Course Overview

Mass Communication Research

Welcome to the world of media research. You have boldly entered where few tread lightly. Research is a world with it's own lexicon, and like any language, one must become familiar with the terminology in order to be properly understood. So in one sense, you should treat this course like a foreign language, mastering the basic concepts and tools so that you may one day know how to apply them properly.

We will focus on survey research. This will allow the print and broadcast journalist, as well as the advertising or public relations major, to conduct research that will be applicable to their job. To be successful in any job, you must:

Find out what people want.
Give it to them.
Tell them you gave it to them.

   Survey research will allow us to do just that.

   To do survey research, you will learn how to write questionnaire items, how to code those items and then determine their levels of measurement. You can think of this as a foundation on which the course rests. If you don't understand levels of measurement, you will not be able to proceed to using the tools of the trade: descriptive statistics, including measures of central tendency and measures of dispersion, and inferential statistics, of which we'll focus on the chi-square, t test, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and correlation. We'll use these tools to help us test hypotheses. Hypothesis testing allows us to make inferences about the population under study, whether it be a national electorate, a student body, or a target group for advertisers or public relations' personnel. Thus it's very useful to understand how research works and how the tools of research, i.e. statistics, serve as a powerful indicator of trends in a population at large.

   A Word of Caution: To do well in this course students need to do far more than just memorize. They need to see how ideas are related and how to apply them. You can't sleep on the book and expect osmosis to occur. You can't expect to learn everything you should know by just showing up to class. You can't expect to understand the concepts and constructs of research unless you apply them. Thus this course will place a demand on your time and effort. Yet once you've completed the course, you will have learned a valuable skill that will help you further your career. It's not for everyone, but if you pay attention and work at it, it's accessible to anyone.

   Luckily for you, we've designed Web notes to aid the students in many ways. The Web notes contain material covering lectures, assignments and labs. This material is continually updated as we find better ways of communicating what you need to know. These notes will allow you to keep up even when you are sick or unable to make it to class for other reasons. Though some students have been able to succeed in the class solely by paying attention to the Web notes, you are highly encouraged to participate in class discussions, asking questions to eliminate confusion on your part. If you find you're still uncertain about a topic, you have a few options including e-mailing the professors for clarifications, taking advantage of their office hours for help or setting up an appointment to have uncertainties cleared. It's impossible for the professor to write answers in your head, but it is possible for us to thoroughly explain the material.

I look forward to passing along the knowledge and opportunities provided by research. Welcome!

If you don't understand something in this Web note, please e-mail Dr. Sitton.