CMNS 260: Empirical Communication Research Methods
1-Introduction to the Course
Professor: Jan Marontate
Teaching Assistants: Nawal Musleh-Motut, Megan Robertson
Lab Instructor: Chris Jeschelnik
School of Communication.
Simon Fraser University
Fall 2011
Course Organization & Handouts
• Syllabus & Outline of Class Sessions
– Objectives
– Course Administration (textbook, grading, office
hours)
– Tentative Schedule of Class Sessions
• Assignments: Handouts 3, 4 & 5
Course content
• Introduce different forms of research
• Analyze relationships between goals,
assumptions, theories and methods
• Study basic data collection and analysis
techniques
• Research process—focusing on empirical
methods
Why study methods? Practical aspects
– learn to read other people’s research & critically
evaluate it
– learn ways to find your own “data” to answer your
own research questions
– acquire skills potential employers seek
– self-defense (against misinformation) &
responsible citizenship
Importance of research in everyday life
& in communications studies
• civil society --Interpersonal & intercultural
relations
• policy decisions about “life and death” issues
(student loans, health care, welfare benefits…etc
• healthcare (evidence-based medicine), Personal
identity and ideas about society
• industry and marketing decisions (choices of
products in stores, cable channels, opinion polls
etc..)
• …..MORE…..
The
Research
Process
Babbie (1995: 101)
Why study methods?
– “Knowledge is power” (to acquire skills for social
action or change)
• “Savoir pour pouvoir, Pouvoir pour prévoir” (Auguste
Comte)
• «To know to do (have power), to do (have power) in order
to predict the future and plan for it »
– « Knowledge is understanding »
• “décrire, comprendre, expliquer ” (Gilles Gaston Granger)
• “to describe, to understand and to explain”
Research has the potential to inform
and misinform
• even well-done research is not always used
accurately
• some research is technically flawed
• knowledge of methods an important tool for
understanding logic and limits of claims about
research
Research Methodology (Scholarly
Perspectives)
• Process
– methods
– logic of inquiry (assumptions & hypotheses)
• Produces
– laws, principles and theories that can be tested
• (Karl Popper & notion of falsifiability for politically
engaged scholars interested in the fight against
genocide in the early 20th century)
Research has the potential to inform
and misinform
• even well-done research is not always used
accurately
• some research is technically flawed
• knowledge of methods an important tool for
understanding logic and limits of claims about
research
Other Ways of Knowing
– authority (parents,
teachers, religious
leaders, media gurus)
– tradition (past
practices)
– common sense
– media (TV. etc.)
– personal experience
Talk show host Oprah Winfrey
Cory Doctorow
Electronic Frontier Assoc. &
Boingboing.net
Ordinary Inquiry vs. Scholarly Inquiry
Risks of “Errors” associated with non-scholarly
knowledge
• selective observation--only notice some phenomena-miss others
• overgeneralization-evidence applied to too wide a range
of conditions
• premature closure--jumping to conclusions
• halo effect--idea of being influenced by prestige
Types of “Disciplines” (in history)
• Ranking of disciplines (are they scientific or
not?)
• Middle ages– education as preparation for
careers in theology
– trivium (studied first, language skills)
• logic rhetoric, grammar
– quadrivium
• arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy
Ranking Disciplines: Positivist ideas
(Auguste Comte)
19th century
abstract
concrete
abstract
concrete
Communication as a Science?
• Field more recent
– affiliations with the sciences, social sciences & the
humanities
• Scholarly work (like old ideas of science)
distinguished from mythology by methods
AND goals
• many different approaches
Relations between theory and empirical
observation
• Theory and empirical research
– Testing theories through empirical observation
(deductive)
– Using empirical observation to develop theories
(Inductive)
Empirical and Logical
Foundations of Research
(does not have to start with theory)
Theories
Empirical
Generalizations
The
Scientific
Process
Predictions
(Hypotheses)
Observations
Source: Singleton & Straits (1999: 27); Babbie (1995: 55)
Scholarly Communities--Norms
• universalism -- research judged on “scientific”
merit
• organized scepticism -- challenge and question
research
• disinterestedness-- openness to new ideas,
non-partisan
• communalism--sharing with others
• honesty
Scholarly Publications vs. Other
publications
• peer review
– by knowledgable people
– “blind” peer review
• referees don’t know who did it
• authors don’t know who refereed it
– unpaid
Research Questions
• Questions researchers ask themselves, not the
questions they ask their informants
• Must be empirically testable
• Not
– too vague
– too general
– untestable (with implicit, untested assumed outcomes)
Using literature reviews to develop ideas
for topics
• Literature review = Survey of research done on
your topic.
