EMAC6372 - Fall 2010 Cuihua Shen 1

EMAC6372: Approaches to Emergent Media and Communication

Fall 2010

[Draft as of August 22, 2010 - Subject to Revision]

Course Information

Instructor: Cuihua (Cindy) Shen

Class location: ATEC 1.104
Time: Tuesday 7:00 - 9:45pm
E-mail: cuihua.shen@utdallas.edu
Office Location: TBD
Office Hours: By appointment
Course Website: http://elearning.utdallas.edu

All course-related information will be posted on the course website. Students may contact me
via email or in-person. Please begin your email subject heading with “EMAC6372” to ensure
my prompt attention. I try to respond to student emails within 36 hours Monday through
Friday.

Important course-related information such as announcements and reminders will be primarily

communicated to students via email. Students are required to check their UTD email at least
twice a week. Students are responsible for seeking help from the IT help desk
(assist@utdallas.edu or call the UTD Computer Helpdesk at 972-883-2911) if they have
problems accessing their UTD email accounts, and from eLearning help center if they have
problems accessing eLearning website (eLearning tutorial here:
http://www.utdallas.edu/oee/distance/resources/handouts/webct_tutorials.html).

Course Description

This course introduces the basic set of knowledge and skills required to do good research in
emerging media and communication. The concepts, strategies, methods, and skills that you
will acquire in this course should help you:
1) understand the implications and limitations of research reported by others, and
2) propose, design, conduct, analyze data from, write-up, and publish research in your
chosen area of inquiry.

Lectures will focus on the conceptual aspects, such as developing research questions, building
proper measurements, sampling, designing methods, and analyzing data. The lab sessions will
give students extensive opportunity to become familiar with the SPSS software package and
experience at conducting the various types of analyses reviewed in the class. Perhaps most
important, students will work in teams to work , putting into practice the theorizing, design,
instrumentation, and possibly, analysis skills acquired throughout the class. The written
report will be prepared in accordance with the professional criteria specified in the Publication
Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Thus, this course is designed to
provide both a broad overview of the research process and practical experience in conducting
research.
EMAC6372 - Fall 2010 Cuihua Shen 2

Course materials

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th edition), by the

American Psychological Association (2010) (APA; required).
The Practice of Social Research (11th edition), by Earl Babbie (2006) (PSR; required)
Using SPSS for Windows and Macintosh (5th edition), by Samuel. B. Green and Neil.
J. Salkind (2007) (USPSS; required)
Williams, F., & Monge, P. (2000). Reasoning with statistics: How to read
quantitative research (5th ed.). New York: Harcourt College Publishers. (RWS;
optional)

In addition, electronic copies of supplemental course materials (such as readings and

PowerPoint slides) will be posted to the course website.

Evaluation of Performance

Examination I 12%
Examination II 12%
Final examination 16%

Research project 50%

Assignments (15%)
Final presentation (10%)
Complete research proposal (25%)

Participation and attendance 10%

This course uses the following grading scheme:

A 93% or higher
A- 90%-92%
B+ 87%-89%
B 83%-86%
B- 80%-82%
C+ 77%-79%
C 73%-76%
C- 70%-72%
D+ 67%-69%
D 63%-66%
D- 60%-62%
F 59% or lower
EMAC6372 - Fall 2010 Cuihua Shen 3

Examinations

There will be 3 examinations for this course, and they generally hold the following format:
8 to 15 multiple choice questions (about 20% of the examination’s points);
5 to 8 fill in the blanks or short answer questions (about 15% of the points);
5 to 8 analysis questions (about 65% of the points).

The latter examinations may be cumulative in part. In general, no more than 20% of the later
examinations will test materials covered in prior examinations. The purpose is not to impose
excessive burdens on you during examinations; the purpose instead is to highlight the inter-
linked nature of many decisions we make in designing research methods: decisions made in
the earlier phases of the study will shape the available options in the study’s later phases.

Research Project

The research project is meant to give you the experience of conducting research in an
abbreviated and meaningful way. The end deliverable for this project is a proposal (about 10-
15 pages long, double-spaced). Your laboratory sessions will focus on getting this project
done.

The project requires both individual and group effort: for certain parts you will work on your
own; for other parts you will work in a team with one or two other people. You could also
choose to work individually. In other words, a project team may consist of one, two, or three
people.

