variable and Values
Each row in the Data View window represents a case. In
a survey, a ‘case’ would normally be the individual
respondent/person interviewed.
 Each column represents a variable.
Ex. Age of the respondent, income, newspaper read
• Each variable in a survey can take on a number of
values.
EX. Gender using the values ‘1’ for male and ‘2’ for
female.

Example
Defining Variables and Entering Data

1)
2)
3)
The ‘Variable View’ screen shows, in each row, the
detailed definitions relating to each variable, as follows:
Name (column 1): we enter a short name describing the
first variable in our data set.
Type (column 2): click in the right-hand side of the cell
and a dialogue box croups up, allowing us to choose
from a set of types, including Numeric (the default
choice), Date, String, etc.
Width (column 3): refers to the width of the data
column; in most cases this can be left as it is.
Defining Variables and Entering Data
4) Decimals (column 4): most variables in content analyses or
surveys are likely to be coded using the integers, that is whole
numbers, so for clarity the default of 2 Decimals should be
changed to ‘0’. Click in the cell, and use the up/down arrow
that appears to choose 0 (zero) instead of the default 2.
5) Label (column 5): this allows us to enter a longer label than
the single brief name entered in column 1, to describe what
the variable refers to. Ex. A variable name ‘ Program’ can be
labeled ‘Title of news program’ to clarify that this refers to the
title or name of the news program analyzed.
Defining Variables and Entering Data
6) Value (column 6): this is of key importance.
 If the variable consists of continuous data/real numbers
then it is ‘1’ means ‘1’, ‘2’ means ‘2’, etc.
 For categorical data: the numbers represents
codes.(Clicking in the right-hand side of the Values cell
brings up a dialogue box that allows us to do this by
defining a Label for each Value.
 Ex. ‘1’=BBC 1 ‘2’=BB2 ‘3’=Channel 4
Example
How to key in?
Example : Coding
1. What is your gender?
____ male ____ female
2. What is your status?
___single____married____divorced____separate
Example: Coding
3. Please rank the television channel you like most?
___ channel 3
___ channel 5
___ channel 7
___ channel 9
___ channel 11
Example: Coding
4. Please write a television program that you like most
____________
Analyzing Data with SPSS
Analysing Data
This is an interesting part of the research.
 The first thing one would often want to do is to get a
general ‘feel’ for what the data show- a general ‘feel’ for
the distribution of different variables in the data set.
Ex. How many men and female were there in the research?
What was their average age?
What percentages of men and women respectively user
Twitter?

Frequencies and Descriptives



We begin to get a good picture of the distribution of
individual variables with two types of SPSS analysis:
One for analysing the frequencies of individual values in
a variable,
The other for a descriptive summary of the values of a
variable in terms of calculating the average (also known
as the mean value) of the values of a variable and
showing its minimum and maximum values.
1. Menu Selections: Frequencies

Analyze > Descriptive Statistics> Frequencies
The variables analyzed with the
Frequencies command are categorical
variables consisting of the code
numbers
Instruction

To describe the gender of consumers
Example
2. Menu Selections: Descriptive


It makes sense to summarize the data which is not
the categorical variable, but consists of the real
numbers as the average or total items.
In a survey this may be the age, height, weight of
respondents, choose the
Analyze>Descriptive Statistics> Descriptives
Frequencies & descriptives – for describing
and summarizing individual variables.
Instruction

To find the mean scores of the satisfaction of
product A
Example
Crosstab & Mean
3. Menu Selections: Crosstabs



In SPSS, a command that could compare two or
more variables with each other.
Crosstabs- for comparing categorical variables
Analyze> Descriptive Statistics>Crosstabs
IF ONE VARIABLE HAS MORE VALUES THAN THE OTHER,
PUT THIS VARIABLE (THE ONE WITH MORE VALUES) IN
THE
"ROW"
BOX;
PUT THE OTHER VARIABLE (THE ONE WITH LESS
VALUES) IN THE "COLUMN” BOX
Instruction

To compare gender with type of shopper
Example
4. Menu Selections: Compare Means

In SPSS, a command that could compare a
continuous variable across the categorical variable.
Analyze>Compare Means>Means
The dependent variable is a continuous
variable consisting of many values;
independent variable is a categorical
variable
Instruction

To compare the satisfaction of product A between
gender
Reference

Hansen, A., & Machin, D. (2013). Media and
Communication Research Methods. Basingstoke:
Palgrave Macmillan.
Thank you for your attention
In-class exercise