COMM 2500 Exam 3

Basic steps in conducting content analysis

- Develop a hypothesis or research question about communication content - Define content to be analyzed - Sample the content - Select units for coding - Develop a coding scheme - Assign each occurrence off a unit the sample to a code in the coding scheme - Count occurrences of the coded unit - Report results, patterns of data, and inferences from data

Strategies for interviewing

- Funnel approach: starting broad and going narrow - Reflecting comments back to the participant rather than offering opinions

How focus groups are used

- Gets the opinion of 6-12 people at one time during a discussion lead by a facilitator - Can be used to discuss pragmatic issues and gauge how people respond and perceive it - Often used before surveys to pretest survey questions - Can help campaign managers find week points in campaign and market strategy

Challenges that interviewers have with focus groups

- Getting people to stay on topic - Managing a dominant participant - Avoiding group think

Difference between logos, pathos, ethos as persuasive techniques

Logo: fact an logic argument Pathos: emotional argument Ethos: characters nature in the argument and rationality

Value of historical research for various applications

Gaining perspective of soft-drink industry to understand the competitive landscape today, examining ads of an earlier time period to understand cultural norms, etc

Characteristics of a good and bad lit review

Good: assesses The Who, what, when, where, and why of a scholarly article and assess the methods and process of collection of the data Bad: summary of the literature and doesn't relate to your own research and question

Constant comparison method of analyzing qualitative data

Should always be comparing the qualitative and quantitative gathered, seeing I correlation exists and why

The best balance between how much the researcher says versus the participant

not as much

Advantages/disadvantages of a focus group

- (adv). Can be generalized to gauge the opinions of a target audience by providing multiple attitudes at once - (disadv.) Discussion can be overtaken by on outspoken member, group think can emerge

The role of "meaning" as a central concept

- Meaning arises out of social interaction - Meaning changes over time and place - Meaning is both individual and shared - The same act means different things to different people - Despite individual differences, patterns of behavior exist

The qualitative methods

- Participant observation (ethnography) - In-depth interviews - Focus groups - Text analysis

Strengths and limitations of each qualitative method

- Participant observation: - In-depth interviews: - Focus groups: - Text analysis:

Differences between qualitative and quantitative research

- Quantitative: number based research - Qualitative: Observation based research

Applications of content analysis

- Representation in the media, IG posts, etc.

The role of a moderator in a focus group

- Take a middle ground position on topic being discussed - Keep discussion on task and maintain order - Share prompts and questions to promote effective discussion - Make sure there is equal participation

Types of probes/prompts

- Think about a time... - Tell me about when...

Advantages/disadvantages of content analysis

Advantages: - Unobtrusive approach (human participants not involved), emphasis on systematic sampling, can be 100% reliable if done with computers Disadvantages: - Can be seen as unreliable because material issues so subjective, addresses only questions of content, only has application or comparisons, validity

Text analysis of Ads using surface, advertiser intent, ideology

Analyzing advertisements by deciphering the purpose, the message, strategy and deconstructing the image by considering the intent

Origins of rhetorical analysis and its purposes

Aristotle came up with the idea of rhetorical analysis to examine communication content and to identify persuasive strategies within it.

Why qualitative research prefers the natural setting

Because people tend to shift their behaviors to what they perceive as favorable if they know someone is observing them

Understand how "content analysis" different from qualitative approaches to analyzing content

Content analysis looks to understand why literature or media was constructed in a specific way rather than what people think of it through analysis of coding

The role of the researcher compared to that of journalist, friend, therapist, etc.

Interviewer is simply looking for how people perceive something r

Importance of finding relevant and quality information

Relevance: immediately useful Quality: credible information Must find a balance between the two in sources to be most efficient

Differences between scholarly, popular, and trade sources

Scholarly sources: go through peer review before publication Trade sources: more topical than academic and are not peer reviewed Popular sources: give a summary of topic and other authors works

Differences between search engines and databases and their advantages/disadvantages

Search engines: (adv.) ease of use, ease of access, simple interface, good idea of what's out there (disadv.) too many results, not narrow enough Databases: (adv.) place to find scholarly research, sophisticated interface, multiple to choose from (disadv.) can bring up quality into that's not relevant

Range of applications

Speeches, ads, music videos, any content that has meaning and a message

Why generalization is not a goal of qualitative research

The goal of qualitative research is to understand phenomena as seen through the eyes are research participants , not necessarily to generalize these findings as quantitative research does

Understand the benefits and limitations of rhetorical and qualitative analysis of content

There are always multiple ways o viewing and interpreting literature and this can lead to it being discredited

Boolean operators (or, not, and)

Tools to use to narrow down search results in a database Ex: communication AND pathways

Ethical concerns with observations: Do participants have an expectation of privacy in public settings

Yes, it is expected that what is said in an interview o forum group is not linked back to them and is only used or research

How the role of the researcher differs between those forms of analysis

research questions are more of a guide line to content analysis

Primary v. secondary sources

yours vs. not yours