CJT 790 RESEARCH PROBLEMS IN COMMUNICATION. (1-6)*
Significant participation in important aspects of a research project under the direction of a graduate faculty member. May be repeated to a maximum of six credits. Prereq: Completion of all required first-year courses in the doctoral curriculum and consent of Associate Dean for Graduate Studies.

CJT 790 RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES

Dr. Jim Hertog invites participation in Mass Communication CJT 790 Projects:

The first research program that would be appropriate for CJT 790 can be described as follows:

A significant scholarly concern is the nature of news coverage of social protest.  Scholars have argued that a number of features of such coverage can be traced to personal biases of journalists, production routines of news organizations, the dominant political ideology of the society, and, certainly, the actual nature of the events themselves.  The scholars’ views and results are often contradictory, incomplete or purely descriptive.  In order to identify characteristics of protest coverage and to identify sources of influence over that coverage, this study analyzes coverage of the “Battle in Seattle” protest against the WTO and globalization that occurred in late 1999.  The goal is to then follow succeeding globalization protests that occurred around the world and test the findings from this original piece of research.

The second piece of research can be outlined in the following manner:

Political communication research has focused heavily either on news framing of public issues or on citizen reaction (learning or persuasion) as a result of political campaigns or coverage of controversies and events. Little if any research has addressed the impact of news coverage of elections, as well as a reaction to political marketing, on the candidates themselves.  While a significant concern expressed in the literature has been whether the media scrutiny common to modern campaigns has soured many excellent political candidates on public service, we have little empirical evidence concerning the actual experience of political candidates—both winners and losers—in regard to news coverage.  This is especially true of ‘down-ballot’ races—those for less-well-known offices and candidates.  This research revolves around an Internet-based survey of candidates for public office this November, asking a range of questions about their experience with news coverage, campaign communications and reasons for seeking office.

Dr. Seth Noar invites participation in Health Communication CJT 790 Projects:

"I am always looking for graduate students to involve in the health communication research that I am engaged in, and to mentor students in areas that they are interested in. I always have more data and more ideas for projects than I have time for, so I would love for you to come by and chat with me (and particularly if you have interest areas that overlap with mine). Here are some of the kinds of areas that I conduct research in and that I have involved many graduate students in as well: understanding and evaluating health mass media campaigns, examining and testing message design theories and frameworks such as SENTAR and message tailoring, and conducting meta-analyses of health communication literature. Much of my research is in the area of HIV prevention, including interest areas such as testing behavioral theories of safer sexual behavior, understanding sexual communication, and HIV prevention interventions, particularly interactive and computer-based interventions."

Seth M. Noar, Ph.D.
248 Grehan Building
Phone: 859-257-7809
Email: noar@uky.edu
Web: www.uky.edu/~snoar2

Dr. Caroline Rankin invites participation in Interpersonal Communication CJT 790 Projects:

Dr. Rankin is looking for graduate students who would like to work on a project dealing with College Students’ Perceptions of Risky Sex Behaviors.  Tasks would include helping construct a survey based on past research in this area, data collection, data analysis, and reporting findings.  

Also, Dr. Rankin would like to work with students interested in romantic partners’ Talk about Relational History.  She has a data set with as of yet un-analyzed data that students could work with, including both closed-ended and open-ended responses.  Tasks would include data analysis and reporting findings.

CJT 790 Policy Statement*

Research completed for CJT 790 must be original research (that may include existing data sets) that involves data analysis and a subsequent written report suitable for a conference presentation and/or publication.  This should not be used solely for bibliographic research.  To receive credit for this course, the student must complete an independent study form during course registration to be approved by the Associate Dean.

*Approved unanimously by the Graduate Faculty on April 20, 2004