Research Method
?Select a problem (topic)
?Review existing research and the related theory
?Develop hypotheses or research questions
?Determine the appropriate method/research design
?Collect data Analyze and interpret the results
?Present the results Discuss meanings of the findings
Outline of a research reportR first step
?Statement of purpose; literature review; discuss issues concerned and formulate the hypotheses or research questions
?Method: describe the study design and measurement of variables; specify the methods of data collection
?Results: straight-forward presentation of findings without interpretation
?Discussion: interpretations, significance, implications, limitations and suggestions ?Conclusion
Key Terms for Researchers
?All research starts with concepts
? A concept is a term that expresses an abstract idea by generalizing from particulars.
?Media (newspaper, TV, Internet)
?Income (salary, bonus, tips)
?Cultural value (views and beliefs)
?Media dependency (tendency of regular use)
?Sometimes, constructs are used to explore a research problem
? A construct is a more complicated concept designed for research purpose.
?Its content cannot be observed directly.
? Information credibility
?Involvement
?Peer pressure
?When a concept or a construct is studied in a research project, it becomes a variable
?To what degree Wechat use will change the perception of social norm? ?Variables: Wechat use; perceived social norm
? A variable is the empirical expression of a concept or a construct. ?Empirical — observable
? A variable represents the characteristic of a concept
?It is a variable because its value vary by individuals participated in the study.
? A variable can be measured.
?Education
?Time spend in reading news through mobile media
?Participation in online discussions
?presumed cause of the dependent variable
?Dependent variable, consequence of the presumed effect
?Usefulness of a medium and media dependency
?Product price and intention to adopt
?TV viewing and perception of reality
How to select a research topic
Top 应该怎样，不应该too broad
?Novel – focus on issues or problems that has not been investigated before.
?Not every new medium needs to be studied. Only the aspects or issues involved that will bring new understanding to media and communication process.
?iPhone, iPad, Weibo, Weixin, Cloud, Microblog
?Antecedents and consequences
?Media effects: to what degree media use affects people’s perceptions,
attitudes, or behaviors
?If the topic has been studied before, one could
?look at the issue from a different perspective
?come up with another research design
?use a different data-gathering tool
?analyze the research data with a different scheme
?Interesting– The topic is interesting to the researcher as well as to the researchers in the field
?Selective posting
?Relevant – The results of the study on a given problem should be significant or be of practical value to the researcher and professionals in the field.
?This means that once the study had been completed, its findings, its conclusions and recommendations can
?Add knowledge to information already available in the field
?Be used in improving practices or solving an identified difficulty.
?Feasible– A problem that a researcher decides to explore can be completed without excessive amount of time, money or effort.
?Feasibility of research also means that the researcher has the required capacity or expertise to conduct the study on the research topic.
?Ethical– A research project does not involve physical or psychological harm or damage to human beings or organizations participating in the study.
?In other words, a study on a particular topic should not put people or institutions in danger or cause any problem to the study subjects.
State clearly and unambiguously in a statement or a question ?The purpose of a research project needs to be expressed clearly in statement or question format
?The purpose of this study is:
?To explore the factors influencing willingness to express minority opinions
in online forums.
?This study will answer the following question:
?To what ext ent does violence in TV affect children’s violence tendency?
?How does lifestyle presentation affect persuasiveness of advertisement?
Is the topic too broad?
? A research topic has to be well focused, for example:
?What are the factors that lead to online information contribution?
?What are the influencing factors of Wechat information spreading?
?What characteristics of a news reporter contribute to news reporting success?
?The effect of political interest on media dependency
Is the problem significant?
?Think carefully about the significance of a topic.
?The effect of customer service quality on consumer loyalty
?The effect of personal initiative on involvement in public affairs
Can the problem be investigated?
?Any research problem you proposed has to be testable. For example:
?Impact of innovativeness on adoption of streaming video
?Effect of ad layout on advertising attractiveness
?Impact of censorship on the quality of news
Can the result be generalized?
?We would like that the result of research could explain things in other similar settings
?Media usage influences perception of social reality
?Media usage affects political knowledge
?The effect of product packaging on likelihood of purchasing
Costs and time for completing the study?
?How much money is needed to do the research?
?How many resources are needed to conduct the research?
?How long will it take to complete the research?