There are significant penalties for late delivery (e.g., half of possible score). This is not
because I am vindictive, but because I want to encourage behavior that contributes to success,
namely punctual delivery of assignments.

Participation and attendance in class

For participation, come to class prepared to discuss and ask questions about the material.
Asking a question or contributing to the discussion counts as participation. Keeping silent
does not.

To earn the full score, you must participate in every session. If you participate in about half of
the sessions, you earn 50%. The instructors’ general impressions across the semester may
modify that score.

You are allowed one unexcused absence from the lecture without penalty. Thereafter, each
unexcused absence costs 1% of the total grade. Having four unexcused absences costs 4% of
the final score (i.e., a 90% drops to 86%). Absences beyond the fourth open the possibility
that you may fail the course. Arriving past five minutes to class is considered poor form, and
will incur a penalty (half that of absences).
EMAC6372 - Fall 2010 Cuihua Shen 4

Academic Integrity

The faculty expects from its students a high level of responsibility and academic honesty.
Because the value of an academic degree depends upon the absolute integrity of the work
done by the student for that degree, it is imperative that a student demonstrate a high standard
of individual honor in his or her scholastic work.

Scholastic Dishonesty, any student who commits an act of scholastic dishonesty is subject to
discipline. Scholastic dishonesty includes but is not limited to cheating, plagiarism, collusion,
the submission for credit of any work or materials that are attributable in whole or in part to
another person, taking an examination for another person, any act designed to give unfair
advantage to a student or the attempt to commit such acts.

Plagiarism, especially from the web, from portions of papers for other classes, and from any
other source is unacceptable and will be dealt with under the university’s policy on plagiarism
(see general catalog for details). This course will use the resources of turnitin.com, which
searches the web for possible plagiarism and is over 90% effective.

Withdrawal from Class

The administration of this institution has set deadlines for withdrawal of any college-level
courses. These dates and times are published in that semester's course catalog. Administration
procedures must be followed. It is the student's responsibility to handle withdrawal
requirements from any class. In other words, I cannot drop or withdraw any student. You must
do the proper paperwork to ensure that you will not receive a final grade of "F" in a course if
you choose not to attend the class once you are enrolled.

Incomplete Grade Policy

As per university policy, incomplete grades will be granted only for work unavoidably missed
at the semester’s end and only if 70% of the course work has been completed. An incomplete
grade must be resolved within eight (8) weeks from the first day of the subsequent long
semester. If the required work to complete the course and to remove the incomplete grade is
not submitted by the specified deadline, the incomplete grade is changed automatically to a
grade of F.

Disability Services

The goal of Disability Services is to provide students with disabilities equal educational
opportunities. Disability Services provides students with a documented letter to present to the
faculty members to verify that the student has a disability and needs accommodations. This
letter should be presented to the instructor in each course at the beginning of the semester and
accommodations needed should be discussed at that time. It is the student’s responsibility to
notify his or her professors of the need for accommodation. If accommodations are granted
for testing accommodations, the student should remind the instructor five days before the
exam of any testing accommodations that will be needed. Disability Services is located in
Room 1.610 in the Student Union. Office hours are Monday – Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 6:30
p.m., and Friday 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. You may reach Disability Services at (972) 883-2098.
EMAC6372 - Fall 2010 Cuihua Shen 5

Guidelines for documentation are located on the Disability Services website at

http://www.utdallas.edu/disability/documentation/index.html

Course Schedule (check eLearning site for the most updated schedule)

Week 1 Introduction and overview

Aug 24, 2010 Developing researchable questions

PSR Ch. 4, pp. 94-99 (units of analysis)

Ch. 5, pp. 121-129 (conceptualization).
RWS Ch.1 Why do quantitative research? (optional)
RWS Ch.2 Statistics and Research (optional)

Lab: No session

Week 2 Science and ways of knowing;

Aug 31, 2010 Building good measures; levels of measurement.

PSR Ch. 1, pp. 4-7 (ways of knowing), 10-19 (foundations of science,

variables), 22-23 (induction, deduction), 26-27 (ethics);
Ch. 2, pp. 31-33 (paradigms), 43-51(theory, hypotheses,
operationalization, observation);
Ch. 5, pp. 133-142 (operationalization, levels of measurement);
Ch. 6, pp. 153-156 (indices and scales), 169-172 (Thurston, Likert,
semantic differential scales).

