COMMUNICATION RESEARCH (4 SCU)

Learning Outcomes:

After completing the course, students will be able to: comprehend the relationship between theory and research methods, assess the ethical choices of researchers in conducting and presenting research, compare and contrast four major research methods (experimental, survey, textual analysis, and naturalistic inquiry) used to investigate communication behavior, develop the ability to clearly communicate, both orally and in writing, the findings of original communication research to a lay audience and able to read, understand, explain and critically evaluate communication and other research reported in scholarly journals as well as in the popular press.

Topics:

This course provides an overview of the concepts, methods, and tools by which communication research is designed, conducted, interpreted, and critically evaluated. One of the primary goals of this class is to enhance your ability to read, understand, explain, and critically evaluate research reported in scholarly journals. Topics include Conceptualizing research, generating research questions and hypothesis, finding, reading, and using research, methods for conducting research, analyzing quantitative data, inferring from data, analyzing differences and relationships between groups, and re-conceptualizing research.

Prerequisite(s): None