Steps to formulate
?Initiate an idea or a research problem (topic)
?Review literature to find more knowledge about the topic
?Review literature to find previous research findings to help you conceptualize your study
?Evaluate related literature critically
?Develop research questions or hypotheses
?Evaluate your research question or hypothesis
Research problems vs. research questions
? A research problem is the overall topic of a research project
? A research project usually has one research problem
? A research question is a question developed from the research problem
? A research project could have more than one research question
Research problems
?Factors influencing willingness to contribute information to online communities Research questions
?What type of information do people contribute to online community?
?Are there any difference between men and women in online information contribution?
?Which factors play the most important role in online information contribution?
?Which factors motivate continuous online information contribution?
?Used when a researcher is not sure about the nature of the problem under investigation
?Used when there is not enough information about the relationship between the variables investigated by a research project.
?What type of information on microblogs were relayed most often?
?Is the coverage of chief-executive election by Hong Kong local newspapers fair and balanced ?
?What is the usage pattern of wireless devices of college students?
?To what degree did the growth of the Internet affect the readership of newspapers? Hypothesis
? A statement claiming that relationship between two or more variables is true ?The more time that a child spend playing violence video, the more aggressive a child will behave
?Always in statement form, carry clear implication for testing the stated relations ? A hypothesis is proposed based on a theory or findings from previous research, the knowledge on the research problem
?Characteristics of a hypothesis:
?Clearly specify relationship between variables
The more aa job is rewarding, the higher the job satisfaction.
?Certain level of prediction
The more exposure to the majority opinion, the less likely a person will express the minority opinion
?Provide direction
The more resources a newspaper has, the higher the newspaper quality ?Allow for quantification of variables
Where does a hypothesis come from?
?Related theories
?Spiral of silence, media dependency
?Previous research findings
?Research on effect of video game violence
?Logical derivation
?Discussion or arguments using knowledge and logic to generate a hypothesis
Hypothesis vs. Research Question
?Differences between a hypothesis and a research question:
?A hypothesis is a statement; a research questions is a question
1The more a person spend time using media for information,
the more knowledgeable a person is on political issues
2 To what degree is media use related to knowledge of political issues?
? A hypothesis is based on theories or research findings
? A research question is due to lack of knowledge on the issue after literature review on the topic
?Differences between a hypothesis and a research question:
?A hypothesis has to relational, and is often related to theory testing
?A research question does not have to be relational
?A hypothesis needs to be carefully constructed by specifying relationship
between variables
?A research question could be asked as long as it could generate meaningful
and useful answers
Why Literature Review
?To conduct any meaningful and useful research, one has to review literature which
?Broadens the re searcher’s knowledge base in research area
?Helps the researcher in formulating the theoretical
and conceptual framework for his research problem
?Provides insights on the weaknesses and strengths of previous studies ?Lays foundation for your study (theory and what are known), basis for hypotheses or research questions
?Finds support from previous study to justify your study
?Finds how others did the studies which may help you design your study
?Review the related theories if you can identify
?Review the related problems (issues concerning the research projects)
?Review the research that have been done on the similar topics
?Review the findings of previous studies
?Discuss what are known on the topic
?Discuss the questions that are not clear or have not been answered in previous research
?Challenge or clarify the former findings
?Discuss your new ideas regarding the problem that will be studied
?Discuss how your proposed study is novel in its ways of exploring the problems ?Justify how your proposed study will add knowledge to the field of study
?Articulate the significance of your study
?Generate your research questions or hypotheses
How to find Literature
Source of Information
?Primary source
?Original documents (a letter signed by Sun Yat-sen;
government documents)
?Data collected on certain issues
?Personal interviews
?Other first-hand evidence or information
?Secondary source
?Books on the topic
?Articles or reports on the topic
?Information obtained from the sources other than the original creators ?Type of Literature
?Books on the topic
?Trade magazine
?Government report
?Sources from Business reports
?Information obtained from the Internet
?Peer-reviewed academic journal
?What is a journal article
?An academic journal bears the name such as Journal, Quarterly, and Review ?Journal articles report findings of research projects
?Journal articles go through rigorous peer-reviews
?Journal articles contain references
?Journal articles have a detailed Method section
?Journal articles present new knowledge of a topic
?What if no literature
?Use different terms to search for literature
?Expand your literature search scope to find related information
?Online newspaper ― online media
?Use a concept instead of a specific term
?iPad ― new media use
?Read the articles you found to locate more related literature
?Little literature might indicate you are the pioneer to study the topic
?Find literature discussing broader issues relating to your study
?Check sources other than academic journals, such as trade magazines
and the Internet to find discussions on related issues.
