Instructor Resource
Treadwell and Davis, Introducing Communication Research: Paths of Inquiry, 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
Lecture Notes
Chapter 1: Getting Started: Possibilities and Decisions
Learning Objectives
1-1 Identify basic assumptions behind human communication research.
Chapter Summary
This chapter introduces the ways scholars think about communication research, their main areas
of research, and the methods they use. First, the chapter describes how communication research
how human communication research inescapably involves ethical decisions.
Annotated Chapter Outline
I. Getting Started in Research
A. Communication researchers broad range of interests
1. Interpersonal.
2. Groups.
B. Potential topics for research are all around us
1. The next step after finding questions of interest is deciding how best to get an
answer to these questions.
II. Basic Assumptions Behind Communication Research
A. Observations capture/do not capture an underlying reality
Instructor Resource
Treadwell and Davis, Introducing Communication Research: Paths of Inquiry, 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
B. Theories about human behavior can/cannot be generalized
1. Researchers assume that the results of their research will apply to people who are
like the study participants but not in the study.
2. There is an assumption that people are similar in the way they behave.
C. Researchers should/should not distance themselves from their research participants
D. Research should/should not be done for a specific purpose
1. Most scholarly researchers probably began their careers with a simple curiosity
about human behavior.
E. There is/is not one best position from which to observe human behavior
1. A simple way to understand this is to consider an early telecommunications-based
model of communication.
III. Some Research Possibilities: What Can We Do with an Ad?
A. Public service advertisements (PSAs)
1. Targeted communications designed specifically to promote positive attitudes and
behaviors.
B. Does the ad work?
Instructor Resource
Treadwell and Davis, Introducing Communication Research: Paths of Inquiry, 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
1. This question focuses on the receivers of the message.
C. What can readers and viewers tell us?
1. This question also focuses on the receivers of the message but shifts the emphasis
D. What can the content tell us?
1. There are many angles from which to study media content, including rhetoric,
E. What can the creators of the ad tell us?
1. This question focuses on the source of the message rather than the recipient,
IV. Some Research Possibilities: Beyond the Ad
A. Social media
Instructor Resource
Treadwell and Davis, Introducing Communication Research: Paths of Inquiry, 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
1. Can we observe that the social media messages triggered additional numbers of
B. Interpersonal
1. We might be interested in tracking how communication changes as two people
V. A Series of Unavoidable Decisions
A. The field of study – wide or narrow?
1. Must research the available and the achievable.
B The researcher – dispassionate or involved?
1. What extent should researchers get involved with their human “subjects”?
C. The approach – objective or subjective?
1. Social scientists bring the assumption of an external “real” world that can be
D. The perspective —your questions or their answers?
1. All researchers have a basic question that frames their research
E. The sample – large or small?
Instructor Resource
Treadwell and Davis, Introducing Communication Research: Paths of Inquiry, 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
1. How many people do you need to talk to know that you have “an accurate
F. The data – quantitative or qualitative?
1. Numbers and counting are an important component of scientific methods.
G. The report – subjective or objective?
1. There are different ways of writing research.
2. Dispassionate researchers will report in a language that strives for neutrality, and