Digital Media, Culture and Communication, European Journalism, Risk Communication and Crisis Journalism

MCC 400 Communication Research Methods

Course Description

This unit covers in detail the practice of research methods in the field of communication. Students will become familiar with developing the research question(s), formulating the research questions and hypotheses of their study, selecting participants and instruments. Moreover, they will explore the various designs that are used in quantitative (e.g. experimental and quasi experimental design, correlational design, surveys) and qualitative
(e.g. interviews, focus groups) research. During these sessions students will learn how to select the appropriate research design depending on the area they wish to study and the analysis that is required for each set of data (quantitative or qualitative). A great emphasis is also given to the ethical issues in research methods.

Course Objectives

Understand the issues involved in the design of research in the field of communication
Understand the strengths and weaknesses of each research methodology
Formulate a clear research question and be able to write a research proposal
Select the appropriate research technique to answer specific research questions in the field of communication
Communicate and disseminate the research output

Learning outcomes

After successful completion of the course students will be able:

To perform effective literature search
Το adopt a critical approach to existing scientific knowledge
To set the appropriate goal and research questions
To justify their methodological choices
Το apply a variety of research designs
To design a realistic research proposal

Class and learning activities

Lectures, workshops, group work, in-class presentations, literature study, written assignments

Workload

Type of work	Description	Hours
Lectures	Thirteen 3-hours lectures	39
Independent study	Study of compulsory and optional literature	30-40
Article Presentation	Locate and present an article during class	25-30
Labs	Develop, submit and present the materials required for each of the three labs	50-60
Research Proposal	3.000 words written assignment	90-100
	Total workload	239-269

Assessment

Type of assessment	Learning outcome	Impact on final grade	Date of assessment
Participation in-class discussion	2-5	10%	Regularly
Lab Presentations	1-4	20%	5th, 9th, 13th week
Article Presentations	1-2	10%	Regularly
Research proposal	5-6	60%	15th week

Bibliography – required reading

Wimmer, R. D., & Dominic, J. R. (2013). Mass media research: An introduction (10 th ed). Boston, MA: Wadsworth Publishing

Additional Recommended Reading

Babbie, E. (2013). The basics of social research (6th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.
Baxter, L., & Babbie, E. (2004). The basics of communication research. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning
Berger, A. (2019). Media and communication research methods: An introduction to qualitative and quantitative approaches (5 th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2017). Qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approach (5th ed.). Thousand Oak: CA, Sage.
Creswell, J. W., & Poth, C. N. (2016). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches (4rth ed.). Thousand Oak: CA, Sage
Lindlof, T. R., & Taylor, B. C. (2017). Qualitative communication research methods (4rth ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Merrigan, G., & Huston, C. L. (2019). Communication research methods (4rth ed.). Oxford University.
Mertens, D. M. (2015). Research and evaluation in education and psychology: Integrating diversity with quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods (4rth ed.). Thousand Oak: CA, Sage.
Silverman, D. (2018). Doing qualitative research (4rth ed.). London: Sage.