Tutorial Week 5

FIC0154 Basic Comm Research (16th October 2012)

Reference materials: Lecture notes 4 and relevant text book chapters(Mass Media Research; An Introduction, 9th edition by Roger D. Wimmer & Joseph R. Dominick; Pg 26-31). 

Question 1

Scientific research must be internally and externally valid. What do Internal Validity and External Validity mean?


ANSWER:

Note that internal validity and external validity are not the opposite of each other.

Internal validity happens when the researchers are able to control all the variables efficiently so that the studies and results are not affected by any unwanted variables. Factors that affect internal validity are called artifacts.

External validity refers to how much the results of a study can be generalized or extended to others. For example, the results of a study cannot be generalized to the rest of the population if it was only conducted on a certain gender or race. 

Question 2

What do researchers need to take into account when ensuring that their research results are externally and internally valid? 

ANSWER:

To ensure their research results are valid, researchers must first be aware of the factors that are affecting it, including internal and external validity.

INTERNAL VALIDITY 
Factors that can affect internal validity include history, maturation, testing, instrumentation and experimental mortality.

a) History:
This means that a lot of different kinds of events that happened prior or during the study that could affect the subject's opinions, attitudes and/or behaviour.

Examples:
i) When a famous and somewhat considered 'legendary' singer like Michael Jackson passed away, it would affect the subject's original answer when asked for their favourite pop singer (i.e; the answer could have been Justin Bieber if Michael Jackson have not passed away at that moment).

ii) When researchers are trying to conduct a study on accident rates due to reckless driving in Malaysia during the monsoon season, their results would be inaccurate. This is because accidents are more prone to happen because of the heavy rain, rather than because of reckless driving.

A way to effectively counter this factor would be to conduct the research at the right timing and make sure there are no events that could manipulate the subject's answers before conducting a study. 

b) Maturation:
This happens when there are biologically and psychologically characteristics changes during the course of the research. Subjects may be tired, hungry or even older and this would influence greatly on the study.

Example:
i) If asked to complete a survey after having spent 4 hours on the computer(or even doing the survey for four hours straight), the data would be inaccurate because the respondents would be too tired and would just randomly click on the answers for the sake of finishing the survey. When that happens, the survey would be completely pointless.

To counter this factor, the subjects should be given a few break sessions (by providing coffee, tea or plain water and snacks) in between completing the surveys so that the respondents would be more alert and do not feel too bored/tired and hungry. Also, the temperature where the respondents are completing the survey should neither be too cold nor too warm (*roughly 21-23°C). This is to provide the respondents a comfortable and conducive environment.

*Standard room temperature



c) Testing:
This means that researches do a pretest(survey questions) so that they could improve their questions. However, this could backfire and be considered as an artifact that could affect the results.

Example:
i) If the subjects have already done the pretests, the real test would be predictable and the subjects might give biased answer, since they already know how to answer the questions.

To counter this factor would be to use different set of subjects for the pretest and the actual test. That way, the subjects who are doing the actual test would not be able to predict the questions and the results would not be affected. 

d) Instrumentation:
It is also known as instrument decay. This refers to the sudden failure of the instruments or methods that you use to measure your variables. 

Example:
i) Instrument wears out; When trying to measure the time taken(speed) for a group of teenagers to type a passage, the stopwatch stops working after 10 seconds. This will result in failure to collect data.

ii) Research assistants too casual; This is when the researchers (or their assistants) themselves are too casual in recording their observations or they might be too tired that their attention span was shorten during an interview. This will lead to having results that would most likely not be accurate.

Ways to counter this would be to double check the instruments (stop watch, recorder, typewriter etc.) to make sure they are in tip top condition before use and also have backup instruments. Researchers should also make sure they have enough sleep and are not in a tired state when conducting a study. 

e) Experimental mortality: 
It should be expected that it is possible for subjects to drop out/quit from being part of a research study for one reason or another. 

Example:
i) In search of the perfect vaccine to cure a certain illness, doctors might have been conducting his study on 10 patients. However, if the 8 of the patients passed away or decided that they do not what to be part of the research anymore, it would effect the study greatly.

ii) If 500 surveys were to be given to people to fill, it is possible that only 50% of the surveys that came back to the researchers were fully answered.


