STEPS IN CONDUCTING RESEARCH

The following are the steps involved in conducting research:

1. Selection of the problem – Some researchers are able to choose and concentrate on a research area that is interesting to them. Others come to be identified with studies of specific types, such as those concerning children and media, violence, newspaper readership, advertising or communications law. Researchers investigate small pieces of a puzzle to obtain a broad picture of their research area. Some researchers can be identified with specific approaches to research such as focus groups or historical analysis. In the private sectors, researchers generally do not have the flexibility to select topics or questions to investigate. Instead, they conduct studies to answer questions raised by management or the area studied by the company – e.g. NGOs. Selecting a topic is a concern for many beginning researchers. Primary sources can be used.

1. Professional Journals / Academic Journals – The articles in these may provide ideas for research topics.

2. Magazines and Periodicals – These articles tend to eliminate the tedious technical jargon and are good sources for problems and hypotheses. These sources also provide interesting perspectives on complex problems in communication and many times raise interesting questions that media researchers can pursue.

3. Research summaries – Professional research organizations periodically publish summaries that provide a close look at major research areas in various fields. These summaries are useful for obtaining information about research subjects because they survey a wide variety of studies.

4. The Internet – brings the world to a researcher’s fingertips and must be considered whenever the goal is to find a topic to investigate. Search engines such as Google, Infoseek etc provide a huge number of possible research topics.

5. Everyday situations – Each day people are confronted with various types of communication via radio, television, newspapers, magazines, personal discussions, etc. These can be excellent sources of topics for researchers who take an active part in analyzing them. E.g. are billboard effective in communicating information about products? / how many commercials in a row can people watch on TV or hear on the radio before the commercials lose their effect? / Why are commercials louder than regular programming? / What is the appeal of ‘reality’ shows on TV?

6. Archive data – data archives (at University) are valuable sources of ideas for researchers. Historical data may be used to investigate questions different from those that the data were originally intended to address. For e.g. rating books provide information about audience size and composition for a particular period in time, but a researcher may use this data for historical tracking or prediction of audience in the future. This process is known as Secondary analysis. Secondary analysis provides an opportunity for researchers to evaluate otherwise unavailable data, saves time and resources.

2. Formulation of the problem – The researcher must single out the problem which he / she wants to study. The problem to be investigated must be defined clearly as this helps to differentiate relevant data from irrelevant data.

3. Survey of literature – The researcher should undertake extensive literature survey connected to the problem that has to be studied.

4. Development of a working hypotheses – Working hypotheses is a tentative assumption made in order to draw out and test the logical empirical consequences of the study. This working hypothesis should be developed as it provides a focal point for research.

5. Preparing the research design – The research design has to be prepared, i.e. the researcher has to state the conceptual structure within which the research has to be conducted. This includes the time available for research, the cost factor, availability of information, etc.

6. Determining sample design – The researcher must decide the way of selecting a sample or what is known as the sample design. Sample design is a definite plan determined before any data is actually collected.

7. Collecting the data – it is very essential to collect data that are appropriate. There are different ways of collecting data. For e.g. through observation, interviews, questionnaires, etc.

8. Execution – The researcher should see that the project is executed in a systematic manner and in time

9. Analysis of data – The data that has been collected has to be analysed with the help of various statistical means.

10. Hypothesis testing – The researcher has to test the hypothesis which he / she had formulated earlier and see if the facts support the hypothesis or are contrary to it.

11. Generalizations and interpretations – If the hypothesis is tested and upheld several times, it may be possible to arrive at generalizations, that is to build a theory.

12. Preparation of report – Finally, the researcher has to prepare the report of what has been done by him / her.