Course description

Covers social scientific methods to solve communication research problems empirically. Topics include basic principles of social scientific research, random sampling, questionnaire design, experimental research design, focus group techniques, content analysis, and basic descriptive and inferential statistics. Students also learn basic data manipulation, presentation, and analysis techniques using SPSS and EXCEL.

Outcome 1: Have an appreciation for how we do research in the field of communication and why it is important to understand research methods

Outcome 2: Utilize a variety of communication databases to identify scholarly research related to a research topic of interest

Outcome 3: Understand key concepts and vocabulary used to describe various research paradigms and designs

Outcome 4: Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of communication research designs that utilize in-depth interviews, content analysis, surveys and experiments

Outcome 5: Apply knowledge and skills learned about content analysis to design a codebook to analyze newspaper coverage

Outcome 6: Apply knowledge and skills learned about surveys to design an original questionnaire about media use and a sampling strategy

Outcome 7: Analyze numerical data using descriptive andinferential statistics in EXCEL and SPSS

Outcome 8: Convey statistical information through graphs, charts and figures using EXCEL and SPSS

Enrollment limited to: sophomores or higher

Summer 2025: Online course