COMM 550: Quantitative Research Methods in Communication

USCAnnenberg School of Communication

COMM 550: Quantitative Research Methods in Communication

Spring2018 (4 units)

Lecture/Lab: 9:30am – 12:20pm, Thursday, ASC240

Instructor: Prof. Michael Cody

Office: ASC 326C

Phone: (213)740-3936

Email:

Office Hours: Tuesday 9 to 11am

Teaching Assistant: Nathan Walter

Office: ASC G6

Email:

Office hours: Thursday 12:30-1:30pm

Course description

The goal of this course is to provide students with the ability to understand and apply empirical reasoning to communication-related phenomena. Lectures will focus on the conceptual aspects of empirical research, such as generating hypotheses, designing measurements, sampling, gathering data, analyzing it, and explaining the results. During the labs, we will explore the essential tools of statistical analysis that will help us organize, visualize, and interpret the findings. Finally, students will also be putting the knowledge into practice, by completing an original research project in small groups.

Course objectives

When you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Have competence in reading, understanding, and critiquing communication research
• Know how to design empirical research projects
• Know how to analyze quantitative data
• Know how to produce a full research paper

Course material

• All the relevant readings (book chapters, journal articles, and lecture outlines) will be made available on Blackboard (Bb).
• IBM SPSS Statistics 18+ - required.

Recommended supplemental material

American Psychological Association (2009). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Field, A. (2013). Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS Statistics (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Ltd.

Hayes, A. F. (2005). Statistical methods for communication science. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Singleton, R. A., Jr., & Straits, B. C. (2010). Approaches to social research (5th ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Weber, R., & Fuller, R. (2013).Statistical methods for communication. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt Publishing.

Williams, F., & Monge, P. (2001). Reasoning with statistics: How to read quantitative research (5th ed.). Orlando, FL: Harcourt.

Course Requirements

1. Class Participation/Preparation

Students are expected to read the assigned material before class, maintain a responsible attendance record, and actively participate in class discussion.

1. Homework

In order to facilitate students’ understanding of course material, theywill be assigned a series of eight homework assignments.These assignments will take various forms and their description will be made available on Bb. All assignments must be turned in on time. Turning in any assignment late will result in 30% deduction for each day after the deadline. The instructor may refuse to accept late work. For all types of excuses, students will receive point deductions and should provide the instructor with formal, written documents/evidences. The instructor has the right to decide on the exact amount of total points deducted, depending on the evaluation of the legitimacy of the excuse. Students may redo assignments to optimize their learning and receive full credit within 1 week after they are returned with feedback to you.

1. Exams

There will be two (2) exams given throughout the course. The exams are NOT cumulative and they consistent of true/false, multiple-choice questions, short answer questions, analysis questions, and interpretation of SPSS output. There will be a review prior to each exam and the instructor will provide the students with learning guides. All exams are to be taken in class on the designated exam dates. In the rare event of emergency, it is the student’s responsibility to inform the instructor and to schedule a make-up exam.

1. Term Paper

This research project will reflect the culmination of the training in quantitative research methods and statistics. In small groups (usually 3-4 students), students will choose a FEASIBLE topic of interest and an accompanying research method (e.g., experiment, survey, content analysis, network analysis, etc.). Students will generate several research hypotheses, gather data, analyze it, and write-up the research findings. The final paper will be in a format of an empirical research manuscript. In order to assist in the completion of your project, three benchmarks will be imposed (theoretical background, method, and results). Benchmarks are scored based on the level of detail, accuracy, and completeness of the assignment. To help students get the most out of this course, they will work with real data, real codebooks, real questionnaires, and other relevant documents. The research paper should be submitted via Turnitin on Bb and email (for a detailed description of the submission guidelines see the Research Project folder on Bb).

1. Presentation

All students will be asked to present their research projects and accompany their presentation with 8-14 slides. Each group will receive approximately 20 minutes (12 min presentation + 8 min Q&As).

