CMN 2101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Human Communication, Data Analysis, Content Analysis
14 Sep 2016
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Document Summary
Communication research: social sciences vs. natural sciences. Social sciences: the study of human and social behaviour (how we interact with one another and society, what influences our decisions) Social science research tries to simplify and understand human behaviour and the social world. Natural sciences: the study of the physical world. There are concrete agreed upon laws in the natural sciences (eg. gravity) - natural laws that guide the natural sciences. Social researchers have trouble creating laws or rules to understand human behaviour. To compare our perception vs the actual reality: Trying to eliminate limited sampling (researchers generalize an entire group from only a small sample), research helps us select a sample in a specific way to reduce bias. Reduce selective attention (noticing something specific and making a generalization base on only that), perception, and retention. These selective attentions lead to generalizations (eg, seeing someone on tv and assuming all people on tv are experts)