?You may discuss lack of literature as a necessity of your study
How to organize literatureliterature里应该包含哪些：排除all paper ?Filter all literature found, select only the most related
?Put the literature under different aspects of the issue,
or key concepts of your research
?Organize the literature in sections regarding various issues
related to the research topic
How to write literature review?
?Briefly introduce main issues that the study will raise and explore
?Discuss in more details on the key issues and concepts or important previous findings
?Present literature to support your new ideas to be tested through the proposed study
?Connect different aspects of literature to make the literature review integrated and present a logical and coherent argument
?Point out problems in previous research if your proposed study attempts to solve the problem
?Point out issues remained unsolved in previous research so far
?Present new aspects about the issues under study
?Deliberate how literature review suggests that your research is important and needs to be done imminently
?Summarize the key points of literature review
?The text of the review should be brief and to the point
?To ensure brevity and conciseness, you need to summarize or paraphrase the author’s points.
?Avoid direct quotations of the author’s ideas or the results of the studies you are reviewing.
?Plan on how you will present the review
?Prepare an outline before writing the review.
?This will provide a structure with coherence and unity of ideas presented.
?Use your research topic to organize the discussions of literature
and the studies that are relevant to your proposed research.
?Emphasize relatedness
?Point out the connection between the literature you are discussing
and your research problem.
?Review the literature, don’t reproduce it
?Avoid copying verbatim what authors say in their article.
?Critically review and discuss the issues in the literature
with a clear connection to your research topic.
Questions for Discussion
?What are the differences between a hypothesis and a research question?
?Why does a researcher need to do literature review?
?What would you do when you cannot find literature on your research topic?
?How to organize and write literature review?
Research design
?There are many ways of solving a research problem. We need to decide what is the most appropriate way
?We need to have a basic plan to conduct the study and guide data collection and analysis
?The plan needs to be consistent with study objective,
?And ensure data collection accurate and economic
?There are three approaches of research design, depending on the nature of the research problem and the goal of research:
–Exploration
–Description
–Explanation
Research Design - Exploration
?Exploratory Study is undertaken when not much is known about the topic, or noinformation is available on how similar problems or research issues have
beensolved in the past
?This approach typically occurs when a researcher examines a new interest or when the subject of study itself is relatively new:
–Microblog use as a communication channel of social issues ?Marketing researchers often use focus group to find consumer reactions to some product and decide promotion strategies
–What are the functions that consumers like the most with iPhone 6?
?Explorative research can优点
–Satisfy the res earcher’s curiosity and desire for better understanding of the subject
–Test the feasibility of undertaking a more extensive study
–Develop the methods for any subsequent study
?Results from explorative research are generally limited
?But explorative research is essential whenever a research is breaking new ground, and will yield new insights into a topic for further research
?With an exploratory study, researchers will develop hypothesis, examine relationships, cause and effect
–Education level and new media adoption
–Effect of new media product design on perception of the product and likelihood of purchase
–Multimedia effect on perception of online news
?Method used: Survey, Content analysis, Experiment, and a combination of methods.
Research Design –Description
?Some studies are set to describe situations and events, and answer questions of what, where, when, and how
?Descriptive studies mainly portray characteristics
–China Census
–What is the prevailing organizational culture in transnational companies?
–New media use in minority nationalities in Yunnan province
–Cell phone use as a news device by immigrated workers in metropolitan cities
?
?Descriptive studies could lead to further studies on why the observed patterns exist and what these patterns imply
?Descriptive research is generally quantitative
?Method: Survey, Content analysis
Research Design - Explanation
?Some studies are set to explain why something happened or some phenomenon occurred
?Explanatory research could be built on exploratory and descriptive research.
?Descriptive vs. explanatory
–Descriptive – What type of people use microblog to exchange information on social issues
–Explanatory - what factors motivate people to use microblog to exchange information on social issues
?Methods for explanatory research:
–Surveys, experiments
?Research Design
?No need to over-distinguish three approaches of research. Most studies will bear elements of all three approaches
–Who are the contributors to online community?
