Understanding Research Methodologies

Science and Research Overview

• Chapter focuses on mass media research, negative thoughts about research and fear of using stats
• Goal is to present mass media research and explain how to discover something using it
• Understanding of the subject matter is more important than being a math wizard

Introduction to Mass Media

• Mass media research is investigated virtually unlimited
• Understanding mass media research is vital in the mass media
• Mass communication is any form of communication through a medium simultaneously reaching many people
• Mass media are the channels that carry mass communication
• Example mass media: radio, TV, newspapers, magazines, billboards, films, recordings, books, Internet, and smart media
• Smart mass media: smartphones, smart TVs, and tablets
• Types of things mass media researchers investigate:
  • Which format should a radio station adopt?
  • What type of hosts do listeners want on a radio station's morning show?
  • Are there more violent acts on TV now than five years ago?
  • What kinds of peple watch Tv Online?

What Is Research?

• It essentially means one thing: an attempt to discover something
• Research can be informal, with few specific plans, or formal, following highly defined procedures
• Correct methods are the important thing to ensure the best results
• Most people who conduct research are not paid for their efforts
• An assumption is that most readers will work for companies or businesses using research

Daily Research Tasks

• Setting the water temperature in the shower
• Deciding which clothes to put on
• Selecting something to eat for lunch

Three Step Philosophy of Success

• Find out what the target audience wants

• Give it to them

• Tell them that you gave it to them

• Focus of the text is on attempts to discover something in the mass media

• Chapter contains discussions of the development of mass media research, methods used, and scientific method of research

• Two basic questions a beginning researcher must learn to answer:

  • (1) How to use research methods and statistical procedures
  • (2) when to use research methods and statistical procedures

• Focus for mass media researchers should be on applications, not concentrating on role of statistician

• Real world requires understanding of what statistics produce, how to interpret results, and how to use results in decision making

Mass Media Research Team

• Researchers use algorithms to investigate research questions and hypotheses
• Users of radio and television ratings continually analyze the instability of ratings information
• Media ratings frequently ask statisticians and the ratings companies to help determine why this problems occurs
• Mass media operators rely on research results for nearly every major decision they make
• Increased demand for information increased the need for more researchers, public and private
• Research directors plan and supervise studies and act as liaisons to management
• Methodological specialists provide statistical support
• Research analysts design and interpret studies and computer specialists provide hardware and software support in data analysis
• Research in mass media is used to verify or refute opinions or intuitions for decision makers
• There are references in the media to audience surveys, public opinion polls, growth projections, status reports
• Mass media researchers are exposed to information everyday

Two Additional Points

• Need for media research and qualified researchers will continue to grow
• Important to search the Internet for ideas, not good for primary research

Mass Media Research Development

• Research has developed in definable steps, with similar patterns followed in each medium's needs

• Examples of phases consider smart media

• Phase 1: Focus on medium itself, technology, similarities, services, costs

• Phase 2: Focus on the uses and the users of the medium, motivations, projections

• Phase 3: Focus on social psychological and physical effects of the medium

• Phase 4: Focus on how the medium can be improved

• Once a medium is developed, research happens across all phases

• Research is a never ending process

• The largest percentage of research conducted in the private sector relates to money

• Four events that encouraged the growth of mass media research:

  • WWI prompted the need to understand nature of porpaganda - Attempted to uncover the effects of media on people from stimulus response viewpoint - Media was though to assert powerful influence over audiences
  • Hypodermic needle model of communication says communicators need ot shoot messages at an audience to produce universal effects - Found to be an overly simplistic View
  • Realization by advertisers in 1950s/1960s that research data are useful in developing ways to persuade - Advertisers encouraged studies of message effectiveness, audience demographics, placing ads, selecting medium
  • Increasing interest of citizens in effects of media on teh public, especially children - Direct result was interest in research related to violence, sexual content, commercials and children
  • Increased competition among the media for advertising dollars was a fourth contributor
  • The media are now sophisticated and use plans, objectives, and increasing dependency on data to support decisions
  • Mass medias now focus on audience fragmentation
    • Need info about consumer's changing values/tastes, lifestyle trends, image studies, segmentation
    • Large organizations conduct research previously done by marketing, psychology, and sociology
    • Competition and audience fragmentations leads to media use strategies
  • Packaging strategy involves determining the audience member demographics, languages and sparetime

More Media Research

• Originated mainly in psychology and sociology departments
• Mass media researchers dominate mass media research today
• Now trend of cross-communication
• Modern media research includes psychological and sociological investigations that measure psychology, such as in response to music or tv for emotional effects
• Computer modeling and sophisticated computer analyses are common to find potential success of TV
• Once considered eccentric, math media research is now a legitimate and esteemed field

Media Research and the Scientific Method

• Scientific research is objective, organized, empirical analysis of variables
• Performed in media research, every day we test a question, and the task must be to find which best answers the questions
• Tycho Brahe (sixteenth century) practiced this to refute the theories of Aristotle
• To find the most appropriate data, several approaches of answering questions exists:
  • Methods of Knowing via
    • Tenacity
      • The logic that something is true since it has always been true
    • Intuition
      • One assumes it since self-evident
    • Authority
      • A belief promoted because by a trusted source
    • Self-Discovery
      • Things learned without intervention
    • Scientific Method
      • Approaching learning as series of small steps

