Uses of Communications ResearchSocial research helps to explain who we are and where we are going. Research is not just important to administrative decision making, but to improving the quality of life for everyone. Research enables us to understand behaviors and events, allowing us to test the assumptions that drive society. Social research provides the power to correct past mistakes and improve on success (Singletary, 1994).What does this mean? If there is a problem in society, scientific research can help solve that problem. If there is an issue in society, research can help find a resolution to it. For example, medical research has enable society to find cures for many diseases. In the realm of social science, research has enabled society to improve products, such as television programming and newspaper content. While the list waffles a bit depending on whom you ask, these are the six basic uses of research on the communications field.
The first four categories are industry research; the fifth, government research, and the sixth, academic research. The list provides an exhaustive and mutually exclusive list of uses — although not of methods, types, etc. Notice that a single piece of research might serve more than one use or objective. For example, newspaper readership surveys usually provide product tuning and sales staff support. Reporters do research everyday, from the most basic interviews and library research to the most sophisticated computer-assisted reporting. Research for news reporting is only research in a very generalized sense. When we talk of research for news, we usually mean research in a more formal sense, such as computer assisted reporting (data mining) or survey research conducted by news organizations for news purposes. Prime examples are public opinion polls conducted by New York Times/CBS, Washington Post/ABC, Time/CNN. Can you think of other examples? Research for Product Tuning and Promotion Product tuning research in the advertising industry involves pre-testing products on focus groups. But product tuning can also be applied to the media product itself. Major media companies are constantly involved in product tuning research to improve newspapers, magazines, TV broadcasts, and now Websites. Can you think of other examples? The public relations field is largely involved in promoting products, services, companies or individuals. Can you think of examples? Research for Sales Staff Support In the advertising industry, research is integral to the process. Advertising campaigns have to be planned and tested. Sales staff needs to know audience size and composition in order to sell advertising space. Nielsen ratings are the most common example. Research into Communication Effectiveness The most obvious example of this involves the systematic process of gauging the success of specific advertising campaigns or public relations efforts. Sometimes it involves a concerted attempt to see if information is simply understood by the intended public. You are tested after reading a textbook, for example. Can you think of other examples? At other times, the persuasiveness of a message may be the subject of research. This is most obvious in our society in the field of government and politics, but private industry also conducts focus groups and pre-test/post-test experiments to see if people can be persuaded to switch from one toothpaste to another, for example. Can you think of other examples? Research into Policy Formation Especially since Ronald Reagan was president, our political system makes much use of public opinion research and focus groups to form public policy. But in the communications field specifically, a better example would be the U.S. Surgeon General's research and report on TV violence in the 1960s.
Then there is the category of pure research, which seeks only to better understand some phenomenon, or how the world works in the communication field. The most obvious example here is academic research in the fields of journalism, public relations, advertising, speech, etc.
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