COMM 260 - Empirical Methods

Taught by: Peter Christenson

Content: Methods of communication research grounded in data collection for the purposes of prediction and explanation (quantitative methods) or description and interpretation (qualitative methods). Course spans philosophy of inquiry; relationship of theory to data in developing questions and hypotheses; logic of sampling, measurement, and statistical inference in quantitative methods; strengths and weaknesses of experimental, survey, interview, and observational research, criteria for evaluating quantitative and qualitative work; ethics of social science research.

Prerequisite: Communication 100 or consent of instructor.

Semester credits: 4