Instructor: Dr. Louisa Ha

Class Time: W 6:00 - 9:00 p.m. Classroom: COH 340, PHSC 230 (Oct. 29-Nov 12)

Office: COH 237

Office Hours: T,H 4:15 - 6:15 p.m. W 3:30 - 4:30 p.m. and by appointment

Voice-mail: (405) 325-5229

E-mail: Louisa.S.Ha-1@ou.edu

Homepage:http://www.ou.edu/class/jmc3333/hahome.shtml

Course Objectives

1. To introduce students to the common scientific research procedures and designs used in the study of mass communications.
2. To enable students to conduct industry and academic research independently and use statistical techniques in analyzing data.

Textbooks

1. Wimmer, R. D. & Dominick, J. R. (1997). Mass media research, 5th edition. Belmont,CA: Wadsworth Publishing
2. Babbie, E. & Halley, F. (1995). Adventures in social research: Data analysis using SPSS for Windows. CA: Pine Forge Press.

Course Structure

This course is divided into three units. The first unit discusses the principles of scientific research. The second unit concentrates on primary research designs. The third unit focuses on the techniques commonly used in quantitative data analysis. Students will be given assignments to gain hands-on experience in collecting data and analyzing data with computer programs. You must bring the data disk accompanying the text and a blank floppy disk to the computer lab session for data analysis.

Several graduate faculty guest presentations will be scheduled during the course to introduce them to you as possible thesis advisers in future. They will discuss their current research interests and the methods they used in their research projects.

Scholastic Honesty

Grading

Make-up Policy

You will not be granted any make-ups for your assignments and presentations Under special circumstances with legitimate written excuses, you may request the instructor for a special arrangement to make up for the loss of grade or score during his or her absence.

Attendance and Classroom Policy

Class attendance is mandatory and you are obliged to observe classroom disciplines such as no chatting with classmates during the lecture session. You are encouraged to raise questions in class. Feel free to ask for further explanation.

Deadlines

All assignments or papers submitted later than the class period on the due date are considered as late. No late work will be accepted unless a written evidence such as a physician's letter is accompanied with the request for late submission or make-ups.

Students with Disability Statement

If any member of the class feels that he or she has a disability and needs special accommodations of any nature, the instructor will work with you and the Office of Disabled Student Services to provide reasonable accommodations to ensure that you have a fair opportunity to perform in the class. Please advise the instructor of such disability and the desired accommodations at some point before, during, or immediately after the first scheduled class period.

Favorite Web Site Report

This assignment is to familiarize you with the web resources that the instructor has prepared for you in this class under Research References of JMC 5093 (http://www.ou.edu/class/jmc3333/jmc5093.htm). You are to select one of them as your favorite web site and explain why this web site is your favorite.

Literature Review Critique

This two- to three-page critique requires you to find an academic research article of your interest and critique its literature review section. You have to examine if the author has presented the previous studies on the topic in an organized manner, discussed their strengths and weaknesses, and related well to the the question of his/her study. Give evidence in the article to support your view. You must attach a copy of the article with the critique.

Data Analysis Assignments

All data analysis assignments should be performed in the computer labs during class. If you could not finish the assignment during class time, you could bring it home or work in other public computer labs to complete the assignment.

Exams

The exams will consists of essay questions on the first and second units of the course materials in the first exam, and the third unit on the second exam.

Research Proposal

The research proposal is the most important assignment in this course. For this proposal, you have to synthesize the research skills that you have learned from this class. You must choose a topic of your interest (which may be your future thesis topic), and prepare a thorough research proposal of not more than 20 pages that can demonstrate feasibility and significance of your research. It must contain a rigorous literature review on the topic, a well-justified research design, a research instrument, and data collection method. If a quantitative method is chosen, you must state clearly what type of statistical analysis is going to be used. If a qualitative method is chosen, you must explain the theoretical perspective(s) that you will use in interpreting the results. An example of a quantitative research proposal is put on reserve for your reference at HPRC.

Before writing the proposal, you should submit a one-page research topic statement outlining the purpose of your research and explain why you are interested in the topic. The instructor will review your topic and provide you with feedback for your preparation of the proposal.

The research proposal must be written in APA style, which is the official style used in the school for preparation of master’s thesis. You can consult the APA style guide available under the research reference web page of this course.

The grading of the proposal is based on these criteria:

1. organization and writing style (20%)
2. the significance of the topic chosen (10%)
3. the thoroughness and insights in the literature review (20%)
4. conceptual framework and hypotheses (20%)
5. the justification of the research design,data collection methods and statistic analyses (30%).

Course Schedule

The following schedule is tentative. Readings with an asterisk are from the Babbie and Halley book. Students are responsible for any changes made in class.

[UNIT ONE: Scientific Research]

Aug 27 Introduction: Scientific Research Ch.1, 2*

Academic and Private Research

Theory and Research

Sep 3 The Research Process: Ch.2 & 11

Literature Review, Hypotheses, and

Research Proposal

Sep 10 Qualitative Research Methods Ch.5

Favorite Web Site Report due

Sep 17 Quantitative Research Methods: Ch.3, 3*

Variables and Levels of Measurement

Literature Review Critique due

Sep 24 Quantitative Research Methods: Ch.4, 4*

Sampling

[UNIT TWO: Research Designs]

Oct 1 Content Analysis Ch. 6

Oct 8 Survey Ch. 7,

Appendix A*

Oct 15 Longtitudinal Research Ch. 8

Oct 22 Experiment Ch. 9

Research Topic due

[UNIT THREE: DATA ANALYSIS AND APPLICATIONS]

Oct 29 Exam 1

Data Analysis: Ch. 10, 6*

Introdution to Statistics Appendix B*

Coding, Data Entry and Checking

Assignment 1

Nov 5 Data Analysis: Ch.11 & 12,

Descriptive Statistics, Univariate Analysis, 9*, 14*

Significance Tests

Assignment 2

Nov 12 Data Analysis: Ch.12,

Inferential Statistics, Bivariate and Multivariate 15*, 17*

Analyses

Assignment 3

Nov 19 D. C. Lam Conference. No class.

Nov 26 Thanksgiving Holiday. No class.

Dec 3 Exam 2

Applications of Mass Communication Research Ch.13-16

Dec 10 Research Ethics Ch.17

Presentations on Research Proposals

Research Proposal due

Major Research Journals in Mass Communication

A. Mass Communication in General