WHY DO (GOOD) RESEARCH IN COMMUNICATION STUDIES? INTRODUCTIVE LECTURE LECT.UNIV.DR. ADRIANA TEF Ă NEL SADRIANAFJSC.WORDPRESS.COM

The lecture aims  An argumentation in favor of the usage of the scientific research methodology and also of the relinquishment of the alternative sources of information in communication daily practice.  Questions: 1. Is it possible to study with scientific tools a field as accessible as communication? 2. Why not rely on common sense? 3. What can be done in order to do a good research?

The Scientific Approach of Communication Studies  Modern life is placed under the sign of science; but this wasn’t always the case.  Our regard over the world emerged out of a major shift in thinking, known as The Enlightenment Era.  At its beginning, the scientific study was focused on the natural and later on it spread to the study of the social (soft sciences” label)

What makes social science scientific ?  The content of science is primarily the methods and rules, not the subject matter, since we can use those methods to study virtually anything.  The field of science is unlimited; its material is endless; every group of natural phenomena, every phase of social life, every stage of past or present development is material for science. The unity of all science consists only alone in its method not in its material.

The features of the scientific approach in the communication studies: Theoretical roots: explicit or implicit theories are used to condense and organize knowledge about the social world in general and communication in particular. Empiricism: the research is never based on imagination alone but on the observable reality of the behaviors, situations, discussions and actions of people and on the context in which those occur. The systematical approach: the work should be meticulous, carefully planned and conducted by generally accepted procedures, with total rejection of haphazard, shoddy and sloppy thinking and observation.

…  Objectivity: this characteristic of science aims to eliminate subjective judgments by researchers.  Open-end and uncertainty: the research in communication studies is an ever ending story, constantly moving, evolving, changing, asking new questions and pursuing new leads.  Public character: scientific research uses explicit, codified and public methods to generate and analyze data whose reliability can therefore be assessed.

The limits of common sense or common knowledge  Overgeneralization occurs when one assumes that a certain observation applies to many other situations as well.  Selective or Inaccurate Observation occurs when one takes special notice of a situation that fits preconceived ideas and generalize from them.  Premature closure occurs when one feels that one has the answer and no longer needs to search information or raise questions.  The halo effect also known as the “what is beautiful is good” principle occurs when some characteristics of people, situations or things influence the entire evaluation one made.

…  The false consensus effect is a psychological effect which suggests the tendency for people to overestimate how common their own behavior, beliefs, attitudes are amongst other people.  Illogical Reasoning, when one prematurely jumps to conclusions or argues on the basis of invalid assumptions The scientific approach is designed to reduce greatly those potential sources of error in everyday reasoning.

Steps in the Research Process 1. Defining the topic: this may be a general area of study or an issue of professional interest; 2. Designing the study:a research design is a plan of how the research is going to be conducted; 3. Collecting datas using data-collection procedures as observing and questioning; 4. Analyzing and interpretation the data: Data – as it results from collecting process – are seldom useful to anyone unless they are analyzed in order to obtain the information; 5. Writing the research report: is the culmination of the research process, implying the share of information with the others and including a clear, accurate and honest description of the results, conclusions and – whenever possible – recommendation for courses of action. A research is as good as its design.

The course Qualitative Research in Communication:  is designed to present what communication research is, how the research process operates, the various procedures of sampling, collecting and analyzing data and how one can conduct a good research.  encourage students to focus on research that ca be used in their working fields; it will help prepare master students for the dissertation research project and aid understanding of research once working as a practitioner.

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