Lab: Organize for project; Define research topics and questions;

Search for prior research.

Due: Initial description of research topic and questions (individual)

Week 3 Surveys
Sept 7, 2010 Avoiding plagiarism;
How to write an article summary
EMAC6372 - Fall 2010 Cuihua Shen 6

PSR, Ch 4, pp. 101-106 (time dimension);

Ch. 9, pp. 246-257 (guidelines for crafting questions, questionnaire
construction),
pp. 260-262 (via mail), pp. 269-272 (via telephone), pp. 272-274 (via
new technologies), pp. 275 (comparison of distribution techniques);
pp. 276-277 (strengths and weaknesses of surveys).
APA Ch.1 Writing for the behavioral and social sciences

Lab: Choose research topic and research questions as teams; Search

and review existing research
Due: Initial results of search for existing research (individual)

Week 4 Experiments
Sept 14, 2010
PSR Ch. 8, pp. 221-240 (experiments).

Lab: Continue search and review of existing research; Start building

measurements.
Due: Article summary 1 (individual)

Week 5 How to write an integrated literature review

Sept 21, 2010 Refining research questions
Review for Examination 1

APA Ch.2 Manuscript structure and content

Lab: revise research questions and hypotheses

Due: Article summaries 2 & 3 (individual)

Week 6 Examination 1
Sept 28, 2010
How to look for and use existing measurements

Lab: Look for designs and measurements you can use.

EMAC6372 - Fall 2010 Cuihua Shen 7

Due: Revised research questions and hypotheses (team);

Integrated literature review (individual) plus copies of original source
articles highlighted showing segments drawn from.

Week 7 Measurement reliability and measurement validity

Oct 5, 2010 Relationships and causation; rival hypotheses
Making valid claims and threats to validity

USPSS Lesson 38 Item analysis using reliability procedure

PSR, Ch. 5, pp. 143 (measurement reliability and validity);
Ch. 4, pp. 90-94 (criteria for causation).
RWS Ch. 3 Levels of measurement (optional)

Lab: Team meetings

Due: Initial draft of operationalizations, including manipulation of

variables (if applicable), measurements, researcher protocols, etc.
(team)

Week 8 External validity and sampling

Oct 12, 2010 Peer review of team literature view

Lab: Work on project

Due: Final draft of operationalizations, including manipulation of

variables (if applicable), measurements, researcher protocols, etc.
(team).

Week 9 Human subjects; Institutional review processes

Oct 19, 2010

APA Ch. 1 Writing for the behavioral and social sciences

The Belmont Report (http://ohsr.od.nih.gov/guidelines/belmont.html)
USPSS Unit 2 Creating and working with data files

Lab: Work on project IRB protocol

EMAC6372 - Fall 2010 Cuihua Shen 8

Week 10 Non-probability sampling

Oct 26, 2010 Operationalizations

Review for Examination 2

PSR Ch. 7, pp. 183-186 (non-probability sampling).

Lab: Set up data file

Due: IRB protocol (team)

Week 11 Examination 2
Nov 2, 2010 Descriptive statistics

PSR Ch. 14: pp. 409-415 (univariate analysis, distributions, central

tendency, dispersion, discrete vs. continuous variables).
USPSS Unit 5 Creating variables and computing descriptive statistics
RWS Ch.4 Describing distributions (optional)

Lab: Descriptive statistics

Week 12 Hypothesis testing

Nov 9, 2010 Inferential statistics: t-tests

USPSS Unit 6 t test procedures

RWS Ch.7 The t test (optional)

Lab: t-test
EMAC6372 - Fall 2010 Cuihua Shen 9

Week 13 Inferential statistics: Correlation

Nov 16, 2010

USPSS Unit 8 Correlations, regression ad discriminant analysis

procedures
USPSS Unit 10 Nonparametric procedures
RWS Ch.11 Correlation (optional)
RWS Ch.10 Nonparametric tests (optional)

Lab: Correlation and Chi-square

Week 14 Inferential statistics: Chi-square

Nov 23, 2010 Regression

Team presentations

Lab: Chi-square

Week 15 Team presentations (continued)

Nov 30, 2010
Review for Final Examination

Due: Complete research proposal and sample data file (team)

Week 16 Final Examination

Dec 7, 2010