• May be used to
• previous research may inspire you to:
–
–
–
–
replicate a project (exactly or with variations)
explore unexpected findings
follow suggestions for further research
extend explanation or theory to new topic or setting or
context
– challenge findings-- try to refute conclusions
– look for new variables, relationships not treated in
literature
Developing research topics
Research Paradigms
• Sets of shared patterns in a scholarly
community about what constitutes
worthwhile research (Thomas Kuhn, The
structure of scientific revolutions, 1968)
– What problems are worth investigating?
– What constitutes an answer?
• Different views on how approaches are
grouped
dentifying Styles of Research: Example of Quantitative vs. Qualitative
Approaches
(Common about 20-30 yrs ago but still used. .Textbook Chapter 13)
Quantitative
Objective
Variables
Reliability
Value-Free
Independent of Context
Many cases or subjects
Statistical Analysis
Detached Researcher
vs.
Qualitative
Subjective
Processes and events
Authenticity
Explicitly Stated Values
Aware of Content
Few cases or subjects
Other qualities
Involved Researcher
Another idea: Four Paradigms (Burrell
& Morgan)
radical humanist
interpretive
radical structuralist
functionalist
Order/stability/regulation
objective
subjective
Conflict/radical change
“Dimensions” of Research
Purpose of
Study
Intended Use
of Study
Treatment of Time
in Study
Exploratory
Descriptive
Explanatory
Basic
Applied
-Action
-Impact
-Evaluation
Cross-sectional
Longitudinal
-Panel
-Time series
-Cohort analysis
-Case Study
-Trend study
Space
Unit of
Analysis
-dependent
-individual
-independent -family
-household
-artifact
(media,
technology)
Neuman (2000: 37)
Exploratory Research
• When not much is known about topic
• Surprises (e.g. Serendipity effect)
• Acquire familiarity with basic concerns
and develop a picture
• Explore feasibility of additional
research
• Develop questions
Descriptive Research
• Focuses on “who”, “what” and “how”
• Background information, to stimulate new
ways of thinking, to classify types, etc.
Explanatory Research
• To test theories, predictions, etc…
• Idea of “advancing” knowledge
Intended Use of Study
• Basic
• Applied
– action research (We can make a difference)
– social impact assessment (What will be the
effects?)
– evaluation research (Did it work?)
– needs assessment (Who needs what?)
– cost-benefit analysis (What is it worth?)
Basic or Fundamental Research
• Concerns of scholarly community
• Inner logic and relation to theoretical issues
in field
Applied Research
• commissioned/judged/used by people outside
the field of communication
• goal of practical applications
– usefulness of results
Types of Applied Research




Action Research
Social Impact Assessment
Needs Assessment
Evaluation Research
• formative (built in)
• summative (final outcomes)
 Cost-benefit analysis
Treatment of Time
 Cross-sectional
(one point in time)
 Longitudinal
(more than one point in time)
Main Types of Longitudinal Studies
•
Panel study
– Exactly the same people, at least twice
•
Cohort Analysis
– same category of people or things (but not exactly same individuals) who/which shared an
experience at at least two times
– Examples: Birth cohorts. Graduating Classes, Video games invented in the same year
2000
2010
41-50
51-60
61-70
71-80
41-50
51-60
61-70
71-80
•
Time-series
– same type of info., not exactly same people, multiple time periods, e.g. Same place
2006
Burnaby residents
•
2011
Burnaby residents
Case Studies may be longitudinal or cross-sectional
Lexis Diagram (To study Cohort
Survival)
Units of Analysis
• Examples
– Individual people
– Newspaper articles or broadcasts
– Individual video games
Units of Analysis
– Families, Sports Sections etc.
Units of
analysis:
• Examples:
– Households
– News networks
(Al Jazeera,
Channel News
Asia, CNN)
Importance of Choosing Appropriate Unit
of Analysis
• example: Ecological Fallacy (cheating)
Ecological Fallacy
Ecological Fallacy
Ecological Fallacy & Reductionism
ecological fallacy--wrong unit of analysis
(too high)
reductionism--wrong unit of analysis (too low)
reductionism--wrong unit of analysis (too low)
Choose
Topic
Focus
Research
Question
Inform
Others
Interpret
Data
The
The
Research
“Research
Wheel”
Wheel
Design
Study
Steps in the
research process
Analyze
Data
Collect
Data
Source: Neuman (1995: 12)