Requirements / % of Final Grade / Points / Date Due
Participation / 5% / 10 / Weekly
Homework (8) / 20% / 10x8=80 / Vary
Exam I / 15% / 100 / 6/20
Exam II / 15% / 100 / 8/1
Benchmarks (3)
Research Paper / 10%
25% / 10X3=30
100 / Vary
8/3
Class Presentation / 10% / 10 / 8/8
Total / 100%

Grading

The following scale will be sued to assign final course grades:

Grade / % / Grade / %
A / 94-100 / C / 73-76
A- / 90-93 / C- / 70-72
B+ / 87-89 / D+ / 67-69
B / 83-86 / D / 63-66
B- / 80-82 / D- / 60-62
C+ / 77-79 / F / ≤59
Date / Topic / Assignment Due
Week 1 / 1/11 / Understanding positivism
1.Singletary, M. W. (1993).Mass communication research: Contemporary methods and applications (Ch. 3). New-York, NY: Longman Publishing Group
2. Benoit, W. L., & Holbert, R. L. (2008). Empirical intersections in communication research: Replication, multiple quantitative methods, and bridging the quantitative–qualitative divide.Journal of Communication,58, 615-628.
3.Slater, M. D., & Gleason, L. S. (2012). Contributing to theory and knowledge in quantitative communication science.Communication Methods and Measures,6, 215-236.
4. Roskos-Ewoldsen, D., Aakhus, M., Hayes, A. F., Heider, D., & Levine, T. (2007). It's about time: The need for a journal devoted to communication research methodologies.Communication Methods and Measures,1, 1-5.
5. Matthes, J., Niederdeppe, J., & Shen, F. C. (2016). Reflections on the need for a journal devoted to communication research methodologies: Ten years later.Communication Methods and Measures, 10, 1-3.
Week 2 / 1/18 / Conceptualization, Variables, Types of Relationships, & Hypotheses
1.Rimal, R. N., & Lapinski, M. K. (2015). A re‐explication of social norms, ten years later.Communication Theory,25, 393-409.
2.Hayes, A. F., Glynn, C. J., & Shanahan, J. (2005). Validating the willingness to self-censor scale: Individual differences in the effect of the climate of opinion on opinion expression.International Journal of Public Opinion Research,17, 443-455.
3. Weber, R., Behr, K. M., & DeMartino, C. (2014). Measuring interactivity in video games.Communication Methods and Measures,8, 79-115.
4.Sundar, S. S., Kalyanaraman, S., & Brown, J. (2003). Explicating web site interactivity: Impression formation effects in political campaign sites.Communication Research,30, 30-59.
Week 3 / 1/25 / Levels of Measurement & Ethics (IRB Process)
1.Vermeulen, I., & Hartmann, T. (2015). Questionable research and publication practices in communication science.Communication Methods and Measures, 9, 189-192.
2. Matthes, J., Marquart, F., Naderer, B., Arendt, F., Schmuck, D., & Adam, K. (2015). Questionable research practices in experimental communication research: A systematic analysis from 1980 to 2013.Communication Methods and Measures,9, 193-207.
3. Kosinski, M., Matz, S. C., Gosling, S. D., Popov, V., & Stillwell, D. (2015). Facebook as a research tool for the social sciences: Opportunities, challenges, ethical considerations, and practical guidelines.American Psychologist,70, 543.
4.King, C. S. T., Bivens, K. M., Pumroy, E., Rauch, S., & Koerber, A. (2017). IRB Problems and Solutions in Health Communication Research.Health Communication, 1-10. / HW#1
Week 4 / 2/1 / Reliability, Validity, & Sampling
1.Thompson, S. K. (2012). Sampling (ch. 2). New Jersey, NY: Wiley2. Newton, P. E., & Shaw, S. D. (2013). Standards for talking and thinking about validity.Psychological Methods,18, 301.
3. Hefner, D., Rothmund, T., Klimmt, C., & Gollwitzer, M. (2011). Implicit measures and media effects research: Challenges and opportunities.Communication Methods and Measures,5, 181-202.
4. O'Keefe, D. J. (2007). Brief report: post hoc power, observed power, a priori power, retrospective power, prospective power, achieved power: sorting out appropriate uses of statistical power analyses.Communication Methods and Measures,1, 291-299.
5. Eveland Jr, W. P., Hutchens, M. J., & Shen, F. (2009). Exposure, attention, or “use” of news? Assessing aspects of the reliability and validity of a central concept in political communication research.Communication Methods and Measures,3, 223-244.
6. Shapiro, M. A. (2007). Introduction to Generalizability: Philosophy, Challenges, and New Frontiers.Communication Methods and Measures,1, 165-167. / BM#1
Week 5 / 2/8 / Review for Exam #1 & Group Meetings
Week 6 / 2/15 / Exam #1
Week 7 / 2/22 / Surveys (Cross Sectional & Longitudinal Designs)
1.Saris, W. E., & Gallhofer, I. N. (2014). Design, evaluation, and analysis of questionnaires for survey research (ch. 5). New Jersey, NY: Wiley
2. Shulman, H. C., & Boster, F. J. (2014). Effect of test-taking venue and response format on political knowledge tests.Communication Methods and Measures,8, 177-189.
3.Hopmann, D. N. (2012). Using the web to snowball discussants of survey respondents.Communication Methods and Measures,6, 145-162.
4. Hauser, D. J., & Schwarz, N. (2016). Attentive Turkers: MTurk participants perform better on online attention checks than do subject pool participants.Behavior Research Methods,48, 400-407. / HW#2
