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INTRODUCTION TO

COMMUNICATION RESEARCH

Dr. Ananya Roy


Senior Consultant
Department of Communication Research
Email: ananyar@gmail.com
MODULE OBJECTIVES

Understand the basic steps in research process


Understand the differences between formal and informal research;
and primary and secondary data
Understand the various types of research methods and tools
Become aware of the ethical issues in communication research
Understand the practical applications of research methods in mass
communication
Understand the methods used in quantitative and qualitative
research; the concepts of validity and reliability
Comprehend the challenges in sampling and collecting research
data
Be able to design and execute a research project
INTRODUCTION

What is research?
Why do we engage in research?
Characteristics of scientific
research
RESEARCH APPROACHES

EXPLORATORY: Focus is on gaining insights and


familiarity for later investigation or undertaken when
problems are in a preliminary stage of investigation.

DESCRIPTIVE: Research to obtain information on the


current status of a phenomena, and to describe what
exists with respect to variables or conditions in a situation.
EXPLANATORY: Causal research, also known as
explanatory research is conducted in order to identify the
extent and nature of cause-and-effect relationships.
RESEARCH APPROACHES
EXPLANATORY EXPLORATORY DESCRIPTIVE
RESEARCH RESEARCH RESEARCH

Amount of uncertainty
characterising Clearly defined Highly ambiguous Partially defined
decision situation

Key research
Research hypotheses Research question Research question
statement

Later stages of Early stage of decision Later stages of


When conducted?
decision making making decision making

Usual research
Highly structured Unstructured Structured
approach

Our sales are What kind of people


Will consumers buy
declining for no patronize our stores
more products in a
apparent reason compared to our
blue package?
primary competitor?
Examples
What kinds of new
Which of two
products are fast-food What product features
advertising campaigns
consumers interested are th most important
will be more effective?
in? to our customers?
Source: Zikmund, W.G., Babin, J., Carr, J. & Griffin, M. (2012) Business Research Methods: with Qualtrics Printed Access Card Cengage Learning
TYPES OF RESEARCH

QUALITATIVE: Generally intended to gather data that provide


rich, in-depth, and contextualized representations of human
behaviour as it occurs in natural settings. These settings are
inherently complex and behaviour is driven by a wide range of factors.

QUANTITATIVE: Involves the collection and analysis of data


that is quantifiable. For data to be quantifiable, the data must be able to
be counted or mathematically calculated. Quantitative research provides a
means for researchers to be able to generate statistics with the data that is
collected. The general idea of quantitative research is to get information
that can be inferred (or generalized) to large populations of people.
METHODS OF DATA
GATHERING

Survey
Content analysis
Focus group discussion
In-depth/Intensive interview
Observation
Experimentation and Quasi-experimentation
Case study
RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS

Questionnaire: Constructing questionnaire,


close-ended and open-ended questions, types
of questions
Focus group discussion
In-depth interviewing
SAMPLING

Population and sampling


Probability and Non-probability
samples
Sample size
Sampling error
QUALITATIVE QUANTITATIVE

TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES

Transcription analysis Descriptive Statistics


Recursive abstraction Inferential Statistics
Content analysis Parametric and non-
Parametric Statistical
Discourse analysis tests
STEPS IN RESEARCH

Selecting a topic for research


Delimiting the topic
Determining the feasibility of the study
Analyzing the situation and defining the problem
Establishing research objectives
Writing a research proposal
Conducting formal research
WRITING A RESEARCH PAPER

Chapter 1- Introduction: Statement of the problem, purpose


of study, significance of the study, research questions and/or
hypotheses and/or null hypotheses
Chapter 2- Literature review and theoretical framework
Chapter 3- Methodology: Population and sampling,
instrumentation, procedure and time frame, analysis plan,
reliability and validity, scope and limitations, assumptions
Chapter 4- Results: Description of the sample, analyses
Chapter 5- Conclusion and recommendations: Discussion
and recommendations
MASS MEDIA RESEARCH
AND THE INTERNET

Background of research and the internet


Internet data collection approaches
Advantages and disadvantages of internet
research
Practical and ethical considerations of
internet research
Resources: https://scholar.google.com/
DOCUMENTATION

APA Style of citing references

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