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Wimmer & Dominick, Mass Media Research, 8th ed., Wadsworth, 2006
Note: a 7th edition (Hardcover, 2003) will work just fine if you have access to one--chapters are basically the same.

Other materials: Additional readings will be on reserve in the reading room and on the web. I will place copies of research articles and other methods chapters on reserve from time to time. I also will put copies of chapters from the book From Numbers to Words by Morgan, Reichert and Harrison on reserve. This book has examples of how to report research results for a variety of statistical techniques.

This class is designed to explore quantitative approaches to research methodology and to have students plan research using these approaches. Much of the class will focus on issues in quantitative analysis, such as measurement, sampling, reliability, validity, research ethics, appropriate statistics and data analysis. We'll look at such questions as, What are the strengths and weaknesses of quantitative approaches? When are these methods appropriate and when aren't they? What issues must you address in designing a quantitative study?

I would like this class to be both practical and analytical. It will involve analyzing and critiquing quantitative studies as well as developing skills in conducting such research.

A key goal of the class is to produce a research plan and a paper completed up to the point of data collection/results. In recent years, a number of students completed these projects in an advanced quantitative methods class in spring, and several led to conference presentations

Class meets twice a week. I lean much more toward discussion than lecturing, and class participation is crucial. I like to raise questions as much as, if not more than, provide answers. I'll expect you to have completed the readings by the time of the class and to be able to show your mastery of them in class discussion. Throughout the term, we will discuss and critique your research plans. Five class meetings will be SPSS workshop sessions. We will use the PC version of SPSS in the Social Science Instructional Laboratory facilities.

Required work will include short papers or article critiques due throughout the term, a longer research paper (mentioned above) and data exercises. There will be a presentation of the longer paper in the last week of class, either orally or in the form of a conference poster session.

Short (2-3 page) papers: Critiques of articles and/or answers to take-home questions. The short papers will be due about every two weeks. Each short paper will have a due date. Late papers will be accepted only in case of unavoidable circumstances, and I might require documentation of such circumstances. I've spent too much time in the media to wink at deadlines. Also, because I've spent most of my career as a copy editor, I tend to think less of papers that are full of errors in spelling, grammar or punctuation. Make sure to proofread.

In-class critiques: Students will lead a brief class discussion on an assigned research article. We will probably do this in teams.

Data exercises: One or two graded exercises based on work in the SSIL lab.

Final paper: My hope is that you will plan a final research project that you can eventually use as part of a conference paper. This paper will be a research report without the Results and Conclusion sections. In other words, it will have an Introduction, a Literature Review, a Methods section and dummy tables. To produce such a paper, you will need to be working on the idea throughout the term.  

Your overall grade will be based on the following formula:

Short papers, data exercises	40 %
Research paper	40 %
Presentation/discussion	10 %
Class participation/evaluation	10 %

My background

I consider myself both a scholar and a professional. As a professional, I spent most of my career working as a daily newspaper copy editor and copy chief. As a researcher, I examine some of the issues I observed in practice as a professional. I study newsroom technology and organizational change, primarily from sociological and management perspectives, with an underlying aim of examining and critiquing media performance and quality. Most of my published work has used quantitative analyses, including content analysis and survey methods.

Portions of the work for this class may be done in teams or groups; most will be done as individuals. I expect you to follow accepted practice on citation of the work of others. Relevant passages in the Student Conduct Code are in the Time Schedule of Classes.

Tentative schedule

Besides readings from the books, I will assign other materials — most of them journal articles. I may add or drop a few of journal articles. I will put them on reserve in the reading room, or, if they are available online, I'll provide links to Web pages.

Riffe, Aust, Lacy, "The Effectiveness of Random, Consecutive Day and Constructed Week Sampling in Newspaper Content Analysis, Journalism Quarterly, Vol. 70, No. 1, Spring '93, 133-139.

(the article we discussed 1/21 and will use in lab) Robert Entman, "Blacks in the News..."

Journalism Quarterly

Wimmer & Dominick, Chapter 12, p. 279-284 on Chi Square

Here is a link to a Random Number Generator. Morgan, Reichert and Harrison, From Numbers to Words Chapter 6 has examples of reporting Chi Square results

Morgan, Chapters 2, 8 and previously mentioned chapters may be of help.

Week 10: March 9, 11 — Presentation and discussion of papers

Assignment due Friday, March 13 -- Final project: Completed Introduction, Lit Review, Methods section and dummy charts for final project.

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