Week 8 / 3/1 / Experimental Designs
1.Hulbert, L. (2008). Experimental research designs (ch. 2). In G. M. Breakwell (Ed.). Doing social psychology research. New Jersey, NY: Wiley
2. Feldman, L., Stroud, N. J., Bimber, B., & Wojcieszak, M. (2013). Assessing selective exposure in experiments: The implications of different methodological choices.Communication Methods and Measures,7, 172-194.
3. Snyder, L. B., Hamilton, M. A., & Huedo-Medina, T. (2009). Does evaluation design impact communication campaign effect size? A meta-analysis.Communication Methods and Measures,3, 84-104.
4. Tukachinsky, R. (2014). Experimental manipulation of psychological involvement with media.Communication Methods and Measures,8, 1-33.
5. O'Keefe, D. J. (2003). Message properties, mediating states, and manipulation checks: Claims, evidence, and data analysis in experimental persuasive message effects research.Communication Theory,13, 251-274. / HW#3
Week 9 / 3/8 / Content Analysis
1.Neuendorf, K. A. (2002). The content analysis guidebook (ch. 2). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
2.Hayes, A. F., & Krippendorff, K. (2007). Answering the call for a standard reliability measure for coding data.Communication methods and measures,1, 77-89.
3.Lovejoy, J., Watson, B. R., Lacy, S., & Riffe, D. (2014). Assessing the reporting of reliability in published content analyses: 1985–2010.Communication Methods and Measures,8, 207-221.
4.Slater, M. D. (2016). Combining content analysis and assessment of exposure through self-report, spatial, or temporal variation in media effects research.Communication Methods and Measures,10, 173-175.
5. Lind, F., Gruber, M., & Boomgaarden, H. G. (2017). Content Analysis by the Crowd: Assessing the Usability of Crowdsourcing for Coding Latent Constructs.Communication Methods and Measures, 1-19. / HW#4
Week 10 / 3/15 / No class! Spring Recess
Week 11 / 3/22 / Introduction to SPSS, Descriptive Statistics (Measures of Central Tendency, Measures of Dispersion, & Distributions)
1. Maxwell, S. E., Lau, M. Y., & Howard, G. S. (2015). Is psychology suffering from a replication crisis? What does “failure to replicate” really mean?American Psychologist,70, 487.
2. Fiske, S. T. (2016). How to publish rigorous experiments in the 21st century.Journal of Experimental Social Psychology,66, 145-147.
3. Anderson, S. F., & Maxwell, S. E. (2016). There’s more than one way to conduct a replication study: Beyond statistical significance.Psychological methods,21, 1. / HW#5
BM#2
Week 12 / 3/29 / Working with Scales (Reliability Check & EFA)
1. Mazer, J. P. (2012). Development and validation of the student interest and engagement scales.Communication Methods and Measures,6, 99-125.
2. Morey, A. C., & Eveland Jr, W. P. (2016). Measures of Political Talk Frequency: Assessing Reliability and Meaning.Communication Methods and Measures,10, 51-68.
3. Hollenbaugh, E. E., & Ferris, A. L. (2014). Facebook self-disclosure: Examining the role of traits, social cohesion, and motives.Computers in Human Behavior,30, 50-58.
4. Ziegele, M., Breiner, T., & Quiring, O. (2014). What creates interactivity in online news discussions? An exploratory analysis of discussion factors in user comments on news items.Journal of Communication,64, 1111-1138. / HW#6
Week 13 / 4/5 / Hypothesis Testing, t-tests, ANOVA, & ANCOVA
1. Benjamin, D. J., Berger, J. O., Johannesson, M., Nosek, B. A., Wagenmakers, E. J., Berk, R., ... & Cesarini, D. (2017). Redefine statistical significance.Nature Human Behaviour, 1.
2.Lakens, D., Adolfi, F. G., Albers, C., Anvari, F., Apps, M. A., Argamon, S. E., ... & Bradford, D. E. (2017). Justify Your Alpha: A Response to “Redefine Statistical Significance”.
3. Matsunaga, M. (2007). Familywise error in multiple comparisons: Disentangling a knot through a critique of O'Keefe's arguments against Alpha Adjustment.Communication Methods and Measures,1, 243-265.
4. O'Keefe, D. J. (2007). Responses to Matsunaga: It Takes a Family-a Well-Defined Family-to Underwrite Familywise Corrections.Communication Methods and Measures,1, 267-273.
5.Weber, R. (2007). Responses to Matsunaga: To adjust or not to adjust alpha in multiple testing: That is the question. Guidelines for alpha adjustment as response to O'Keefe's and Matsunaga's critiques.Communication Methods and Measures,1, 281-289. / HW#7
Week 14 / 4/12 / Correlations (Pearson & Spearman), Simple Regression, Multiple Regression, Chi-Square Tests, & Review for Exam #2
1. Sun, S., & Fan, X. (2010). Effect size reporting practices in communication research.Communication Methods and Measures,4, 331-340.
2. Weigold, A., Weigold, I. K., & Russell, E. J. (2013). Examination of the equivalence of self-report survey-based paper-and-pencil and internet data collection methods.Psychological methods,18, 53.
3.O’Keefe, D. J. (2017). Misunderstandings of Effect Sizes in Message Effects Research.Communication Methods and Measures,11, 210-219. / HW#8
BM#3
Week 15 / 4/19 / Exam #2
Week 16 / 4/26 / Group presentations & Course Wrap-Up

