Department of Communication

Courses in English, Autumn Term 2005

Empirical Research in Communication: Interviews and Surveys, 5 study points, 3 Finnish credits
Course Code: 770057

intensive course

Dates : 12.09. – 28.09..2005
Days/Times/Locations

12.09 Mon, 10-12→U37, lecture hall (luentosali)
14.09 Wed, 8 -12→U37 seminar room 1
16.09 Fri, 8 -12→U37 seminar room 1
21.09 Wed, 8 -12→U37 seminar room 4
27.09 Tue, 10-12→U37 seminar room 1
28.09 Wed, 8 -12→U37 seminar room 4

Lecturer : Jella Hoffman, on Socrates teacher exchange from Ludwig-Maximilians Universität Munchen, Institut für Kommunikationswissenschaft und Medienforschung

! Note: This course may replace the quantitative part of the Research methods I (Study Unit 5) in the main curriculum for foreign degree students of communication.

Preregistration in Weboodi is required! The registration starts on 01.09.2005 and ends on 12.09.2005, the first day of the course. 20 students will be accepted to the course. Priority is given to communication students. Other students can join the course if there are vacant places, please come to the first session to find out if there is any room available.

Course Description:

In our every day lifes we are all constantly bombarded by surveys and survey results: newspapers tell us about politician´s public approval ratings, radio networks ask their audiences to vote for the top 10 pop songs or we discover that our favorite television show has been canceled because of low ratings. Most of these data are based on surveys and interviews of more – or often enough less - quality.

In empirical social research surveys are extensively used because answers to many important questions can only be found by asking the people you are interested in. Especially when we want to learn about values, opinions, perceptions, concerns, ideas, or attitudes survey research seems to be the best methodology. But systematic and scientifically grounded survey research requires more than merely asking people questions. Any interview or survey has to be planned carefully including survey design, sampling, training an selecting interviewers, constructing and designing questionnaires etc.

The course will give an introduction to survey research in general and will then focus on self-administered questionnaires. The following topics will be covered:

Survey Design

• types of interviews and surveys
• sampling
• interviews and surveys as social situations

Asking Questions

• question forms
• wording questions
• questionnaire design

The course will be a combination of lecturing and various exercises. Participants will be asked to contribute to course discussions and exercises and - in teams – develop and present their own survey design and questionnaire.

Literature:

Sumser, John. 2001. A Guide to Empirical Research in Communication. Sage (this book is already in main curriculum)

Weisberg, Herbert F., Krosnick, Jon A. & Bowen, Bruce D. (1996). An Introduction to Survey Research, Polling, and Data Analysis. 3rd Edition. Thousand Oaks (California): Sage.

Course presentation can be loaded here.

 Examination: Lectures 20 hours, research report

Mode of assessment: Assessment scale: 0,1,2,3,4,5