–What issues are involved in the contribution to online community?
–The perceived value of contributing and the likelihood of getting a reward from contributing positively predict the willingness to contribute
information to online communities
?Ultimately, we always want to explain what we are studying.
?That means we would try to explore why something happened and what consequences it may cause.
?We want to study antecedents of something, the outcomes of something, or the effects of something
?An exploratory study contribute more to knowledge and understanding of the issues concerned.
Research Design –
?Level of aggregation at which your subjects of study can be observed
?Social scientists typically choose an individual person as their unit of analysis ?Researchers study characteristics of individuals – gender, age, attitudes, behaviors and other characteristics.
?They combine these descriptions together to provide a composite picture of the group that the individuals represent, such as
–College students
–Online forum participants
–Social media users
?Researchers may be interested in studying social entities through different unit of analysis, for example
–Groups, such as an association or people of an ethnicity
–Households, such as a family
–Organizations, such as a university or a company
–Communities, such as a neighborhood
–Regions, such as a city
–Nations, such as a country
?When researchers study these aspects of a society as an aggregate, the unit that the observations and data collection are based is no longer individuals
Types of Research Design
Basic Research vs. Applied
?Basic – academic research that advances knowledge of the fundamentals of how the social world works and develops general theoretical explanations ?The general knowledge gained through basic research is the basis to explain and predict
?Basic research may be motivated by the desire to make the world a better place, but there is not necessarily a direct connection between the knowledge and
immediate action or applications
–Media exposure, peer pressure and social conformity
–Perception of social equality and social participation
?Applied Research– applying knowledge gained from research for a particular application and solve a particular problem
–What type of advertising is the most effective?
?Applied research on adverting may use the knowledge on psychology
–Advertising format and message retention and recall
?Nonscientists sometimes do not understand the need for basic research
?Basic research is really the sources of all knowledge.
–Psychological reactions to certain stimulus
–Perception and attitude in interpersonal communication lead to certain behaviors (theory of planned behavior, theory of reasoned action) ?Qualitative vs. Quantitative research
–Two different forms of research that consider different data types
–They are used to solve different research problems.
Quantitative research
?Quantitative research is used by the scientific approach of academic inquiry ?Quantitative methods seek to measure amounts of a particular variable –Ex. The number of hours staying online
–Ex. Involvement in an online social network
?Steps to collecting data
–Operationalize construct, specify a way to count it, develop statistical models to explain observation
Qualitative research
?Qualitative research is often used in humanistic and critical approaches of academic inquiry
?Qualitative methods seek to describe various aspects about behaviors, related factors and the contexts
?Data are in the form of descriptions, not numbers.
–It involves the analysis of data such as words, pictures, or objects
–Often the goal of qualitative research is to look for meaning Differences between the two
?Qualitative research often tries to make sense of the study objects in the process of examining them
?Qualitative research is much more time consuming, but provides more richness to the data
?Qualitative research is not as generalizable, but considers the context much more so than quantitative
?Qualitative researchers are often immersed in the data and look at it more subjectively
?Quantitative research does know what to look for; designs and measurement decisions are made prior to conducting the research
?Quantitative research demands objectivity
Methods available in each
?Often times, utilizing both forms of research can be more productive
?Qualitative research early in a research project; quantitative later
?Each gives a unique perspective
–Triangulation – looking at something from multiple points of view
improves accuracy
–Different research methods can be used to understand a research problem better
Time Dimension in Research
?How to study changes that occur over time?
–Example: How do people’s attitudes toward social involvement change as they go through college?
Time Horizon: Cross-Sectional vs. Longitudinal Studies
?Cross-Sectional Studies横向研究;
A study can be done in which data are gathered just once, perhaps over a period
of days or weeks or months, in order to complete a research project
–Students’ willingness to participate in volunteer service
?Advantages – simple; least costly
?Longitudinal Studies
Studying people or phenomena at more than one point in time in order
to study changes across time.
–Changes in college students’ willingness to participate in volunteer service Because data are gathered at two or more points in time, the study is not cross-sectional, but is carried longitudinally across a period of time.
?Longitudinal studies take more time and effort and cost more than cross-sectional studies.
?However, well-planned longitudinal studies could help to identify changes over time, and the cause-and-effect relationships.
