Communication Research Projecthttp://http://school.hca.uws.edu.au/units/wp_101930/

Lecture 1: What is Research?Feb, 2015

Ray Archee r.archee@uws.edu.au

This unit is about understanding research

• We are concerned with doing research• We are concerned with planning, designing, and

critiquing others’ research• We are interested in examining methods for

doing research• We are interested in

debunking myths surrounding all kinds of research

Some definitions• Research is a scientific undertaking which, by means of logical and

systematized techniques aims to: discover new facts, or verify and test old facts analyse their sequence, interrelationships and causal explanations (found on Web)

• Research is defined as the creation of new knowledge and/or the use of existing knowledge in a new and creative way so as to generate new concepts, methodologies and understandings. This could include synthesis and analysis of previous research to the extent that it leads to new and creative outcomes (Dept Industry, Innovation, Climate Change, Science, Research and Tertiary Education, UWS website)

Definitions cont. (from UWS)This definition of research is consistent with a broad notion of research and experimental development (R&D) as comprising of creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of humanity, culture and society, and the use of this stock of knowledge to devise new applications.

This definition of research encompasses pure and strategic basic research, applied research and experimental development. Applied research is original investigation undertaken to acquire new knowledge but directed towards a specific, practical aim or objective (including a client-driven purpose).

What is missing here?Is writing a book, research? What about a newspaper article?Is devising a PR campaign? Or an advertisement? Or a video?Is playing a musical instrument, research?

Is ordinary experience, research?E.g. What is the difference between going to a party and having a good time, and a researcher who studies Australian parties?

Well, it depends…• Yes, if you are an academic and you publish an article in an academic

journal about Australian partieshttp://www.acrwebsite.org/search/view-conference-proceedings.aspx?Id=11772

• Yes, if you are a journalist writing about Aussie barbecues http://www.smh.com.au/travel/blogs/the-backpacker/worlds-best-barbecuers-not-in-australia-mate-20110830-1jj7j.html

• Yes, if you work for the government and are a part of the Federal Drugs Campaign http://www.drugs.health.gov.au/

• No, if you simply attend parties, barbecues and take drugs. (Unless you are a participant observer wanting to write a paper.)

The definition would say:• You really need to have a specified aim or question in mind in order to do

research• You need to have a particular method/s for doing your research• You probably need to write something down, or at least record your

research in some way (words, photos, video)• You need an audience that you are attempting to communicate with• You need to have some understanding of other research in the same area,

or else you risk repeating mistakes, or coming up with the same conclusions

• You need to be aware of the ethical risks involved with human beings

• You probably should be researching something worthwhile researching

We all do research in our daily lives• However some of us are better than others• Crossing a busy street is the epitome of doing action research. If you do

not do good research here, you get hit by a bus! Crossing a busy road: + Observations are compiled, speed calculations are made, vehicle

predictions, driver attitudes are assessed, self-experience relied upon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLwhOP7Jv20 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I9T3DR0w5s&spfreload=1

• Ebay research – how do you lose an ebay auction? How do you win?• YouTube research – working out how to fix anything• Google…

We are all researchers because we all perform everyday research!

Research as Socratic Method• The earliest example of a method for gaining knowledge is that attributed

to Socrates and is called the Socratic Method• The Socratic Method consists of an interlocutor (or antagonist) who poses

a thesis or question, which is then answered by Socrates with a series of other questions, which eventually throw light on the original thesis as being flawed, and thus refuted, yielding a higher order thesis.

• The Method was used to discuss concepts which had no concrete certainties, such as wisdom, piety, temperance and justice.

• Strangely, Socratic Method is widely used in law schools, in USA and AU, and still used in psychotherapy, training, mentoring, and education.

• Some people see the Platonic Dialogues as the beginnings of the scientific method. That is, we start from a position of half knowing, we posit a null hypothesis, and by disproving it, end up with the correct answer.

For example:• Role of mobile phones in motor vehicle accidents resulting in hospital

attendance: a case-crossover studyhttp://www.bmj.com/content/331/7514/428

• The null hypothesis here was that mobile phones do not cause accidents

Mobile phone studyObjectives: To explore the effect of drivers' use of mobile (cell) phones on road safety.Design: A case-crossover study. Setting: Perth, Western Australia.

Participants 456 drivers aged ≥ 17 years who owned or used mobile phones and had been involved in road crashes necessitating hospital attendance between April 2002 and July 2004.

Main outcome measure Driver's use of mobile phone at estimated time of crash and on trips at the same time of day in the week before the crash. Interviews with drivers in hospital and phone company's records of phone use.

