Course Schedule

Because the nature of inquiry is question asking, this course is based around a series of questions. Why do we do academic inquiry? What are the goals of academic inquiry? What are the specific kinds of phenomena or processes that communication researchers study? What does academic inquiry look like? What are the stages of research? How do we start a research project? What are the key ingredients of a research project? How do ethics and broad notions of social responsibility enter into the research process? What does good inquiry look like, and how does this vary across scholarly traditions? There are many approaches to inquiry and each has particular strengths and limitations. What assumptions underlie each approach to research? What are the key interests of researchers in each of these areas?

There are five required texts:

David Grazian, On the Make: The Hustle of Urban Nightlife (Chicago, IL:  Chicago University Press, 2007).

Charles Ragin, Constructing Social Research: The Unity and Diversity of Method (Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press, 1994).

JoAnne Yates, Control through Communication : The Rise of System in American Management, Studies in Industry and Society (Baltimore, MA: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989).

Dvora Yanow, Conducting Interpretive Policy Analysis (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1999).

One of your choosing, from the list of books eligable for review.

January 8
Designing communication inquiry. Handout: Designing Communication Research.

January 10
Ethical Considerations. Do the online IRB training course for social and behavioral sciences, and hand in a printout of the final screen showing that you have completed the modules. Handouts: Sokal Hoax. Christians, C. G. (2000). Chapter 5 (ethics and politics in qualitative research). In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 133-155). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

HUMANISTIC INQUIRY

January 15
Cultural Studies I. Dahlgren, P. (1998). Cultural studies as a research perspective: Themes and tensions. In Corner, Schlesinger, & Silverstone (Eds.), International media research: A critical survey (pp. 48-64). New York: Routledge. Haraway, D. (1990). Teddy bear patriarchy: taxidermy in the garden of eden, New York City, 1908-36, In primate visions: Gender, race and nature in the world of modern science. New York: Routledge. Schudson, M. (1997). Paper tigers: A Sociologist follows cultural studies into the wilderness. Lingua Franca: The Review of Academic Life, 7(6), 49-56.

January 17
Types of Causality and Types of Evidence. First half of Charles Ragin, Constructing Social Research: The Unity and Diversity of Method (Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press, 1994).

January 22
Note this class moved to Room 321.
Cultural Studies II. Guest speaker, Dr. Ralina Joseph. Ralina L. Joseph, "'Not By This Outside': Selling Post-Race on America's Top Model" American Quarterly, forthcoming. LeiLani Nishime, "The Mulatto Cyborg: Imagining a Multiracial Future" Cinemal Journal 44(2), Winter 2005.

January 24
Rhetorical Criticism. Guest speaker Dr. Christine Harold. Argumentative Fallacies, Benson, T. W. (1994). Rhetorical structure of Frederick Wiseman's primate. In W. L. Nothstine, C. Blair, & Copeland, G. A. (Eds.), Critical questions. New York: St. Martin's. OR Fisher, W. D., & O'Leary, S. D. (1996). The rhetorician's quest. In M. B. Salwen & D. W. Stacks (Eds.), An integrated approach to communication theory and research (pp. 243-260). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. AND Harold, C. Ourspace: Resisting the Corporate Control of Culture, Chapter 1 and 5 (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2007).

QUALTATIVE RESEARCH

January 29
Participant Observation and Interviews. Handout: Organizing an Interview. Sillars, A. L. (1991). Observational research. In B. M. Montgomery & S. Duck (Eds.), Studying interpersonal interaction (pp. 197-218). New York: The Guilford Press. Barley, S. (1986). "Technology as an occasion for structuring: Evidence from observations of CT scanners and the social order of radiology departments", Administrative Sciences Quarterly, 31, 78-108.

January 31
Discussion of book reviews. Generating theories from methods. Second half of Charles Ragin, Constructing Social Research: The Unity and Diversity of Method (Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press, 1994). First draft of book reviews due.

February 5
Ethnography I. First half of David Grazian, On the Make: The Hustle of Urban Nightlife (Chicago, IL:  Chicago University Press, 2007).

February 7
Ethnography II. Guest speaker Dr. Gina Neff, first hour. David Kirsch and Gina Neff, "The Materiality of Failure: Using Organizational Archeology to Theorize the De-Organized Firm." Second half of David Grazian, On the Make: The Hustle of Urban Nightlife (Chicago, IL:  Chicago University Press, 2007).

COMPARATIVE RESEARCH

February 12
Communication Policy Analysis. Handout: Major Forms of Cross-Case Research. Dvora Yanow, Conducting Interpretive Policy Analysis (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1999). Robert McChesney, "Conclusion", Telecommunications, Mass Media, & Democracy: The Battle for Control of U.S. Broadcasting, 1928-1935 (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1989) OR Philip Howard and Nimah Mazaheri, "States, Markets, and the Global Digital Divide".

February 14
Historical and Archival Approaches. Guest speaker Dr. Jerry Baldasty, first hour. Gerald J. Baldasty, E.W. Scripps and the Business of Newspapers (Champaign-Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1999). Introduction (pp 1-8), Chapter 8. Is It Interesting? pp. 120-145 and notes (199-205) and Appendix 2 (pp. 160-164). First half of JoAnne Yates, Control through Communication : The Rise of System in American Management, Studies in Industry and Society (Baltimore, MA: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989).

February 19
International Comparative and Content Analysis. Handout: Coding Guide for Market OrientationNeuendorf, K. A. (2002). The Content Analysis Guidebook. Thousand Oaks; London; New Delhi: Sage (Chapter 1, Defining Content Analysis). Second half of JoAnne Yates, Control through Communication : The Rise of System in American Management, Studies in Industry and Society (Baltimore, MA: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989). First draft of research proposal due.

QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS

February 21
Surveys I. Handouts: In-Class Survey Design Scenario, 20 Ways To Critique a Political Poll, Frequency and Sampling Distributions. Shoemaker, P. J., & McCombs, M. E. (2003). Survey research. In G. H. Stempel III, D. H. Weaver, & G. C. Wilhoit (Eds.), Mass communication research and theory (pp. 231-251). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Nisbett, R. E., & Wilson, T. D. (1977). Telling more than we can know: Verbal reports on mental processes. Psychological Review, 84, 231-259.

February 26
Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Research. Grabe, M. E., & Westley, B. H. (2003). The controlled experiment. In G. H. Stempel III, D. H. Weaver, & G. C. Wilhoit (Eds.), Mass communication research and theory (pp. 267-298). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Shadish, W., Cook, T. & Campbell, D (2001). Experimental and quasi-experimental designs (Chapter 1 Experiments and Generalized Causal Inference and Chapter 14 A Critical Assessment of our Assumptions: pp. 1-32 and 456-504).

February 28
Surveys II. Guest speaker, Dr. Randy Beam. Readings to come. 2007 American Journalist Survey. Journalists in the Workplace.


March 4
Network Analysis. Handout: Social Network Analysis Exercise. Emirbayer, M., & Goodwin, J. (1994). Network analysis, culture, and the problem of agency. American Journal of Sociology, 99, 1411-1454. Uzzi, B. (1996). The sources and consequences of embeddedness for the economic performance of organizations: The network effect. American Sociological Review, 61, 674-698.

 

 

STUDENT PRESENTATIONS

March 6
Student Presentations.

March 11
Student Presentations.

March 13
Student Presentations. Second draft of research proposals due March 13.

ADDITIONAL TOPICS

Auto-Ethnography. Reed-Danahay, D., Ed. (1997). Auto/Ethnography: Rewriting the Self and the Social. New York, Berg. Ellis, C. (1995). Final Negotiations: A Story of Love, Loss, and Chronic Illness. Philadelphia, PA, Temple University Press. Fine, G. (1999). "Field Labor and Ethnographic Reality." Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 28(5): 532 - 539. Clough, P. (1997). "Autotelecommunication and Autoethnography: A Reading of Carolyn Ellis's Final Negotiations." Sociological Quarterly 38(1): 95-110.

Meta-Analysis. D'Alessio, D. and M. Allenz (2000). Media Bias in Presidential Elections: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Communication 50: 133-156. Lipsey, M. and D. Wilson. Practical Meta-Analysis. Thousand oaks, CA: Sage. Sherry, J. The Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggression, A Meta-Analysis. Human Communication Research 27: 409-431. Wolf, F. Meta-Analysis: Quantitative Methods for Research Synthesis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Focus Groups. Krueger, R. and M. Casey (2000). Focus Groups : A Practical Guide for Applied Research. Thousand Oaks, CA, SAGE. Fern, E. F. (2001). Advanced Focus Group Research Thousand Oaks, CA, SAGE.

Fuzzy Set Logic. Chapters 6-8 of Ragin, C. (1987). The Comparative Method: Moving Beyond Qualitative and Quantitative Strategies. Berkeley, CA, University of California Press. Ragin, C (2000). Fuzzy Set Social Science, University of Chicago Press.

Internet Research Methods. Burnett, R. and Marshall, P. D. (2003) Web Theory: An Introduction, Routledge, New York. Hine, Christine (Ed), (2006) Virtual Methods: Issues in Social Research on the Internet. New York, Berg.

Unobtrusive Methods. Babbie, Chapter 11, “Unobtrusive Research,” pp. 307 to 332. Kellehear, A. (1993). The Unobtrusive Researcher. London, Allen & Unwin.

Applied Research. Gilner, J. A., & Morgan, G. A. (2000). Research methods in applied settings: An integrated approach (Chapter 2). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum (this is a library e-book, and is found by searching on the name Morgan). HL (Bud) Goodall, J. (2004). "Narrative Ethnography and Applied Communication Research." Journal of Applied Communication Research 32(3): 185-194.

Visual Culture. Goldfarb, Brian. Visual Pedagogy : Media Cultures in and Beyond the Classroom. Durham: Duke University Press, 2002. Jewitt, Carey, and Theo Van Leeuwen. Handbook of Visual Analysis. London: SAGE, 2001. Mirzoeff, Nicholas. The Visual Culture Reader. 2nd ed. London ; New York: Routledge, 2002.

Actor-Network Theory. Callon, M. and B. Latour. (1981). Unscrewing the Big Leviathan: how actors macrostructure reality and how sociologists help them to do so. In K. D. Knorr-Cetina and A. V. Cicourel (Eds.) Advances in Social Theory and Methodology: Toward an Integration of Micro- and Macro-Sociologies. Boston, Mass, Routledge and Kegan Paul: 277-303. Star, S.L. (1995b). The politics of formal representations: Wizards, gurus and organizational complexity," Pp. 88-118 in S. L. Star, Ed. Ecologies of knowledge: Work and politics in science and technology. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

Activity Theory. Nardi, Bonni. (1996). Context and Consciousness: Activity theory and human-computer interaction. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Kirsten A. Foot, 'Cultural-Historical Activity Theory as Practical Theory: Illuminating the Development of a Conflict Monitoring Network', Communication Theory, Spring, 2001, Vol. 11, N.1, pp. 56-83.

OTHER RESOURCES

Concept Mapping Tools. IHMC.