Class Research Methodologies in Communication and Journalism

The course ‘Research Methodologies in Journalism and Communication Sciences’ aims to enable students to develop research projects within the field of Communication Sciences and Journalism. The course provides an understanding of the framework of these areas in the Social Sciences and Humanities and explores different methodologies and techniques of investigative journalism currently used by professionals. This course plays a central role in the training of students, enabling them to acquire the theoretical and practical tools necessary to develop rigorous and innovative research in the field of journalism and communication.  

Not applicable

Module 1  1. Social and Human Sciences and scientificity. 2. Contemporary debates on epistemology, ethics and politics in research. 3. The basis of a research project: The starting question. 4. Collection and review of bibliography and secondary data using digital tools. 5. Overview of quantitative and qualitative methods, their advantages and limitations Module 2  6. Methods and practices for collecting primary data. 7. Quantitative methods: questionnaires, introduction to analysis with SPSS, content analysis and NVivo  9: Qualitative methods: Thematic Analysis 10: Qualitative methods: Critical Discourse Analysis 11: Interviews and Focus Groups 12: Ethnography and participant observation  Module 3 13: Research methodologies applied to the study of Journalism 14: From theory to practice. Development of a research project using the methodologies covered  

Theoretical presentation and participatory debate on theoretical and practical issues. Classwork, independent work, individual work and group work. Invitation to researchers to present practical examples of research in Communication and the use of different methodologies. Participatory demonstration of the use of different types of research support software. Presentation of audiovisual resources on research methodologies.

Croucher, S. M., & Cronn-Mills, D. (2019). Understanding communication research methods: A theoretical and practical approach (2ed). Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. Davis, C. S., Lachlan, K. A., & Westerfelhaus, R. (2017). Straight talk about communication research methods. Flick, U. (Ed.). (2018). The Sage handbook of qualitative data collection. Sage Reference. Foss, S. K., & Waters, W. J. C. (2007). Destination dissertation: A traveler’s guide to a done dissertation. Rowman & Littlefield. Harding, S. (2015). Objectivity and Diversity. University of Chicago Press. Matthes, J., Davis, C. S., & Potter, R. F. (Eds.). (2017). The international encyclopedia of communication research methods. John Wiley & Sons. Schimel, J. (2012). Writing science: How to write papers that get cited and proposals that get funded. Oxford University Press. van Dijk, T. (2011). Discourse Studies: A Multidisciplinary Introduction (Second Edition). SAGE