Scientific Methods 6 Basic Characteristics or Tenets

• Scientific Research is Public
  • freely available requires in science to allow accurate findings
• Scientists publish information on samples, and it requires descriptions of material
• Science is Objective
  • rules out eccentricity of judgement
  • explicit rules and procedures
  • reduce coding errors
  • objectivity requires dealing with facts rather than interpretations
• Science is Empirical
  • perceived and classify studies, rejecting metaphysical explanations, requiring scientists to link concepts and measurements
  • 2 basic definitions: - Constituitive Definition: - substituting other words - Operational Definition: - specifying procedures that allows experience - helps dispel the questions raised in philosophical situations
• Science is Systematic and Cumulative
  • researches build upon the previous studies and finding consistencies between
• science is predictive
  • relating present to the future
• Science is Self-Correcting
  • method is self-correcting with changes uncover

A Closer Look at Scientific Research

• The internet spreads scientific information faster, but look into some urban legends
• Scientific belief should be constantly tested to truly see what is universally valid
• But not appropriate at all times in life
• Use it to produce accurate and useful data in media research

Research Procedures

• Scientific method is meant to provide objective and unbias collect and evaluate data, to question
• Use of qualitative research ( focuses group) or quantitative research ( large sample) to generalize
• Consists of eight steps: - select a problem - review existing research - develop questions/ hypo - determine the appropriate method -Collect data -Analyze and interpret the results - present the results -replicate the study when necessary

Two Sector, Academic and Private Research

• research divided into academic, conducted from universities/colleges
• Scholars that is conducted for public sector research, usually theoretical or scholarly, meant to explain what
• Conduct research in both sectors is used equally to answer mass media questions
  • Various media items, differences in consumer, effects of overload to consumers
• Non-Governmental companies or consultants conduct private sector research, it releases to public, with applied info such as median content or consumer info like advertising -For future decisions such as public opinion polls -Private sector becomes more important with companies shrinking and advert declining -Academics do not have death lines while those always have type or time in place

Research Procedures

• Objective and rigorous observation as research to answer question with clear objectives and data
• Follow from determining topic, and methodology
• select one that you like but can still access info to research
  • if it is important, it needs constant testing validity or steps

Answering Important Questions

• Important aspect in a research paper. By thinking of potential important questions it allows the readers’ creativity grow

Literature Review

• Is of main importance where new material is being shown
• Before try to attempt it
• The type of research and what has already been found in previous studies and their suggested method
• And how the study compares to knowledge and methods

Stating a Hypothesis or Research Question

• After reviewing literature, state the problem in the style of Research question or formal statement
• A hypotheisis is
  • relations of variables tested either true or false
• A research question is
  • a stated question to imply something while not limited to a relationship
  • questions appropriate where research is unsure
• What is nature or problems
• Gather pre data, test to test hyper

More research question samples

• Does Tv content enrich capacity by offering materials and ideas to belive or what?
• Does Tv lead to distorition of reality for kids?
• Can intervetion by adult while child views a program, or immediately, evoke changes to help the kid?
• Data from types can create stable hypo, for singer Singer studies to measure and spec

Data Analysis and Interpretation

Time and effort depend on survey length and methodology Must be performed with guidelines and results from the 2 major questions: Are results and data reliable Televisions by nature is a place of elements such is found by imigation of space, that the study should be developed . Researcher most evaluate whether their work is valid or

Validity

• Chapter is meant to teach whether results both internal or external

Internal Validity

• Where control over the study is for to be explain correct results, a variable or facter
• Example of a study of Y is a result of X
• How many an Artifict can be formed due to study results. Such is known as with Children who watch extended Television
• Artifict examples in search, what cause for parents help not only tv but more parental action
• Artifacts may also happen in more cases :
  • History
    • events that occur through subject may affect attitude. A sample
    • study involving the subject
    • history or more factors in more space it has
  • Maturation
    • features may also change during a course, and can also if be the correct factor
      • with so high a content, fatigue is also a cause and also emotional drainage

Testing and Measuring Instruments

• testing its self
  • may be the test, where a prior test sensitives result more, and will change
  • To do : use diff tests
    • establish a point thru sampaling ( randomization ) - Instrumentation
    • may be the tool, where observer becomes casual in records/notes of facts
• Statistical Regression The subjects who achieve high, and those tend to move towards during subsequence, these are outlier's
• Subjects change their value since of the test and for only score 10, test with wide subjects

Experimental Mortality and Sources of Invalidity

• studies face those will drop out for ill, quit
• selection, has to account more than budget alloud but loses can kill -and or is too high so it will be over. 100 - 50% lose in 1 to the test
• Demand
• Charaters
  • experimental purpose change how you perform with known data that’ll effect results more
• Causal time order - change the experiment may face results to its independent changes
• is used for dependent variable that can affect
  • or the layouts is hard to influence

How to control to lower

• Do not mix treatments for some reason and control the process over many hours. With subjects who doesn’t influence
• As by Hyman (29) is best if aware, to edit
• all issues ####External validity Refer to best if study generalize. Interaction from factors can affect variable Test if good by some suggestions: Use use random samples. Used different sets and repeat Or have sample with best represents

Present Results and Replication

• Depends on study and or journal, with easy explanations needed
• Important to point out that any study must be replicate
• Research and studies are important as this, must change from different and not by test that’ll base on and make spec results to all factors as

Research supplier & Field services

• Most media use supervisors when work test -But also use designers and instruments -but hire
  • The data
• Many services all type of test or surveys etc as with full service supplier, most services have group service
• The researcher contacts and explain the work, then some type work begins the pro

More Important Aspects:

• They Not Equal
  • person can claim the skills
  • no state for the role
• You Must Super, All Times
  • have what that project gives