A way to counter this would be to have at least two times(2x) more research subjects than required. If there are more than enough subjects, the results could be greatly improved and if there are any dropouts, it would not affect the results. 

EXTERNAL VALIDITY 
The only factors that affect external validity are the interaction in an analysis of variables such as subject selection, instrument and experimental conditions.

Example: 
i) When researches want to conduct a study on Malaysians who have diabetes, their sample only consists of middle aged women where 80% of the subjects are Malays and 20% Chinese with no samples of Indian race. This study cannot be generalized to the population of Malaysia and would be considered inaccurate because of the wrong usage of samples.


Ways to encounter this would be:

a) Use random samples.
This enables the researchers to collect date from a variety of different subjects rather than collecting data from people who share the same attitudes, opinions and lifestyles. Using this, everyone would have an equal chance to be selected as part of the research study.

b) Use heterogeneous samples and replicated (repeat) the study several times.
Results are only able to be generalized if the information gathered by different subjects(ie; different race) show the same results. *By repeating the study several times with the same results, we can conclude that the results are accurate.

c) Select a sample that is representative of the group to which the results will be generalized.
This just means that a study conducted on a particular group of people cannot be considered applicable to another. For example, the results on a study on what housewives like to watch cannot be applicable to teenagers or children.

d) Conduct research over a long period of time.
Opinions can be changed in a short period of time, thus, if a research is done for well over weeks or months, it can be safe to conclude that any changes would be minimal or nonexistent. This can also be called taking into account the "sleeper" effect. 

*Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results - Albert Einstein*

[Refer to b)]

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Tee Mieng (MANDY) (0309219)

Tutorial Week 4

FIC0154 Basic Communication Research ( 9^th October 2012 ).

Reference materials: Lecture notes 2 and 3 and relevant text book chapters

Question 1

Research is divided into two major sectors – academic and private. From your textbook, read up on the section relating to academic vs private research and summarise the points that differentiate between these two. You may find this reading in Chapter 1 of Wimmer and Dominick (pages 14-16 in the latest 9^th edition).

ANSWER:

Academic research	Private research
Academic research is known as basic research. Basic research is conducted to find new things out or explain some new trends.	Private research is known as applied research. Applied research is usually conducted to help a company for making a decision in order to earn profit. For example, company which want to sell a drink will carry out a applied research to find out who are their target group or is the brand name suitable to the product and easily being remember by the others.
Academic research is conducted by scholars from colleges and universities. For example, student from Taylor’s University, lecturers from Taylor’s University will carry out academic research.	Private research is conducted by non-government companies or their research consultants. Typical private research topic in the private sector include media content  and consumer preferences, acquisitions of additional business or facilities, analysis of on-air talent, advertising and promotional campaigns, public relations approaches to solving specific informational problems, sales forecasting, and image studies of the properties owned by the company.
Academic research is public. Academic research must be shared or published to the public. Any other researcher or research organization that wishes to use the information gathered by the academic researchers should be able to do so by asking the original researcher for the raw data.	Private research is private. Private research can only be shared when the company agreed or want to release the research. Most private sector research, on the other hand, generates proprietary data that are the sole property of the sponsoring agency and usually cannot be obtained by the other researchers.
Academic researchers generally do not have specific deadlines for their research projects. Academic researchers have more time to complete their research project. Academic researchers usually conduct their research at a pace that accommodates their teaching schedules.	Private sector researchers usually operate under some type of deadline. The company will generally set a deadline for the researchers to complete the private research.
Academic research is generally less expensive to conduct compared to the private sector research. Academic researchers usually do not need to cover overhead costs for office rent, equipment, facilities, computer analysis, subcontractors, and personnel.	Private research is generally more expensive to conduct compared to the academic research. Private research usually needs more incentive, professional, resources and expert sources.

Question 2

Explain the 8 steps of research, giving examples to illustrate what each step entails, if necessary.

ANSWER:

(i)                  Selecting and defining research problem.

• Many researchers come to be identified with studies of specific types or specific approaches.
• Researchers should find things which related to his or her personal field of study, topic which related to the society or current change, and the topic should not been explored by someone else.

(ii)                Determining topic relevance and significance.

• To determine the topic is good or bad, or is it worth to be conduct.

• There are 8 questions to determine whether the topic is relevance and significance.

