Understanding Media Research

• The term "research" originates from the Latin words "re" (again) and "cercier" (to search), meaning to search for or find. In French, "chercher" means "seek".

Importance of Media Research

• Media research is crucial like history, interpreting the past to understand the present
• Resembles geography by defining our place in the world
• Like literature it provides modern culture and entertainment
• Media research, similarly to literature, hones critical thinking skills
• Media research is intertwined with business and commerce like economics
• Media research parallels language studies, shaping communication
• Media research fosters tech adoption like science and technology
• Media research influences culture like family studies
• It constitutes our environment like environmental studies
• Explains world views similarly to philosophy
• Media research aids or hinders self-understanding like psychology
• Media elucidates how things function like science,
• The creation of media products requires planning and design like industrial arts,
• Media provides access to diverse art forms
• It disseminates political and ideological messages like politics
• Understanding media's codes and conventions is essential like rhetoric
• Media mirrors and magnifies life, prompting audience-centric thinking, like drama.
• Media rigorously investigates audiences and their behaviors

Parts of a Research Paper

• Preliminaries include the title page, approval sheet, acknowledgment, abstract, table of contents, list of tables, and list of figures
• The body consists of several chapters:
  • Chapter 1 covers the introduction/background, problem statement, significance, scope/delimitations, and definition of terms
  • Chapter 2 includes the literature review, theoretical, and conceptual frameworks
  • Chapter 3 details methods and techniques, population/sample, research instrument, data gathering, processing, and statistical treatment
  • Chapter 4 involves data presentation and analysis using graphs and tables
  • Chapter 5 summarizes findings, draws conclusions, and offers recommendations
• End matters comprise references and appendices

Scholarly Research Traits

• Scholarly research is systematic, objective, careful, and focused on correctness and truthfulness

Common Research Problems

• Anxiety, the absence of a specific research question, and an excess of communication topics can pose challenges

Key Steps to Identify a Topic

• Select a research topic, determine its relevance, review existing literature, and state the research problem

Selecting a Research Topic

• Focus on your research interests and set research goals and approaches
• Consider paradigms, theories, academic publications, trade publications, and current events
• The internet can be a resource for research ideas
• Reflect on everyday situations for insights

Determining Topic Relevance

• Assess the research's worth, scope, feasibility, data analyzability, and significance
• Consider result generalizability, costs, time, approach appropriateness, and potential harm to subjects
• Identify what is new about the topic and seek feedback from various sources

Literature Review Purpose

• Share results from related studies
• Connect study to larger dialogue
• Establish importance and benchmark results

Essential literature review questions

• What research exists in the area?
• What findings have previous studies yielded?
• What future research do other researchers suggest?
• What remains uninvestigated?
• How does the proposed study add to existing knowledge?
• What theories and research methods have prior studies employed?

Defining the Research Problem

• Create a formal question to provide indications about a particular concern or issue of interest

Research Objectives

• Formal statements which identify what we want to specifically find out about the general research question in a declarative form

Hypothesis

• Formal statement proposing a relationship between two or more variables based on theory or past studies; to be tested for truth or falsehood

Writing the Introduction

• The introduction provides an overview that should be well-written, clear, logical, and organized
• The subsections include the background, rationale, research and problem objectives, scope and limitations, and significance of the study.

Tips for writing a good introduction

• Write it like a compelling story or engaging in a debate using quotes and anecdotes
• Write the introduction like a road map defining concepts contextually for accessibility and conviction
• Revise for refinement

Distinguishing Introduction from Review of Related Literature (RRL)

• Introduction provides background, key concepts, rationale, and problems, while RRL summarizes, critiques, and compares related studies
• The introduction may contain data from non-academic sources; RRL focuses on scientific research studies from journals, theses, etc.
• RRL presents emerging themes from critical evaluations and is more extensive than the introduction
• RRL is located after the introduction

Ethics in Research

• Research ethics involves four principles:
  • Autonomy respects the rights, values, and decisions of others through informed consent and voluntary participation
  • Nonmaleficence avoids intentionally inflicting harm, addressing potential threats to informants
  • Beneficence removes harms and confers benefits, especially when dealing with marginalized groups or sensitive topics
  • Justice ensures equal treatment and respect for participants, avoiding exploitation

Ethical Considerations

• Understand existing works helps in research design and conduct research and prepare to implement existing ethical guides
• Existing data can generate new hypotheses and analyses, saving time and money
• Privacy and confidentiality protect participants' rights and information
• Disclosure establishes mutual relationship between researcher and participants, necessary to divulge to the respondents of the study
• Conflicts of interest occur when researchers' personal, financial, political, or academic interests could compromise objectivity