Personal notes / Additional explanations in green.
Examples in blue.
By Laura Oller Prados.
MCRS NOTES
/ 2021
LECTURE - INTRODUCTION TO THE SUBJECT:
Many things influence our knowledge, but we should base it on facts (outcomes of
scientific research).
Scientific research = A systematic process of gathering theorical knowledge through
observation (observation = empiricism).
Communication research = A systematic process of asking and answering questions
about human communication.
Ask Answer Evaluation (is it valid?) Share
Empiricism means observation and with empirical data we refer to data gathered from
social reality.
Empirical cycle:
You also have to take into consideration that what you want to study will determine the
method you have to follow for your research.
I want to study an effect Experiment
I want to study an association Correlation
READING TREADWELL CHAPTER 1:
An early and simplistic telecommunications-based model of communication (Shannon &
Weaver, 1949):
• Source = the provider or initiator of content
• Message or messages = the content of communication
• Channel or medium = the vehicle for communication content; for example, social
media
• Receiver(s) = the recipient(s) or consumer(s) of information
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, Personal notes / Additional explanations in green.
Examples in blue.
By Laura Oller Prados.
• Noise = extraneous information or distractions that can disrupt an interaction
• Context = the relationships between individuals, the situation in which the
interaction occurs, and the cultural norms around that interaction
Public service advertisements (PSAs) = Targeted communications designed
specifically to promote positive attitudes and behaviors. They focus on public interest
topics such as health, education, safety, the environment, and other social causes, so
they’re normally produced by nonprofit organizations, and, most of them, by the Ad
Council.
Ad Council (https://www.adcouncil.org) = A body that links nonprofit organizations
with professional agencies that produce advertisements as a public service.
When conducting research study, we have to try to control as many variables as possible
to ensure that our results are valid. We have to identify and rule out every possibility that
could have caused the outcome observed apart from our subject of study.
A practical example: The accidents on the road decreased (result) Are you sure that it was
due to our ad and not to an increase of police on the highways / another ad / an increase
in the traffic fines for driving while texting… and many others?
The result itself does not complete the study; we have to discover the “why” of it. To do
so we have to ask the sample of the population studied: Why did you answer what you
answered. For such public opinion research, surveys are typically used. Where that survey
appears depends on the target audience (TV, social media, personal interviews…).
Sometimes agencies ask for the audience’s opinion before actually releasing the ad, so
they are sure that it’s effective.
There are many ways to collect data (métodos de investigación):
Surveys Quantitative data
Focus groups, interviews Qualitative data
So far, we have analyzed the texting campaign largely in terms of audience response, but
we can learn from the ad content itself. We can study media content through three
different approaches:
1. Rhetoric (Qualitative, they analyze the use of language):
Rhetoricians are interested in the appeals (persuasive tactics) used to persuade an
audience to adopt the behavior, whether they’re based on logos (logic), the logic
of “texting + driving = crash”; ethos (character), the use of a “typical” teenager
with “typical” reactions to a text; or pathos (emotion) the tragic consequences of
a crash.
These terms are based on a theory developed by Aristotle (384-322 BCE). He said
that successful communication has three building blocks:
• Logos: use of reason.
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, Personal notes / Additional explanations in green.
Examples in blue.
By Laura Oller Prados.
• Ethos: likeability, trustworthiness… of the sender, he tries to make the
audience like him.
• Pathos: emotional appeals like the use of humor.
2. Content analysis (Quantitative):
To perform a content analysis, we have to observe and compare information from
the perspective of our subject of study.
For example, if were given 5 newspapers and we had to study gender
representations in the press, we wouldn’t read the entire newspapers, we would
just pay attention to every time a man or a woman is featured.
The results would have to be compared with what we know of the real world.
Classical definitions of what 'content analysis' means: It is a research technique
for making inferences by objectively and systematically identifying specified
characteristics of messages. It's looking at the content of communication.
It is always objective, so we have to operationalize what we want to measure. We
do that by creating a codebook that makes the content analysis really systematic.
We can NOT use content analysis when studying something related to the people
or people's behavior. What we CAN study with content analysis can be about the
number of words used, about how something sounds, about things that we see in
a video… So, you are studying something that you can see in the content itself.
Content analysis also is:
• Non-reactive: content is not influenced by our data collection, which
means that it doesn't react to me.
• Unobtrusive: content not aware of data collection, which means that the
newspaper is not aware (obviously) that I am studying what it's written in
it.
However, experiments and surveys are respondent and reactive, which means that
the students could react to the setting in which the experiment is taking place, for
example. They can also be obtrusive since the students know that they're taking
part in an experiment. It can even be obtrusive because the students can change
their way of taking notes.
3. Critical theory (Qualitative):
To understand this theory first we have to know that critical analysts study
everything from the perspective of power. Their basic assumption is:
Communication maintains and promotes power structures in society.
They only study that point of view, and ask themselves questions like: Whose
interests are served by the advertising, and more specifically, how exactly do
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, Personal notes / Additional explanations in green.
Examples in blue.
By Laura Oller Prados.
language and representations maintain the interests of such entities as
corporations, colleges, or governments?
A critical analysis is (kind of) the contrary of a content analysis, in the sense that
the content analyst only looks for what is explicit and observable, while the critical
analyst looks for what is implicit or unsaid.
To sum up, the theoretical priorities (the perspective adopted by the researcher in the
study) as well as the limitations (limited time, limited resources and the inability to be in
more than one place at a time) will differ between communication researchers, and will
end up determining the purpose and resources used in their research.
Time is short, the topic vast, and, realistically, they must research the available and the
achievable. That’s why they use samples.
Should the researcher be dispassionate or involved? The scientific tradition values
objectivity and dispassionate observation (If not we can’t be sure that the results represent
the population). The “reward” to the researcher is the satisfaction of a new finding, the
development of a new theory, or the confirmation or disconfirmation of an existing
theory.
However, can research be objective (since it’s performed by human beings)?
• Social scientists Yes: There are concepts in the external real world that are
shared by everyone and can, therefore, be measured (loyalty, intelligence…).
• Phenomenologists and ethnographers No: Even though we share some
concepts (we all understand the word ‘intelligence’, ‘royalty’…), each individual
has their own definition or interpretation of them.
Researchers can either ask directly and get a specific answer (which doesn’t ensure that
they understand the meaning of your question) or elicit people’s views in their own
language (not quite knowing what they might get).
If you ask directly you get numbers and knowledge, not understanding. That is why one
solid series of interviews with a few people can give a better grasp on a situation than all
of the thousand-people surveys that the big-sample people can conduct. So, this book
thinks that smaller but accurate samples are more representative of the total population
as long as you study them thoroughly.
Should the data be quantitative or qualitative? The book encourages me to get my own
answer depending on the context: Numbers are important, but are they really able to
capture human complexity? Some researchers try to blend both approaches using multiple
methods (interviews, and also surveys, and also content analysis, and…) to ensure that
they have a good “fix” on a problem. This is known as:
Triangulation = The use of two or more research methods to address the same research
question. If results from different methods agree, researchers can have greater confidence
in their findings.
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