PART I:  CONCEPTUALIZING COMMUNICATION RESEARCH
CHAPTER ONE:  Introduction to the Research Culture
The Importance of Knowing Research Methods
Making Claims and Offering Evidence
Everyday Ways of Knowing
The Research Process
Types of Research:  Proprietary, Scholarly, Basic, Applied
Research Process Cycle Model
Research as Culture:  Language, Rules, and Social Customs
Research as Conversation
Distinguishing Research from Pseudo-research

Communication - refers to the processes by which verbal and nonverbal messages are used to create and share meaning; the management of messages for the purpose of creating meaning in a specific context.

Communication theory - an umbrella term for all careful, systematic and self-conscious discussion and analysis of communication phenomena.

Theory - a generalization about a phenomenon, an explanation of how or why something occurs.

Theory - a system of generalizable statements logically linked together to explain, describe, predict, and/or control human phenomena in a given context.

Research - disciplined inquiry that involves studying something in a planned manner and reporting it so that other inquirers can potentially replicate the process if they choose.

Proprietary research - conducted for a specific audience and is not necessarily shared beyond that audience.

Scholarly research - conducted to promote public access to knowledge.

Basic research - designed to test and refine theory.  The purpose is to increase our knowledge about communication phenomena by testing, refining, and elaborating theory.

Applied research - desinged to solve a practical problem.

Research Methods - the strategies researchers use to solve puzzling mysteries about the world; they are the means used to collect evidence necessary for building or testing explanations about that which is being studied.

Operationalization - the process of determining the observable characteristics associated with a concept or variable.
 
CHARACTERISTICS OF (SCHOLARLY) RESEARCH
-is based on curiousity and asking questions.
-is a systematic process.
-is potentially replicable.
-is reflexive and self-critical 
-is cumulative and self-correcting.
-is cyclical
THE RESEARCH PROCESS CYCLE MODEL
CONCEPTUALIZATION
forming an idea about what needs to be studied, identifying a topic worth studying, reviewing the relevant literatiure, phrasing the topic as a formal research question or hypothesis (prediction).
PLANNING AND DESIGNING RESEARCH
determining a systematic plan for conducting research, transforming abstract concepts into operational, or measurement terms.
METHODOLOGIES FOR CONDUCTING RESEARCH
understanding and adhering to the specific assumptions and requirements of the methodology chosen: experiments, surveys, textual analysis, and naturalistic research.
ANALYZING AND INTERPRETING DATA

 
RECONCEPTUALIZATION
formally connect current study with previous studies on a specific topic and
set the stage for future research.
COMMUNICATION RESEARCH CULTURES*
Physical Sciences - scholars study the physical and natural world.
Humanities - scholars produce creative products and study the achievements of creative people.
Social Sciences - scholars apply scientific methods to the study of human behavior.

*Communication overlaps, in part, each of these three research cultures.

TWO MAJOR PARADIGMS OR WORLD VIEWS
(A paradigm is an example that serves as pattern or model)

Should be viewed as a continuum rather than a dichotomy.


 
SCIENCE
"SCIENTIFIC"
POSITIVIST PARADIGM

Objective Perspective
INTERPRETATION
"HUMANISTIC"
NATURALISTIC PARADIGM

Interpretive Perspective
Primary Concerns

 
Essentially concerned with how to apply some of the methods used in 
the physical sciences to the study 
of human behavior.  UNIVERSAL LAWS.		 Essentially concerned with the development of methods that capture the socially constructed and situated nature of human behavior. RULES FOR INTERPRETATION.
Epistemological assumption
(Ways of Knowing)		 What is known is independent of the researcher.  The researcher is interdependent with that which is being studied. 
Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that studies knowledge, 
or how people know what they 
claim to know.		 Reality is SINGULAR and OBJECTIVE.
There is one reality "out there"        (big T TRUTH)		 There are MULTIPLE REALITIES that are constructed between and among people (intersubjective).  Truth is largely subjective; meaning is highly interpretive.
Ontological assumption
(Human Nature)
Focus on the nature of human 
social interaction.
Every move we make is based on heredity (biology is destiny). Research stresses forces that shape human behavior.		 Every human act is ultimately voluntary.  Research focuses on conscious choices made by individuals.
Ontology is the branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of being, or more narrowly, the nature of the things we seek to know.

 

 DETERMINISM - Human beings are REACTORS.
 
 
 

 

 FREE WILL - Human beings are ACTORS
 
 
 

 
Axiological assumption
(What do we value most?)
 
 
 

 

 Research can be VALUE-NEUTRAL and UNBIASED.  Value objectivity.  Do not let personal values distort human reality or confuse what is with what researcher thinks it ought to be. Research is inherently VALUE-LADEN and BIASED.  Value emancipation. Knowledge is never neutral.  Value socially relevant research that seeks to liberate people from oppression of any sort.
Axiology is the branch of philosophy that studies values.  Can theory be value free? 
To what extent does the practice of inquiry influence that which is studied?  To what extent should scholarship attempt to 
achieve social change?
Methodological assumption
 
 
 

 

 Generally relies on DEDUCTION - moving from general to specific. 
Goal is to find CAUSE and EFFECT
relationships between variables.
 
 		 Generally relies on INDUCTION - moving from specific (the evidence) to the general (tentative explanations). Goal is to gain WHOLISTIC UNDERSTANDING of the patterns that characterize human beings
Employs static design, conducted within a researcher-controlled setting, with quantitative methods to reveal context-free generalizations which allow researchers to EXPLAIN, PREDICT, and CONTROL phenomena. Employs emergent design, conducted within a naturalistic setting, with qualitative methods to reveal context-bound findings which provide a rich UNDERSTANDING of that social context and serve the purpose of promoting social change.

Rhetorical assumption
 

 
Research reports tend to have a formal structure and are written in an impersonal (third-person) voice - research is an objective endeavor.
Research reports tend to have an informal structure and include the personal (first-person) voice of the researcher.