 Unit 7 Reading (Ch. 7-10)  Unit 7 Project  Unit 8 Reading (Ch )  Preview of Unit 9 Project  Extra Credit Opportunity

 Sampling  Surveys  Experiments  Textual Analysis

 Quantitative text analysis is a systematic method of coding textual elements into nominal or ordinal categories (numbers or rankings) in order to be analyzed.  A quantitative analysis of texts researches how often a behavior or situation occurs (nominal or numbers), or to what extent (ordinal or ranking). For instance, with the topic of parent-child interactions in TV sitcoms, the researcher might count the amount of times a parent gives advice, or a child tells a joke at the expense of the parent (these would be the variables studied by the researcher).  For the project this week you are going to develop a quantitative text analysis design, create a coding scheme for the variables, collect data, and test the coding scheme. 

As a group, you will pick one of the topics below and as a group formulate an example for 1-4: · Portrayal of men and women in music videos · Host-guest interaction on TV talk shows · Portrayal of parent-child interaction on TV sitcoms · Personal dating ads in a local newspaper, internet site or equivalent · Violent acts/scenes in video games 1. Who will be your sample? (Chapter 7) 2. How could you study this with a survey? (Chapter 8) 3. How could you study this with a quantitative experiment? (Chapter 9) 4. How could you study this with textual analysis? (Chapter 10) 5. Please complete the questions below. List the variables you would like to study. These are the variables in the interaction that interest you (conceptualization step). Choose behaviors or situations that you can count or rank. Discuss the sampling methods, coding units, and measurements of the chosen variables (operationalization step). Develop a simple coding scheme that can be used for the variables.

Range Mean Mode Median (a) What are some examples of how statistics can be used in communication research? (b) How do you use statistics in your daily life? Provide examples.

In order to complete the project on your research plan, provide answers to the questions below. For more information on what to include for each question, the elements of a research design are discussed in detail in Chapter 2 of the text. 1. an introduction to your topic 2. how you would conduct a literature review (the process you would use and generally where you would go for information) 3. your research purpose 4. the unit of analysis 5. your research question or hypothesis 6. the research design - the specific research method (or methods) you will use - the variables - how you will conduct the research/ collect the data

7. the important elements to be included in the research proposal a wrap up of research design Is it feasible? What are the challenges to this study? How well would it work to gather the data needed for the purpose and topic? Provide any last thoughts on your research design. Choose one of the topics in the Unit 9 instructions to complete this project (or another topic of your choice with instructor approval).