Research Methods in Communications

Catalog description

This course prepares students to conduct research in communications using both qualitative and quantitative research methods. COMMS 503 Research Methods in Communications (3) This course prepares students to conduct research in communications. It begins with an overview of the different strategies and philosophies of research methodology including scientific method, inference, skepticism, hypothetico-deductive reasoning, critical, humanistic, and naturalistic inquiry. The course focuses on four major types of communications research methodology: experimental, survey, textual analysis and naturalistic inquiry. Students are required to do significant reading and writing in this course, as well as propose and conduct a research project of their own design. This course is a fundamental element of the masters program curriculum in that it prepares students to conduct their thesis projects.