1. Instructor’s manual Mass Media Research: An Introduction, 7th Edition
Roger Wimmer & Joseph Dominick

2. Part One. The Research Process

3. Chapter 1: Science and Research
What is Research?
Getting Started
The Development of Mass Media Research
Media Research and the Scientific Method
The Methods of Knowing

4. Characteristics of the Scientific Method
1) Scientific research is public
2) Science is objective
3) Science is empirical
4) Science is systematic and cumulative
5) Science is predictive

5. Two Sectors of Research: Academic and Private Research Procedures
1) Selecting a Research Topic
2) Professional Journals
3) Magazine and Periodicals
4) Research Summaries
5) The Internet

6. 6) Everyday situations 7) Archive Data
8) Advantages of Secondary Analysis
9) Disadvantages of Secondary Analysis

7. Determining Topic Relevance
1) Is the Topic Too Broad?
2) Can the Problem Really be Investigated?
3) Can the Data Be Analyzed?
4) Is the Problem Significant?
5) Can the Results of the Study Be Generalized?
6) What Costs and Time Are Involved in the Analysis?

8. 7) Is the Planned Approach Appropriate to the Project?
8) Is There Any Potential Harm to the Subjects?

9. Stating a hypothesis or Research Question
Data Analysis and Interpretation
Internal Validity
1) History
2) Maturation
3) Testing
4) Instrumentation
5) Statistical regression

10. 6) Experimental mortality
7) Sample selection
8) Demand characteristics
9) Experimenter bias
10) Evaluation apprehension
11) Causal time order
12) Diffusion or imitation of treatments
13) Compensation
14) Compensatory rivalry
15) Demoralization

11. External Validity
Presenting Results
Research Suppliers and Field Services
Incidence Rates and CPI

12. Chapter 2: Elements of Research
Concepts and Constructs
Independent and Dependent Variables
Other Types of Variables
Defining Variables Operationally
Qualitative and Quantitative Research
The Nature of Measurement

13. Levels of Measurement Measurement Scales Transforming Scales
Nominal level
Ordinal level
Interval level
Ratio level
Measurement Scales
Transforming Scales

14. Specialized Rating Scales
Thurstone Scales
Guttman Scaling
Likert Scales
Semantic Differential Scales
Reliability and Validity

15. Chapter 3: Research Ethics
Ethics and the Research Process
General Ethical Theories
Specific Ethical Problems
-Voluntary Participation and Informed Consent
-Concealment and Deception
-Protection of Privacy
-Federal Regulations Concerning Research

16. Ethics in Data Analysis and Reporting
Ethics in the Publication Process
A Professional Code of Ethics

17. Chapter 4: Sampling Population and Sample
Probability and Nonprobability Samples
Types of Nonprobability samples
Conveniece sample
Volunteer sample
Purposive sample

18. Types of Probability Samples
Simple random sampling
Systematic sampling
Stratified Sampling
Cluster Sampling
Snowball sampling

19. Sample Size
Sampling Error
Confidence Level and Confidence Interval
Computing Sampling Error
Finite Population Correction Factor
Sampling Weighting