1. Journalism 614: Relationship testing

2. Reading data files Survey questionnaire (word): Survey data (excel):
Each row: a respondent
Each column: a variable (question/condition)
For easy data management, copy your columns and the demographic variable columns and paste a clean excel file
Keep an eye out on the correspondence between response categories and coded values

3. Experimental design
Response
Condition 1
Condition 2

4. How to test the effects?
Condition 1: The majority of public university funding is tax revenue from U.S. citizens. The U.S. government shouldn’t allow undocumented immigrants to access public education.
Condition 2: The majority of public university funding is tax revenue from U.S. citizens. The U.S. government shouldn’t allow illegal immigrants to access public education. 
Response categories:
Strongly disagree (1)
Somewhat disagree (2)
Neither disagree nor agree (3)
Somewhat agree (4)
Strongly agree (5)

5. Step 1: Compare means Mean(undocumented immigrants): 3.23
Mean(illegal immigrants): 3.54
Statistical test: ONE-WAY ANOVA

6. Step 2: Compare distribution of responses
strongly disagree
somewhat disagree
neither
somewhat agree
strongly agree
total
undocumented immigrants 20 6 18 11 27 82
illegal immigrants 7 10 19 24 78
Figure 1:

7. Step 2: Compare distribution of responses
strongly disagree
somewhat disagree
neither
somewhat agree
strongly agree
total
undocumented immigrants
24% 7%
22%
13%
33%
100%
illegal immigrants 9%
23%
31%
Figure 2:

8. Step 3: Compare responses within a question
strongly disagree
somewhat disagree
neither
somewhat agree
strongly agree
total
undocumented immigrants
24% 7%
22%
13%
33%
100%
illegal immigrants 9%
23%
31%

9. Step 3: Compare responses within a question
Undocumented immigrants condition:
Strongly disagree (24%) vs Strongly agree (33%)
Disagree (31%) vs Agree (46%)
strongly disagree
somewhat disagree
neither
somewhat agree
strongly agree
total
undocumented immigrants
24% 7%
22%
13%
33%
100%
illegal immigrants 9%
23%
31%

10. Step 3: Compare responses within a question
Illegal immigrants condition:
Strongly disagree (9%) vs Strongly agree (31%)
Disagree (22%) vs Agree (54%)
strongly disagree
somewhat disagree
neither
somewhat agree
strongly agree
total
undocumented immigrants
24% 7%
22%
13%
33%
100%
illegal immigrants 9%
23%
31%

11. Step 4: Compare the same response category of two conditions
strongly disagree
somewhat disagree
neither
somewhat agree
strongly agree
total
undocumented immigrants
24% 7%
22%
13%
33%
100%
illegal immigrants 9%
23%
31%

12. Step 4: Compare the same response category oftwo conditions
Do we have statistical significance in the difference of the percentages of respondents who strongly disagreed?
strongly disagree
somewhat disagree
neither
somewhat agree
strongly agree
total
undocumented immigrants
24% 7%
22%
13%
33%
100%
illegal immigrants 9%
23%
31%

13. Step 4: Compare the same response category of two conditions
strongly disagree
somewhat disagree
neither
somewhat agree
strongly agree
total
undocumented immigrants
24% 7%
22%
13%
33%
100%
illegal immigrants 9%
23%
31%
Do we have statistical significance in the difference of the percentages of respondents who strongly agreed?

14. Step 5: Demographics
How do demographic characteristics affect responses?
Party ID, news consumption, education, gender, age, race, etc.
Statistical test: Multivariate Regression

15. Step 5: Demographics
Party ID
Figure 3:

16. Step 5: Demographics
New consumption
Figure 4:

17. Step 6: Interpret and draw conclusions
Summarize the responses in two conditions (mean, within, between, relevant demographic variables)
Highlight the differences in response that are statistically significant
Draw conclusion: is your media effect hypothesis confirmed or disconfirmed?
Any methodological notes about your data?