–For example, one could study the sales volume of a product before and after an advertisement, and provided other environmental changes have
not affected the results, then the increase in the sales volume could be the
effect of the advertisement.
Design a Research Project第一步是什么
?Define your purpose of study
–What kind of study will you undertake – explorative, descriptive,
explanatory? What is your main objective?
–Write down your problem (topic) with clear concepts in a statement or a question format
?Ex. students attending graduate school
?Ex. factors leading to school achievement
?Conceptualization
–Clarify what you mean by the concepts you use in your research project through literature review and discussion.
–Conceptual definition– You may use the definition of a concept
proposed by other researchers
–Most likely, the concepts you study has been discussed by other scholars
–Based on literature review and discussion of the key issues, you ask research questions or propose hypotheses
?Research method selected should correspond to the nature of the study –To find people’s perceptions, attitudes and behaviors, use a survey
–To find how news coverage of a topic frames a concerned issue, use a content analysis
–To find what persuasion effect the different advertising designs will produce, use an experiment
?Operationalization
–Identify key variables from your research questions or hypotheses
–
–
necessary to measure the variable
?If other researchers already studied the variables, we may use their
operational definitions
?Population and sampling
–Whom are you interested in studying, the population
–Do you plan to do a census or draw a sample?
–How would you recruit subjects for your study?
?Data collection and processing
–How to observe and collect information about the subjects of study, a survey or a content analysis?
–Procedures of collecting data,
?Analysis
–Analyze and interpret the data to draw conclusions
–Answer the research questions or test the hypotheses under study ?Application
–Report the research findings, and discuss the implications of the findings
Steps of Research
Presenting a research problemintroduction 里不应该有哪一项?Declarative or descriptive – stating the main problem/ general objective –The purpose of this study is:
?To explore the effect of innovativeness on adoption of new media
technology
?Question form – stating the main or sub-problems/specific objectives
–This study tries to answer the following question:
?Did violence in TV affect children’s behavior?
? A research problem is then broken down into small units - sub-problems/specific objectives.
?These sub-problems/specific objectives are in the form of research questions or hypotheses
?Each research question or hypothesis is a separate researchable unit;
?Interpretation of data will be based on each research question or hypothesis;
?That is, the result of each research question or hypothesis has to be presented clearly.
?The results of research questions or hypotheses add up to solving the main problem.
Example
?Research topic
–Effects of course materials available on the Web on students’ learning outcome
?Research questions
–What are the course materials that the students want the most?
–To what degree does use of course materials available on the Web affect students’ class participation?
–To what degree does use of course materials available on the Web affect students’ learning outcome?
Research Proposal
?Before you start collecting data for your research project, you need to develop a research proposal
? A research proposal is a comprehensive description of your proposed study
? A research proposal lays out a clear and concrete plan on how to conduct research ? A research proposal includes following components:
?Problem or objective
–What do you want to study? Why is it worth studying?
?Literature review
–What are the key issues and concepts your study will explore?
–What research has been done on this topic and related issues?
–What are the important findings related to your topic?
–How would the literature provide insight and theoretical foundation to your study?
?Research questions or hypotheses
–Depending on if there is enough knowledge on the topic of inquiry
–If a theory or related previous findings provide enough knowledge about your research topic, and you can derive a specified relationship between
the variables, you may propose a hypothesis
–If there is not much known (no previous research findings) about your research topic, you ask a research question
?Description of Method
–Population and sample
?Subjects for study. Whom or what will you observe in order to
collect data?
?The procedures of selecting subjects for study
–Measurement
?What are the key variables in your study?
?How will you define and measure them?
–Data collection procedures
?How will you actually collect the data for your study? The specific
procedures
–Analysis approach
?What kind of analysis do you plan to conduct to test your
hypotheses or answer your research questions?
Questions for Discussion
?What are the differences between explorative, descriptive and explanatory studies?
?What is unit of analysis?
?What are the differences between quantitative and qualitative methods?
?What would you consider when designing a research project?
?What should be included in a research proposal?
?Survey is a method of gathering information from a sample of population by means of structured communication
Why do researchers conduct survey?
–To discover relative incidence (what people do with certain things, such as use of new media)
–To find an interrelation of sociological (such as family background and occupation) and psychological (such as motivation and involvement)
variables
–To advance knowledge on human behaviors and social changes ?Depending on the unit of analysis, the level that subjects are selected to conduct a survey could vary.
