RES EAR CH 01:

AN O VER VIEW
 COMMUNICATION THEORIES:
I. Communication theory  This component discusses
and research communication models
and theories from a
historical and contextual
III. Contextual models and
perspective
theories of
communication

V. Mass communication
models and theories
 THE RESEARCH PROCESS:
 Conceptualizing research  This component discusses
the various stages in the
research process, and the
 The research design
principles and tools
guiding each stage.
 Data analysis and
interpretation

 Reporting and
disseminating research
findings
 FUNDAMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS:
 Documentation of sources

 Packaging the research

 Presentation of research proposal

 BROAD AREAS
OF COMMUNICATION STUDY:
• Violence in the media
• Children and family
• Migration
• Technology and its effects or impact
• Politics and political communication
• Media rights and responsibilities
• Gender issues
• Pop culture
• COMMUNICATION is a complex behavior
that is intimately intertwined with personal
and societal development. Hence, the
expanse of communication is broad.

• ROOTS OF COMMUNICATION THEORY:

various social sciences, particularly
Psychology and Sociology
Historical Perspective in the
Development of Contemporary
Communication Theory:
BULLET THEORY
Stressed a stimulus-response paradigm
When film and radio began garnering
mass acceptance from the 1920s to the
1940s, their effects were viewed from a
macro and powerful perspective.
Shift to limited effects:
In the years after World War II, social
psychologists like Carl Hovland, Irving
Janis and Harold Kelley spearheaded
research that investigated factors
associated with attitude change and
persuasion.
This resulted to shift from powerful to
minimal media effects.
This event introduced the concept of the
audience as active information processors.
THE (RE)ASCENDANCY
OF POWERFUL EFFECTS:
Since the late 1970s however, there
has been a return to big effects
tradition.
Theorists point out that the media,
because they have become so
commonplace in modern society, are
capable of shaping individual
thinking, and by extension, social
reality.
ROLE OF RESEARCH
IN THEORY DEVELOPMENT:
The trend in communication theories
resulted from the results and findings
of previous researches.

You may contribute to existing

knowledge by conducting relevant
and timely research.
 COMPARISON OF THE TWO MAJOR
PERSPECTIVES OF COMMUNICATION THEORY
AND RESEARCH: THEORETICAL
DIFFERENCES

QUANTITATIVE: QUALITATIVE:
 Discover the truth  Create meaning
 Objectivity  Freedom
 Give universal laws  Give rules for
 Experiment & survey interpretation
 Prediction of future  Textual analysis &
 Testable hypothesis Ethnography
 Formulation of theory