COMM 301: Empirical Research in Communication

1. COMM 301:Empirical Research in Communication Kwan M Lee Lect2_1

2. Announcement • Powerpoint viewer downloads (courseweb) • Team projects: flexible 3-5 team members • TAs will assign team members

3. Science as a way of knowing • Things to know by the end of the lecture • What are the traditional ways of knowing? • What is science as a way of knowing? • How is science superior to other ways of knowing? • What are the characteristics of science? • What are the stages and procedures of the scientific method?

4. Ways of knowing • So, we have a set of research questions… how do we know the answers to the questions? • Epistemology: the division of philosophy that investigates the nature and origin of knowledge. • Six common forms of human knowledge acquisition and formation

5. Low level epistemological methods • Tenacity • Intuition • Authority

6. Ways of knowing: Tenacity • Tenacity • “The way it has always been.” • We accept the answer (knowledge) because it has survived over time. • Little rigor possible in analysis of the knowledge • Examples of knowledge via tenacity: • cultural customs, norms, traditions • foods eaten on particular holidays

7. Way of knowing: Intuition • Intuition • “It feels right.” • Extra-sensory source, gut feelings, so on • Again, less rigor in the analysis of the knowledge, because it is not readily analyzable

8. Ways of knowing: Authority • Authority • answers, knowledge gained from a trusted source • burden of analysis is mostly on the credibility of the source

9. Ways of knowing: Science • Science: the development of knowledge through a combination of rationalism and empiricism. • Mind (logic) + Senses (observation) • Rational empirical method: another name for science • Rationalism • Development of knowledge through the application of the rules of logic • Empiricism • Development and confirmation of knowledge through the observation of events using human senses

10. Ways of knowing: Science (cont.) • Rationalism: knowing through logic • deductive logic: • apply general principles to a case to draw conclusions • syllogism • inductive logic: • from specific case, generalize to principles • Basis for hypothesis testing • analogical logic: • from a specific case, apply to another case • Based on similarities between the cases • casual logic : • cause and effect link between events • Three requirements for establishing a causal link (see later)

11. Advantage of science over the other methods of knowing? • able to develop new knowledge, find new answers, beyond accepting existing answers, by applying logic • able to verify newly established knowledge by objectively relying on one’s own senses • What is the key difference between “Low level epistemological methods” and “high level epistemological method”? • Develop vs. Accept

12. Characteristics of science • Logical • Adherence to the rules of logic • Empirical • Objects/phenomena being investigated should be observable. • Problem oriented • Begins with a problem statement then ends with other problems • Procedure driven • To keep objectivity • Community-Based • Exchange of ideas and procedures • Replicable • This is what a method section is for • Self critiquing • What you do at the end of a study (discussion section) • Evolutionary • Grows day by day • Creative • Revolutionary findings!; beyond the normal application of logic!

13. Fundamental Scientific Activities • Theory development • What is theory? • A set of interrelated constructs, definitions, and propositions that presents a systematic view of phenomena by specifying relations among variables, with the purpose of explaining the phenomena. • Causal statement with boundary conditions • Observation • Observation follows research methods (survey, experiment, content analysis, naturalistic observation, etc.)

14. Evaluation of Theory • Clarity • Parsimony • Validity • Is it empirically true? • Testability • Scope • How big is it? • Flexibility • Can it adopt to explain new related observations? • Predictability • What can we predict based on this? • Utility • for explanation, generation of new knowledge, prediction, etc.

15. Procedures of the scientific method • Problem development • Methodological design • Data collection • Data analysis • Interpretation of findings, generalizing of principle, developing theories

16. A note on causality • Tendency to “prove” causal relationships is very strong in science and in life • Need to consider the criteria for causality • Temporal ordering: cause precedes effect in time • Meaningful correlation: must have a theoretical foundations for observed correlations • No competing hypotheses: correlation cannot be explained by another factors

17. A note on causality (cont.) • Exercises in alternative hypotheses