Academic conduct

Plagiarism – presenting someone else’s ideas as your own, either verbatim or recast in your own words – is a serious academic offense with serious consequences. Please familiarize yourself with the discussion of plagiarism inSCampusin Part B, Section 11, “Behavior Violating University Standards” policy.usc.edu/scampus-part-b. Other forms of academic dishonesty are equally unacceptable. See additional information inSCampusand university policies on scientific misconduct,

Support systems

Student Counseling Services (SCS) – (213) 740-7711 – 24/7 on call

Free and confidential mental health treatment for students, including short-term psychotherapy, group counseling, stress fitness workshops, and crisis intervention. engemannshc.usc.edu/counseling

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline – 1 (800) 273-8255

Provides free and confidential emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention Services (RSVP) – (213) 740-4900 – 24/7 on call

Free and confidential therapy services, workshops, and training for situations related to gender-based harm. engemannshc.usc.edu/rsvp

Sexual Assault Resource Center

For more information about how to get help or help a survivor, rights, reporting options, and additional resources, visit the website: sarc.usc.edu

Office of Equity and Diversity (OED)/Title IX Compliance – (213) 740-5086

Works with faculty, staff, visitors, applicants, and students around issues of protected class. equity.usc.edu

Bias Assessment Response and Support

Incidents of bias, hate crimes and microaggressions need to be reported allowing for appropriate investigation and response. studentaffairs.usc.edu/bias-assessment-response-support

The Office of Disability Services and Programs

Provides certification for students with disabilities and helps arrange relevant accommodations. dsp.usc.edu

Student Support and Advocacy – (213) 821-4710

Assists students and families in resolving complex issues adversely affecting their success as a student EX: personal, financial, and academic. studentaffairs.usc.edu/ssa

Diversity at USC

Information on events, programs and training, the Diversity Task Force (including representatives for each school), chronology, participation, and various resources for students. diversity.usc.edu

USC Emergency Information

Provides safety and other updates, including ways in which instruction will be continued if an officially declared emergency makes travel to campus infeasible. emergency.usc.edu

USC Department of Public Safety – UPC: (213) 740-4321 – HSC: (323) 442-1000 – 24-hour emergency or to report a crime.

Provides overall safety to USC community. dps.usc.edu