Results Driver's use of a mobile phone up to 10 minutes before a crash was associated with a fourfold increased likelihood of crashing (odds ratio 4.1, 95% confidence interval 2.2 to 7.7, P < 0.001). Risk was raised irrespective of whether or not a hands-free device was used (hands-free: 3.8, 1.8 to 8.0, P < 0.001; hand held: 4.9, 1.6 to 15.5, P = 0.003). Increased risk was similar in men and women and in drivers aged ≥ 30 and < 30 years. A third (n = 21) of calls before crashes and on trips during the previous week were reportedly on hand held phones.

Conclusions When drivers use a mobile phone there is an increased likelihood of a crash resulting in injury. Using a hands-free phone is not any safer.

Another kind of mobile phone study

Images of Men and Women in Mobile Phone Advertisements: A Content Analysis of Advertisements for Mobile Communication Systems in Selected Popular Magazines http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-006-9071-6

ABSTRACTThe present study was designed to analyze gender stereotypes in print advertisements for mobile communication systems in German popular magazines intended for men, women, and general readership. Depictions of both women and men are addressed. A total of 288 depictions were examined using Goffman’s (Gender advertisements, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1979) framework for content analysis. Other variables studied were the setting in which men and women are depicted and the different types of magazines in which the advertisements appeared. It is shown that certain means of emphasizing stereotypes (such as Feminine Touch) are still widely used, at least in mobile phone advertising, whereas others have decreased in frequency since Goffman’s time (for example, Function Ranking).

Yet another approach (book)

Mobile Phone Cultures (Goggin, 2013)

Research as Imitation or Emulation• Research is (almost) never totally original• It usually uses other people’s work as a starting

point• Research cannot simply replicate another

person’s work, or can it?• There is a tradition of checking ground breaking

research by simply doing the same research over and over again

• You can copy other people’s methods, in fact it is recommended you do so.

Reproducibility

• The whole idea of exactly specifying your research Method, including your instruments, participants, and procedures is to ensure reproducibility

• If someone cannot reproduce your results using your exact Method, then something is wrong

• This is why many research disasters have come about

Problems with research findings• In medicine: most research findings are more likely to be false, than true

http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.0020124#s7

• In science, the “streetlight effect” has led some to believe that 2/3 of all published research in medicine is falsehttp://discovermagazine.com/2010/jul-aug/29-why-scientific-studies-often-wrong-streetlight-effect#.Uwk9EvR7h-N

• In 1995, Alan Sokal, a physicist, published an article in Social Text called Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity (link1) (link2). The paper was a hoax set out to test the editors of a prestigious post-modern journal and caused a furore at the time.

• SCIgen is a computer program created by MIT students. In 2005, a SCIgen generated article was accepted for a World IT Congress. It was called: Rooter: A Methodology for the Typical Unification of Access Points and Redundancy.

• The last two examples were not peer-reviewed by experts in their field.• Other research hoaxes are abundant and easily found online.

Healthy Skepticism• Some may think that I am saying that all research

publications are rubbish• I am not saying this – I am giving you my viewpoint of how

to read other people’s research findings, or newspaper articles, blogs, any information you come across

• Approach the research paper or online post with a healthy amount of skepticism.

• Do not believe everything a researcher is saying.• Be critical of their methods, be aware that any sample can

be biased, and any results can be changed to suit the author.

• Communication research is not a science, in fact science is not really all that scientific.

Research as Creativity• There are many genres of research papers: experiments, surveys, critical analyses,

meta-analyses, and “news”.• The one genre that is rarely spoken about is the creative paper that talks about

something new and innovative that no other academics had thought about.• It is similar to “show and tell” in a classroom.• Vitamin D research has been one such discovery:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2007-12-05/sunlight-may-save-kids-sight/978450• New human species discovered in South Africa:

http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2010/s2868149.htm• Lost Da Vinci painting discovered in a bank vault

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/10356401/Leonardo-da-Vinci-painting-lost-for-centuries-found-in-Swiss-bank-vault.html

Research reporting needs graphics• Writing about technology is a

common occurrence in this day and age

• All kinds of technology are reported in the media, journals, newspapers and online

• It has always been necessary to use graphs, diagrams, photos, and more recently, videos to explain new technologies

• This will become more and more important as cameras and video becomes easier to create

• Video is no longer the province of specialists

Thus, we have a video assessment item for the unit

Major Assignment Part 1: Some various examples of using video to demonstrate ideas and methods•How to read a Learning Guide (Sara Knox, UWS)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYJEZyzPH_0&list=UUS1ri9N3-3Oj1Xxs4VJy1Xw•How NOT to produce a video on research methods (boring)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dSCERgIpN4&list=PL66A6C45130CF728C•Student role play on racial discrimination (needs work) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iRAS6R5P_c•Video on the value of higher education (note use of text) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o

Next Week: Leximancer• The lecture next week is not

to be missed• Navin Doloswala will be

talking to us about a piece of software called Leximancer

• Leximancer is a fantastic way to analyse any kind of text, including academic papers, newspaper articles, emails

• It is useful for marketing, advertising, and communication research

• Make sure to be here next week!