BCR Tutorial Week 5 (Lecture Notes 4)

BCR Tutorial Week 5
FIC0154 Basic Comm Research
Reference materials: Lecture notes 4 and relevant text book chapters
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Question 1
Scientific research must be internally and externally valid. What do Internal Validity and External Validity mean?


Answers
Internal Validity
-  Only investigate the topic that we set out to investigate, and not something else accidentally: results have to match the topic
Eg. Teenagers nowadays and their favourite pop stars: if question was asked after the death of that pop star, then the results are not accurate
-  Ask questions that are not swaying the actual answers
Eg. Research on the rate of accidents: conduct during the rainy season - affects the results
-  results shouldn't be biased
-  researchers need to be aware of the several factors that could cause the results to change



External Validity
-  can be generalized into a bigger population beyond current analysis
Eg. investigate some of the Malaysians: can also apply to the rest of the Malaysians
-  research can be applied by others
-  when conducting on a small group of people, we must ensure that the research can be applied to the society
Eg. Malaysians like nasi lemak or chicken rice? - conduct on 100 people (not all Malaysians) and then generalize: 40% of Malaysians like chicken rice and 60% like nasi lemak
-  to have good generalization:
   (a) sample must be random
   (b) a mixed group of samples
   (c) a representative for each group: to specify which group



Question 2
what do researchers need to take into account when ensuring that their research results are externally and internally valid?

Answers
(a)  history
       - events that can cause us to have internal validity

        Eg. the death of Michael Jackson: results of research that was done before his death will be different from the one after his death

(b)  maturation

      -  the biological deterioration (hunger, tiredness, sleepiness, etc) of the people you investigate on

         Eg. typing speed: condition 1 - during daytime,  condition 2 - during the night time after work

         typing speed of respondent may be faster during daytime compared to those after work due to tiredness

(c)  testing

      -  to see whether the procedure is done well and the instrument is complete

      -  to make sure results are not predicted or any procedures are skip that will affect the actual results

      -  researchers should do their experiment on different groups of people

(d)  instrumentation

      -  also known as instrumentation decay

      -  the deterioration of instruments or methods

     Eg. the recorder broke down: researchers are unable to listen to the response of the respondents

          Eg. the person interviewing the respondents got tired

(e)  experimental mortality

      -  subjects might drop out in the middle of the research: refuse to continue

      -  we cannot force someone to be in our research

         Eg. 100 subjects: 60 drop out - results will be affected 

      -  to avoid: get more subjects than needed

         Eg. 100 subjects are needed but you get 120 subjects - in case any of them drop out in the middle of research

      -  getting subjects in the middle of research can also affect the results

         

       Posted by: Foong Kah Mei (Clara) 0310003

               

       

         

BCR Tutorial Week 4 (Lecture Notes 2 & 3)

FIC 0154 Basic Comm Research

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

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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).

Answers: 

Differences:

1. Basic or Applied 

    - Academic: 

       -> Known as "Basic" research

       -> Has a theoretical or scholarly approach 

       -> The results will help to explain trend and society

       -> the mass media effects the individual

    - Private: 

       -> Known as "Applied" research

       -> Results are for decisions making

2. Researchers

    - Academic: 

      -> Carried out by academic researchers like us, students...

    - Private: 

      -> Carried out by private company/ non-government company.

3. Data and The Sharing

   - Academic: 

     -> Asks the original researcher for raw data.

     -> Others share the findings to the public.

   - Private: 

      -> They do not share their findings. Why? -> For property.

      -> Results meant to be kept for themselves

      -> Secret research (Do not let their competitors know)

4. Purpose of Research

    - Academic: 

      -> For the sake of knowing, understanding, getting knowledge and explain to the society.

    - Private: 

      -> Decision making

      -> Consumer preferences

      -> Can change or upgrade during the research

      -> Eg. Brand too low, so change to improve

5. Amount of Time

    - Academic: 

      -> No specific time or dateline for the research

      -> Research is more flexible which can take longer

      -> Research takes part of one's career.