?Individuals are the common subjects of a survey.
?Sometimes survey is conducted among the organizations we are interested in.
?When we look at global economy or political systems, a country could be a subject of a survey.
–Education and GDP
Type of data to collect
?The type of information that we can gather through survey from people includes –Factual information about people and their behaviors
–Attitude and beliefs
–Personalities and characteristics
?Human behavior or intention
–College students’ participation in volunteer service
–Intention to express disagreement in online discussion
?Attitude
–Attitude towards online rumors
–Attitude towards China-Japan dispute over the Senkaku Islands (Diaoyu Islands)
?Respondent characteristics
–Education, Income, political affiliation
?Respondent personality
–Extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, openness to experience
?Data about society
–Economic (economic growth)
–Sociological (social status)
–Cultural (cultural value)
–Lifestyle, activity, interest, opinion
?Data collection through a survey is to answer research questions or test hypotheses.
Basic design of survey定量方法不包括哪一个？Content\ Text ANALYSIS ?Cross sectional
–Data collected at a point of time from a group of people, representing a larger population
?Longitudinal
–Data collected at different points of time, identify changes and for comparison
Types of Longitudinal survey
?Trend study
Different people are interviewed, look at changes at different points of time –Adoption of digital media
–Income of new college graduates
Longitudinal survey
?Panel study
Collection of data of the same people at different times
–Attitude towards genetically modified food
–Consumer’s responses on new products
Advantages
?Investigates problems in realistic settings
?Investigates issues of wide-scopes
?Collects vast amount of information
?Fairly accurate
?Reasonable cost
Disadvantage
?Can be costly
?Problem of sampling error
?Bias from wording and placement of questions
?Misunderstanding of the questions
?Low response rate
?People not willing to cooperate
?People may not be willing to tell the truth
Steps in conducting a survey
?Decide the method based on the research purpose and the questions to beanswered ?Define the study population
?Sampling and estimating the sample size
?Decide what information to collect (variables)
?Decide how to measure the variables
?Construct the questionnaire
?Collect the data
?Record, analyze, and interpret the data
Clarifying the purposes
?Be clear and explicit about the purpose of the study at the start.
?Understanding of the project goals paves the way for a successful survey.
?Surveys can be used for two purposes:
–to know how common a characteristic is - that is, a descriptive survey.
–to explore the causes for these characteristics - that is, an analytical
(explanatory) survey
Purpose
?Descriptive survey
attempts to picture or document current conditions or attitudes.
–College students use of online social networks
–Public perception of social equality
–Attitude towards general election in Hong Kong
?Analytical survey
attempts to describe and explain why certain relations exist.
–Perceived social norm and willingness to express minority views in public
–Political self-efficacy and political participation
Workable research problems
?Political predisposition and attitude strength in online expression
?Effect of reality TV shows on viewers perception of reality
?Perceived advantages and accessibility and adoption of cloud for online communication
Conceptualization and Literature Review
?The concept (variable) you plan to investigate through a survey needs conceptualization
?Literature review will lay foundation for the study through discussion and analysis of the related research on the topic
Define the study population
?The next step is to define exactly whom you are interested in studying.
?It is vital to ensure that this definition corresponds to the purposes of the survey. ?This usually includes:
–specific personal criteria, such as mobile phone users; people engaging in online social networks
Population (universe)
?All individual elements that a researcher wants to study for a specific research project, always defined in terms of:
–elements (comprised of)
–sampling units (various)
–extent (among what, who, where)
–time (within what time frame)
Population
?All members of the subjects under study, they could be:
–people who use social networks
–Communities with social support network
–Metropolitan newspapers published in China
?If we decide to collect information on the whole study population, the study is called a census.
Sampling 抽样
?The population is usually so large that we do not have the time and resources to study all elements (individuals).
?Instead, we collect information only from a proportion – that is, a sample - of the study population.
?The process of selecting this sample from our study population is known as sampling
Sample样本
? A sample is a subset of the population that is representative of the entire population.
?If a sample is not representative, no matter how large the size is, it will not produce generalizable results.
Why sample?
?There are reasons a sample is selected when conducting a survey. Some of the reasons are: