Research Methods in Communication Studies

Topics

• Have an appreciation for how we do research in the field of communication and why it is important to understand research methods.
• Utilize a variety of communication databases to identify scholarly research related to a research topic of interest.
• Understand key concepts and vocabulary used to describe various research paradigms and designs.
• Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of communication research designs that utilize in-depth interviews, content analysis, surveys, and experiments.
• Apply knowledge and skills learned about content analysis to design a codebook to analyze newspaper coverage.
• Apply knowledge and skills learned about surveys to design an original questionnaire about media use and a sampling strategy.
• Analyze numerical data using descriptive and inferential statistics in EXCEL and SPSS.
• Convey statistical information through graphs, charts, and figures using EXCEL and SPSS.

Official roster learning outcomes