L1: scientific knowledge and empirical research

Quantitizing

Process of assigning numerical values to data conceived as not numerical

Methods used in PolCom research

• content analysis

• Survey research

• + experimental design

What is the aim of quantitative social science research?

• to understand the social world systematically

• relationships, patterns, and differences between variables

• not just description but explanation and generalization

• to minimize bias through systematic procedures

What are the means of quantitative social science research?

• observable or measurable data

• use methods such as surveys, experiments, and observational data to answer specific research questions

Why use quantitative methods?

• Describe: Summarize patterns in large amounts of data (e.g., % of people who trust news)

• Compare: Examine differences between groups (e.g., younger vs. older citizens' media use)

• Explain: Identify relationships between variables (e.g., does social media use reduce trust in journalism?)

• Test theories: Evaluate whether theoretical expectations hold true with empirical data

• Generalize: Draw conclusions from a sample to a broader population

• Predict: Use statistical models to estimate likely outcomes (e.g., election forecasting)

  • Less likely in PolCom field

How do we gain new knowledge about our world?

• We can make observations using our senses

  • We learn alot about the world through seeing, hearing, tasting, and touching

  • But our senses can be fooled and are subjective

• We can ask other people about it

  • But these people might not be in the majority

  • And even if they were in majority it might not be correct

• We can ask experts

  • But might come with personal biases

What is research?

A systematic way of acquiring new knowledge about our world

What are the different parts of research?

Research is conducted using an empirical approach, using a scientific method to study research problems

What is the goal of research?

Describe, predict and explain our world while reducing personal bias

What does it mean that research is cumulative?

it builds on previous knowledge and is constantly updated

What are the 4 standards of research?

1. Empirical

2. Systematic

3. Intersubjective

4. Cyclical and self-correcting

Research is empirical

• An empirical approach = knowledge is based on making observations of individuals or objects

  • Eg., behaviors, attitudes, communication patterns, media content, and anything else that matters to our research question

• Observations should be as close and direct as possible - to reduce biases

  • How are the observations gathered? First hand? Second hand?

Research is systematic

• Research does not just gather observations randomly, we follow a systematic approach and follow a set of rules.

• Research is always planned, for example by asking and answering the following questions:

  • What?

    • What do we want to observe? This is the Research problem and question

  • Whom?

    • Who do we want to study? Teachers in high-school? Tik-tok users? These groups are known as populations.

  • How?

    • How do we observe our population? Do we send out a survey? Interview them?

  • When?

    • Should the observations be gathered? During a day? A month? How can the period impact the findings?

  • Under what circumstances?

    • Will the observations be made in a quiet room? On the street? Can we know which circumstances?

Research is intersubjective

• Research is a collective process

  • → Knowledge is built gradually over time

• No one study can answer all questions

• In doing research we first see what others have done and then state use our own understanding to build on it.

  •  → literature reviews

    • You have to place yourself somewhere in the reserach

• Therefore we must explain what we did and why so people are both able to understand our position but also replicate our findings.

Research is cyclical and self-correcting

• Research should be open and transparent so that other people can check our work

• Peer-review process a staple of research

• What is true today might not be true
  tomorrow

  • Eg., historically scientists thought that the sun and stars rotated around the earth.
    Later scientists proved them wrong.

The research process

What are the two main types of empirical research?

• Qualitative

• Quantitative

What is qualitative research?

• fewer observations

• More in-depth

• Uses verbal/narrative data gathered through, for example, interviews with people

• Focus on describing and explaining experiences, interpretations and meaning making practices

What is quantitative research?

• uses large numbers of observations and numerical data

• Gathered through, for example, opinion surveys

• Greater efforts to generalize to a greater population

• Focus on identifying cause and effect relationships

What does qualitative and quantitative research have in common?

• both use an empirical approach

  • They both collect and analyze data in an effort to arrive at conclusions and interpretations

What is a research question?

• Normative questions

• Conceptual questions

• Empirical questions

  • Descriptive questions (what is x like)

  • Relational questions (what is the relationship between x and y)

  • Explanatory questions (what is the effect of x on y)

How can you find a research problem and question?

• curiosity and surprise

  • What do you find interesting?

  • “Starting where you stand”

• Practical stimuli for research questions

• Role of literature

• Role of theory

• Role of data

What is a good research question?

• posed as a question

• Avoid using compound questions

• Check that your research questions do not contain false presumptions

• Do not ask research questions that are tautological

  • Saying the same thing twice

Theory

• This prior knowledge is summarized in theories

• Theories help us explain social phenomena and make predictions

• Theories can cover micro-, meso- and macro-levels

Micro level theory

selective exposure → individual level of analysis

Meso level theory

Framing

Macro level theory

media systems

Mediatization → societal level of analysis

Theory leads to concepts

• Theory usually gives us central concepts which define a theory's content and attributes

• They can be more or less abstract but they provide a common language to scholars within their field.

• There might be some disagreement about the precise meaning of some concepts, it is therefore important when defining them

Concepts guide our data choice

EX. If you are looking into agenda setting, two of your main concepts would be media agenda and public agenda.

They lead you to your data choice → you would need to look at news media content dat and public opinion data

→ conduct either a content analysis or a web scraping

Summary

Research is a systematic way of acquiting news knowledge about our world.

Good research follows the following standards, It Is:

1. Empirical;

2. Systematic;

3. Intersubjective;

4. Cyclical and self-correcting

• Research problems and research questions is the starting point for research

• Then theory, gives us predictions and concepts that can help us answer these questions.