CMN 3102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Null Hypothesis, Likert Scale, Discrete Category

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Communication
• Course: CMN 3102
• Professor: Elizabeth Dubois

Document Summary

Do the readings listed on the slides. Problem is that the news looks real but contains no usable content. Discussion of how to tell fake news forbes article reading about using multiple scientific method steps such as creating a hypothesis. Easier to hypothesize that something is true (innocent until proven guilty) because it is easier to prove something is real and then show all the reasons that it is not real. Therefore can build a body of evidence that will suggest it is false. ^harder to say the person is not a murderer unless you have seen all the evidence that they are. Tests to prove fake news includes looking at url, headlines. In academic study, tests would be more formal, operationalized, and specific. Role of theory is to give context and meaning to our observations. E. g. observe that auto-completes in google are very politically left oriented -> theory helps come up with stronger questions that helps make hypothesis testable.