      -> Eg. PHD (At least 3 years research...)

     - Private: 

        -> Have specific time and dateline for the research

        -> Meaning: is a job.

        -> Need a date (Whether to launch the product or not)

        -> Eg. Coca Cola (given research on flavor. Research have to be done in time)

6. Expenses

    - Academic: 

      -> Less expensive

      -> Facilities area available; no need to hire workers; the support is there.

     - Private: 

       -> More expensive

       -> Need to hire workers to do work, so need to use money; need money for facilities

       -> Backing is a need.

7. Topic Choosing

    - Academic: 

      -> Can choose our own topic

    - Private: 

       -> cannot choose topic. (Don't have the flexibility to choose topic.)

Similarities:

1. Both use same methodology in their research

2. Find something that is new; for the sake of understanding

3. Private can do trending things too; academic researchers can do private research too.

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Question 2

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

Answers: 

1. Selecting and Defining Research Problem

    - To find things that we want to do; do research that others haven't do; do something new.

    - Problem -> Situation, interest, new, something that is worth-investigating

    - Private Sector: 

       -> Market research (For private company, Eg. Coca Cola)
       -> They don't have the flexibility to choose topic.
       -> Eg. Coca Cola (Given a research on a flavor, the workers cannot choose not to do.)

    - Academic: 

       -> Can choose their own topic, because they are academic researchers.

    - To find topics, we can go read trend and the media (Eg. TV effects, impacts...)

2. Determining Topic Relevance and Significance

    - Topic too broad?

       -> Eg. Effects of TV (Programme? Type? Negative or positive effects? Who is your subject? Timing?...)

    - Can the problem be investigated?

       -> Eg. Research on teenager without TV (How do you find a family without TV?)
       -> Eg. Investigate about criminals? (Jail? Definitely no! Because we cannot go into jail.)
       -> Don't have enough money, time and resources.

    - Can the data be analyzed?

       -> Eg. Can we do statistics from the data we got? Have enough money to do analysis?

       -> If no? The conclusion -> End up giving up and wasting time and money.

    - Is the problem significant?

       -> We don't do research that is no use.
       -> See whether the research is relevant or not. If not, no need to put so much effort.
       -> Do research that have value and meaning to the society.

    - Can the results be generalized?

       -> Can your results of your research apply on other people?

       -> The people that we choose should be the representatives.

    - Cost and time

    - Planned approach appropriate
       -> to do correctly without any mistakes and troubles.

    - Will it harm anybody?

       -> Either emotional, physical or mental?

3. Review of Literature

    - Reading (As many as we can that is available)

    - Literature
       -> What other researchers have done before your research on your topic or area that are similar to your research

       -> To see what method other researchers used in their research

    - Recap (key things that happened)

       -> What others conclude (results)
       -> What other people have done 

     - Not to repeat, but to give new knowledge.

     - To learn from the previous one.
     - To see what have been done.

     - There's a gap for us to fill in. (New knowledge.)

4. Stating a Hypothesis or Research Question

    - Hypothesis

       -> Statement - Approve or Reject
       -> Specific - Accept or Reject

    - Research Question

       -> What you want to investigate

       -> Open-ended question (Guide your research)

       -> Must be general
       -> Possible to have both hypothesis and research question in a research. However, sometimes only have either one because you don't have the results, so you have no statement or hypothesis.)

5. Preparing Research Instruments

    - Tools/ Instruments
       -> Researchers are to prepare and design them
       -> To collect data

6. Data Collection

    - Eg. Interview (Jot down notes), Survey (Collect the survey), Questionnaire and so on.

7. Data Analysis and Interpretation

    - Interpret the data then give conclusion that are meaningful

    - Eg. Give numbers to the data (10%, 20%, 30%...)
    - Eg. Give gender (Boy or girl)
    - To form in into graphs or chart.

8. Presenting Results

    - Publish first in journal, paper or theses (from step 1 to 7) and share through conferences

    - The one we published will become others' literature review.