(a)    Is the topic too broad?

-         For example, what are the effects of television on children, hence what kind of effects the researcher wants to discover and what kind of genre of television the researcher wants to conduct. The effects could be physical effect, emotional effect or academic results; while the genre of television could be advertising, cartoon, education material or entertainment material. Therefore, this topic is too broad and is not suitable to be conducted.

(b)   Can the problem really be investigated?

-         To determine whether the topic is doable.

-         For example, how a teenager who never expose to television communicate with others. It is very hard for a researcher to find a group of teenagers who never watch television before as television is a very common gadget in our life.

(c)    Can the data be analyzed?

-         The researcher needs to determine whether their data could be analyzed by doing statistic, whether have the capability and ability to count the average so that the data collected will not become raw data.

(d)   Is the problem significant?

-         A researcher should determine whether the topic chose is useful and meaningful to the society.

-         A researcher should be aware about is there any readers who will read their research result after it is published.

(e)    Can the results of the study be generalized?

-         A researcher should aware of is the research result could apply to the other people at other states or countries.

-         For example, what music genre a basic communication research student at Taylor’s University, Lakeside Campus like. This topic is not generalized as all of the students are from the same setting, the age group is the same, and the number of males and females are not balanced.

(f)     What costs and time are involved in the analysis?

(g)    Is the planned approach appropriate to the project?

(h)    Is there any potential harm to the subjects?

-         The potential harms include physical harm and emotional harm.

-         For example, a study about abused children and their violence behavior. The researchers can continue to carry out this topic, but they need to consider whether this topic is really beneficial for the society.

(iii)               Review of literature.

• Literature review is review on what other experts had done in the area of your study before you.
• A researcher need to look at how, who, where, and when the other experts conduct their research and the conclusion they made in their previous studies. 
• Through literature review, a researcher could learn from the previous research, save time, energy and effort, and prevent of repeating the same mistakes of the previous study.
• A researcher will fill in the gap that are missing in the previous research and conduct a new research to contribute new knowledge.

(iv)               Stating or come out with a hypothesis or research question.

• Hypothesis is a statement which pre-establish the relationship between two variables and it could either be accepted or rejected; while research question is question that you want to know the answer by doing the research and as a guide for researcher to conduct their research.
• Hypothesis is specific; while research question is general as it is open ended.
• Every research needs at least one, and usually more than one research questions; while hypothesis is not necessary for every research.
• Hypothesis is not necessary when there is no pre-establish relationship between two variables, hence the researchers have no idea on what is going on.
• For example, parents use their Facebook account to monitor their children online activity will be the hypothesis of a study, while do parents use their Facebook account to monitor their children online activity will be the research question of a study.

(v)                Preparing research instruments.

• Researchers are responsible in designing own instruments for their research to collect data. Instruments are needed so that the researchers could gain the answer they need and decide whether their hypothesis could be accepted or rejected.
• To collect data, the researchers need instruments or methods such as,

(a)    Questionnaire

(b)   Interview questions

(c)    Coding sheet (Content and analysis)

(d)   Journal (Require for observation method)

(e)    Notebook (Require for observation method)

(vi)             Data collection.

• This is the part where fieldwork, interviews or coding are carried out using specific research instruments.
• Data could be collected through distributing of questionnaire, doing interviews and any other instruments.

(vii)             Data analysis and interpretation.

• The data collected could be made sense through data analysis and interpretation.
• Data analysis and interpretation may involve statistical procedures to summarize data, analyze findings and make meaningful interpretation.

(viii)           Presenting data.

• The research result must be presented in a clear and concise manner but the format could depend on the purpose of the study.
• Research result should be publish in journal or share in conferences in the area which is related to your study.
• Research result need to be published so that public could know about your study and result.

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Teh Woon Ya.

Tutorial weeks 2 and 3

FIC0154 Basic Communication Research: Tutorial Week 2,3 ( 2^nd October 2012 ).

Reference materials: Lecture notes 1 and relevant text book chapters

Question 1:

Define “scientific research” in your own words by answering the following questions: What does research mean? What does research hope to achieve? Why do we need scientific research?

(As much as possible, use your own words and description to explain your understanding.)

ANSWER:

Scientific research is a study to find new things out of a particular topic by using procedural step-by-step objective method so that the results and knowledge are valid, credit and could not be argued.

