COMM 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Scientific Method, Content Analysis, Ethnography
Lecture 2: Studying Communication as a science
The field of communication
- Humanistic Approach
o Rhetoric, use language to persuade
o Interpretivists,(critical), make reference, try to make sense of another one
o Critical scholars, not scientific, try to make sense of certain group of people and
the world
- Social scientific approaches
o Qualitative
▪ Employs rigorous observational rules
▪ Work “in the fleld”
▪ Collect data that are rich in detail and description
• In-depth interviews, ethnography, participant-observation
o Quantitative
▪ Seeks to uncover patterns in communication behaviors via numbers
▪ Employ advanced statistical techniques and rigid resting to
support/reject hypotheses
▪ Can work “in the field” or in the lab
The scientific method 5 steps
- Ask a question or state a problem
- Formulate a hypothesis or research question
- Think through and refine the hypothesis or research question
- Design and conduct the observation, measurement, or experiment
- Analyze and interpret the data
Traits of scientific method 4
- Empirical: allow us to carefully observe the phenomenon
- Objective: allow us to remove our own bias
- Logical: allow us to make conclusions from the data, consistent and rational
- Public: publish our work, others can read it, allow everyone to check
Research types: 3
- Content analysis
- Survey
- experiment
Document Summary
Humanistic approach: rhetoric, use language to persuade. Interpretivists,(critical), make reference, try to make sense of another one: critical scholars, not scientific, try to make sense of certain group of people and the world. Social scientific approaches: qualitative, employs rigorous observational rules, work (cid:862)in the fleld(cid:863, collect data that are rich in detail and description, quantitative. In-depth interviews, ethnography, participant-observation: seeks to uncover patterns in communication behaviors via numbers, employ advanced statistical techniques and rigid resting to support/reject hypotheses, can work (cid:862)in the field(cid:863) or in the lab. Ask a question or state a problem. Think through and refine the hypothesis or research question. Design and conduct the observation, measurement, or experiment. Empirical: allow us to carefully observe the phenomenon. Objective: allow us to remove our own bias. Public: publish our work, others can read it, allow everyone to check. Logical: allow us to make conclusions from the data, consistent and rational. Systematic analysis of the content of communication messages.
