BENUE STATE UNIVERSITY
Department of Mass Communication
COM 201: Introduction to Mass
Communication Research
Course
Instructors: Dr. Vitalis Torwel and Dr. Daniel Chile
Course Description
This
course is designed to introduce students to the rudiments of sourcing for
topics and conducting mass communication research. As an introductory course,
it will focus on the initial process involved in planning and conducting mass
communication research. It will also examine, briefly, some quantitative and
qualitative methods for conducting communication research.
Course Objectives
At
the completion of this course, the students is expected to:
- Understand
the basic steps in mass communication research process
- Understand
the differences between primary and secondary data
Grading
Group
Assignment (20%):
Each group is expected to identify three research communication topics and
develop a research proposal with one of the topics. The research proposal must
cover all the different components of a proposal as outlined in the course.
Test (20%): There will be one test during
the semester. Test date will be announced in class
Examination (60%): Examination will take place
at the end of the semester.
Course Content
1. Process
of Academic Writing (Dr. Torwel)
·
Pre-Wwriting
·
Writing
·
Post-writing
2. Introduction
to Research (Dr. Chile)
ü What is research?
ü What is scientific research?
ü What is the nature of social science research?
3. Research
Objectives (Dr. Chile)
ü Why do we engage in research?
ü Exploratory
ü Descriptive
ü Explanatory
4. Mass
Communication Research (Dr. Torwel)
·
The nature of mass communication
research
·
Components of mass communication
research
·
Sources of communication research
topics
·
Mass media, academic journals,
books, the internet.
5. Planning
and Designing Mass Communication Research Projects (Dr. Chile)
ü Preliminary literature review
ü Deciding on a topic for research
ü Delimiting a topic
ü Determining the feasibility of the study
ü Defining the
communication research problem
ü Incorporating theories and methods in the research plan.
6. Conducting
Mass Communication Research (Dr. Chile)
ü Writing the research proposal
ü Components of the research proposal
ü Three focal areas of ,mass communication research and levels
of analysis
7. Introduction
to Quantitative Methods of Data Gathering (Dr. Chile)
ü Sampling
ü Survey
ü Questionnaire construction
8. Introduction
of Qualitative Methods of Data Gathering (Dr. Torwel)
·
Nature of qualitative research
·
Difference with qualitative research
·
Research reviews
9. Review
and referencing (Dr. Torwel)
·
English Usage: voice, grammar and
tenses
·
In-text citation
·
Referencing
·
The American psychological
association (APA) referencing style.
10. Course Review.
0 Comments
Feel free to say your view, this site is a free market place of ideas.