·        We do scientific research to gain new knowledge or find new things out.

·        We do scientific research so that our research is not arguable and debatable as it was done follow the scientific steps.

Question 2:

List the 4 non-scientific sources of knowledge as introduced in Lecture 1, giving 2 examples for each of these methods of knowing.

ANSWER:

(a)    Agreement reality

·        Agreement reality means the things we consider to be real because we are told to be real. Agreement reality knowledge needs to be a common fact which all of the people agreed that it was a factual.

·        Example: All of us think that a degree holder student could get more opportunity to find works or to get better jobs in the future compared to the other students.

·        Example: Sun is hot.

·        Example: Smoking is bad (may cause bad effects).

(b)   Experiential reality

·        Experiential reality means the things you know as a function of your direct experience. One will tell the others that they will experience the same things with them in a particular scenario as what he or she experienced in the past. Experiential reality knowledge comes from one’s experience only. Therefore, experiential reality knowledge can be very subjective and not always correct.        

·        Example: A boy who chased by a dog in the past tells his friends whereby they will chased by all of the dogs when they go near to dogs.

·        Example: A girl who falls from the staircase in school and hurts her knees tells her friends that they will fall and hurt their knees when walk along the staircase.

(c)    Tradition

·        Tradition knowledge needs to be inherited and passed down from one generation to another generation.

·        Example: A tea ceremony needs to be carry out during a Chinese’s wedding to show respect to the elders.

·        Example: Do not sweep the floor one day before Chinese New Year to maintain one’s wealth.

(d)   Authority

·        Authority knowledge derives from the status of the transmitter (sources) of the knowledge. Authority knowledge needs to come from a person who has special knowledge in a specific field.

·        Example: Doctor gives some medical knowledge on his own expert’s field.

·        Example: Police reminds the communities that they should not drive after drunk as it is a very dangerous action.

Question 3:

One of the foundation of social science inquiry states that social science researchers are interested in groups, aggregates or collections, but not in individuals.

What kind of groups can you think of that mass media researchers would be interested in when conducting their research?

What kind of topics do you think mass media researchers would be interested to research on with these groups?

ANSWER:

·        Group  : Housewife

Topic   : Type of television genre a housewife likes.

·        Group  : Part-time students

Topic   : Academic result of the part-time students.

·        Group  : Teenagers

Topic   : The preferred social network of a teenager.

·        Group  : Working adults

Topic   : Gadget which is needed for a working adult.

Question 4:

Define variables and their attributes.

Give four (4) possible attributes for each of the following variables:

                     i.      Racial group

·        Attributes: Chinese, Malay, Indian, Iban, Kadazan

                   ii.      Education level

·        Attributes: UPSR, PMR, SPM, STPM, Bachelor.

·        Attributes: 5 years of education, 10 years of education, 15 years of education, 20 years of education.

                  iii.      Number of magazines a teenager buy in a month

·        Attributes: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

·        Attributes: Less than 3, less than 6, less than 9, less than 12.

                 iv.      Agreement/Attitude towards violence on TV

·        Attributes: Strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, strongly disagree.

                   v.      Types of Smartphones in the market today

·        Attributes: Iphone, Samsung, Nokia, HTC

·        Attributes: Ios, Android, Symbian, Bada as

·        Attributes: Slide phone, touchscreen phone, button phone

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Teh Woon Ya

Group members

This is an academic blog created by Taylor's University's students. 
We are students from Foundation in Communication ( April 2012 intake ). 
We will update the all the tutorial answers for Basic Communication Research here. 

Group member 1: Teh Woon Ya ( 0310182 ) 
E-mail: yy_1011@live.com.my 

Group member 2: Teo Ching Mei ( 0309189 ) 
E-mail: meiig606@gmail.com 

Group member 3: Tan Hui-Xin ( 0310204 ) 
E-mail: huixin91594@hotmail.com 

Group member 4: Ong Jia Min ( 0310699 ) 
E-mail: min_yong0530@hotmail.com 

Group member 5: Tee Mieng ( 0309219 ) 
E-mail: mandy_tee_4@hotmail.com 

Group member 6: Darius Shu ( 0309847 ) 
E-mail: dariusshu05@gmail.com