Communication Research Methods

Objectives

If you are beginning your first research project, the task may seem overwhelming. How do I find a topic? Where do I find information on it? What do I do with it when I find it? Why do research? This course will get you asking questions, gathering information and encouraging you to think about the creation and interpreting of messages. Communication research is more than just statistics, so we will examine both the quantitative and qualitative aspects of communication research. This course will combine instruction and practice in both the methodology and analyses that communication scholars tend to employ. You will conduct an original communication research. Along the way you will acquire specific skills that will help you think, write, and speak like a communication scholar.

The goal is to provide students with principles and basic skills necessary to criticise research literature; develops minimal proficiencies in structuring designs basic to descriptive and experimental studies, including data collection, analysis, and presentation techniques in communication research.

Learning outcomes

• Design and plan according to the objectives a research project in the field of communication.
• Develop field work according to the planning carried out in a collaborative manner.
• Critically evaluate the results obtained and identify improvements needed.
• Collect and interpret data and information on which to base conclusions, including reflections on issues of a social, scientific or ethical nature in the field of communication.
• Students will be able to:
  • Turn a vague interest into a problem worth posing and solving.
  • Create an introduction, literature review, analysis and conclusion that answers research questions.
  • Apply principles and research methodologies to determine and formulate research.
  • Learn the difference between quantitative and qualitative research.
  • Articulate a research presentation.

Competencies

General skills

• Acquire leadership skills for project design and direction by making appropriate decisions and applying problem solving strategies.
• Develop interpersonal skills and be able to work under pressure.
• Organise and plan tasks related to professional performance through proper time management and timing of these tasks.
• Show motivation for personal improvement, concern for quality and ethical commitment.
• Use analysis and synthesis strategies in the treatment of information and in professional practice.

Specific skills

• Carry out journalistic and academic research processes and use appropriate methods and procedures to contribute to further progress and debate of the same research.
• Master the discourse of traditional media (press, photography, radio and television), digital, multimedia and hypertextual media, and express oneself fluently and effectively, orally and in writing, in Spanish, Catalan and English.

Basic skills

• Students can apply their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional manner and have competencies typically demonstrated through drafting and defending arguments and solving problems in their field of study.
• Students can communicate information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialists and non-specialists.
• Students have the ability to gather and interpret relevant data (usually within their field of study) in order to make judgements that include reflection on relevant social, scientific and ethical issues.

Core skills

• Be a critical thinker before knowledge in all its dimensions. Show intellectual, cultural and scientific curiosity and a commitment to professional rigour and quality.
• Exercise active citizenship and individual responsibility with a commitment to the values of democracy, sustainability and universal design, through practice based on learning, service and social inclusion.
• Interact in international and worldwide contexts to identify needs and and new contexts for knowledge transfer to current and emerging fields of professional development, with the ability to adapt to and independently manage professional and research processes.
• Use oral, written and audiovisual forms of communication, in one's own language and in foreign languages, with a high standard of use, form and content.

Content

1. Starting a research project in communication
   1. What is research (in communication)?
   2. Why write it up?
   3. Why a formal report?
2. From topics to questions
   1. From an interest to a topic
   2. Research question
   3. Problem
3. Literature review and sources
   1. Uses for sources
   2. Evidence
   3. Preparing a draft
   4. Writing a literature review
4. Your argument
   1. General and specific objectives
   2. Reasons, arguments
   3. Hypothesis
5. Research methodology
   1. Finding alternatives
   2. Qualitative vs quantitative research
   3. Design of interview
   4. Design of survey
6. Data Collection
   1. Data Analysis
7. Preparing a revision
8. Conclusions
   1. Three elements of an introduction
   2. Opening and closing words
9. Research presentation

Evaluation

• Specific assessment tests, exams: 40%
• Doing a research project in groups and a research presentation: 40%
• Observation of participation: 10%
• Follow-up of work done: 10%

Methodology

We will meet two times a week to work on research methods and discuss the course project. Readings will be assigned to facilitate the work, but class time will not be spent to go over these documents. Class time will be used to answer questions about the concepts and use these concepts to understand published research projects and help you plan your own inquiries.

Each student will be a member of a research group that will meet in class to work on course projects. People who do well in this class, regularly come to class. Please avoid missing a class, it is not ethical that only a part of your group works on the research project. It's much easier to conduct research when everybody works together on an issue. We will be utilizing Excel, Word and Google Drive.

Bibliography

Bibliography

• Booth, W., Colomb, G., Williams, J. (2003). The Craft of Research (2 ed.). The University of Chicago Press.
• Collins H. (2010). Creative Research: The Theory and Practice of Research for the Creative Industries. Bloomsbury Publishing.
• Creswell, J. W. (2008). Chapter 1. The Selection of a Research Design: In: Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Retrieved from http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/22780_Chapter_1.pdf
• Denzin, Norman K., Lincoln, Yvonna S., ed. (2005). The Sage handbook of qualitative research. Thousand Oaks, Calif. : Sage Publications.
• Hesse-Biber Nagy S. (2010). Mixed Methods Research: Merging Theory with Practice. Guilford Press.