Posted by Tan Tze Mun [Rachel] (0308950)

BCR Tutorial Week 2 (Lecture Notes 1)

FIC 0154 Basic Communication Research: Tutorial Week 2
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.)

Answers: 

Research is about finding something new out in an objective manner and to discover the “truth”. Research is also a detailed study of a subject, especially in order to discover new information or reach a new understanding. Besides, research allows us to validate theories through the collection and analysis of data. 

Scientific research is an application that using a scientific manner and is dealing with facts. Scientific research is also a process of finding something that is new in a specifically procedural/ step by step/ replicable manner/ logical or objective way. 

The reason of having scientific research is because it allows us to know that something is real and is proven, even though we did not experience it by ourselves. The new things or information we collected in the end of a scientific research also will be more concrete and thus, it is more reliable and the public will accept and believe the information more easily.

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.

Answers: 

1. Agreement reality
   -- Common knowledge
   -- Beliefs that are shared by a group of people by consensus.
   -- Sometimes the info is correct, and sometimes they are not.
   -- The things you consider to be real because you are told that they are real.
   -- Eg. Smoking is bad.
   -- Eg. In the society today, we need a degree to get a job.
   -- Eg. Malaysia is a hot country.
   
   
2. Experiential reality
   --  the things that you learn by your direct and personal experiences.
   --  You assume it because you have the experience about that.
   --  Eg. If you stand long time under the sun, you will get headache.
   --  Eg. If you fall down on the stairs, you will hurt your knees.
   --  Eg. Do not study at the last minute or not you will fail the exam.
   --  Eg. Do not eat too much or not you will get fat.
   
   
3. Tradition
   --  ritual or belief passed down within a society or from generation to the other while still maintained in the present with origins in the past
   --  Cultural based
   --  Eg. Do not sweep floor during New Year Festival because fear that good fortune will be swept away.
   --  Eg. To protect your unborn baby from evil spirits, pregnant women are advised to place a knife under their bed.
   --  Eg. It is best to wear red coming into the New Year, as it is considered to be the colour that brings the most luck.
   --  Eg. Grandmother secret recipe.
4. Authority
   --  someone who have special knowledge that other people do not have
   --  Get the information from others but the sources must be reliable.
   --   Expert from the certain field (Doctor, Lecturer, Parents, Police...)
   --  Eg. If you got fever, doctor will advise you to eat Panadol.
   --  Eg. Parents asked to come back home before 11 pm in the night.--  Eg. Dentist advises that not to eat too much of sugar because it will lead to tooth decay.

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?

Answers: 

Young adults, teenagers, children, male group, female group, people who love online shopping, people who own a Facebook Account, different racial groups, people who own a degree, etc.

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

Answers: 

1. To  investigate what is the reason of young adults addicted to video games
2. To investigate the reason why people love online shopping
3. To investigate why Facebook addicts are more likely to be women
4. To investigate how advertising affects the buying behaviour of teenagers
5. To investigate the effects of exposure to pornography on male aggressive behavioural tendencies
6. To investigate what type of music genre do teenagers like
7. To investigate why teenagers love texting rather than talking on the phone

Question 4:

Define variables and their attributes.

Answers: 

1. Variables

     --  a logical set of attributes

     --  Any observation that can take different values

2. Attributes

     --  a characteristic of an object, person or thing

     --  Sub-values of a variable

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

Answers: 

i. Racial group 

   --  Chinese, Malay, Indian, Australian

ii. Education level 

    --  Primary, Secondary, Diploma, Degree

    --  5 years, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years…

iii. Number of magazines a teenagers buy in a month
     --  0, 1, 2, 3… 

     --  0-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-11…

iv. Agreement/ Attitude towards violence on TV
     --  Strongly agree, Agree, Disagree, Strongly disagree

v. Types of Smartphones in the market today

    --  Touchscreen, Non-touch screen, Voice-over, Phone with stylus

    --  Android, IPhone, BlackBerry, HTC…

    --  > RM 500, RM 500 to RM 1000, RM 1000 to RM 1500, < 1500

    --  Very big size, Big size, Medium, Small

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