3. WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?
• Name
• Two Adjectives
• Favorite Film
• Comfort Food
• Preferred Musical Genre
• Favorite Washington Landmark
4. REASONS FOR GOING TO GRAD SCHOOL
1. I desperately want to learn more 9. Grad school is tuition free.
about Communication. 10. I’m seeking international
2. I will increase my earning power by recognition and academic research
going to graduate school. will get me there.
3. I hated my old job and wanted a real 11. I want to become a very skilled
change. writer and scholar.
4. I’m seeking greater recognition, fame, 12. I had no idea what to do and grad
and fortune in my chosen field. school seemed like a good option.
5. I’ve always wanted to teach, and 13. An M.A. is the new B.A.
graduate school pays me to do that.
14. I like to meet new people and the
6. I don’t want to be stuck behind a desk folks at UM seemed nice.
and I like flexibility and freedom.
15. Everyone in my family has an
7. I want to contribute to the body of advanced degree—it’s an
knowledge in my chosen field. expectation.
8. I want to work with a particular
16. I really like school and see myself as
faculty member and help with their a life-long student.
research.
7. …a professor should have to
restrain students from
speaking out passionately
about the subjects under
discussion….as a graduate
student, you have chosen to
enter an elite profession, the
implication being that you
have something valuable to
contribute to it. It is
incumbent upon
you, therefore, to show your
actual ability to contribute
something, however difficult
it may be for you at the
beginning of your career.‖
8. COMMUNICATION RESEARCH?
What is research? What does it mean to engage in research?
What is Communication research? How does it differ from
other kinds of research? How it is similar?
What kinds of research have you engaged in thus far?
What knowledge did that research generate? What
questions did you answer?
What questions won’t you be able to answer after 5+ years
of graduate school?
9.
10. PROFESSIONALIZATION & RESEARCH
Professionalization:
Learning the systems, the processes, the dynamics of a professional
institution.
Putting into practice the knowledge of a profession and the dictates of
professional systems.
Acquiring the skills and background to adjust, adapt, and achieve.
Research:
A critical aspect of professionalization in higher education.
The conduct of inquiry with the goal of generating knowledge, provoking
arguments, and offering illuminating insights.
Often bound by disciplines, methods, domains of inquiry, subjects, and
audiences.
11. How do you select an
advisor?
What factors are
important in this
process?
Who do you listen to?
What should the
advising
relationship look
12. THE ADVISING RELATIONSHIP
Advice & mentoring
Professional advancement
Reputation and professional
standing
Research trajectory
Friendship, support
13. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ADVISING RELATIONSHIP
Agreement about Different
communication advising models
Agreement about Replication model
advising model Apprenticeship
model
Co-creation model
14. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ADVISING RELATIONSHIP
Expectations for a
dissertation
Maintaining the
relationship:
Behaving professionally
Framing issues
collaboratively
Backing up the advisor
Appreciating the
advisor
15. QUESTIONS TO ASK
Does the professor have the time to take you on as a doctoral student?
Does the professor have the interest to take you on as a doctoral student?
Is the demeanor/personality appealing and comfortable for your academic style and needs?
Have former graduate students of the professor had good experiences and completed their
programs in a timely fashion?
Does the professor anticipate being at the university during the entire period of your planned
program?
Does the professor exhibit the ability to communicate openly, clearly, and effectively from your
perspective?
Does the professor have personal research papers, articles, books, etc. that you might review to
gain additional insight into his/her research area?
Does the professor have a history of giving proper attention to proteges who work under his/her
guidance?
Among the faculty, university, and broader communities, is this professor known and respected for
his/her research, writing, and publications?
Adapted from H.G. Adams (1992), Mentoring: An Essential Factor in the Doctoral Process for Minority
Students, National Center for Graduate Education for Minorities.
17. ACADEMIC TYPES
The High Priests & Priestesses
Deadwood
The Black Sheep
The Careerists
Service Slaves
The Curmudgeons
The Young Turks
The Hall-Talkers
Theory Boy/Girl
Life-Long Learners
19. MILLER ON COMMUNICATION
Communication is part of the behavioral sciences
Communication is interdisciplinary
Communication borrows method and content from other
domains
Communication’s primary responsibility is the study of
specific types of behavior
Communication’s behavior is the situation when a source
transmits a message to a receiver(s) with conscious
intent to affect the latter’s behaviors.
20. GERBNER ON COMMUNICATION
Communication lays out the explicit or implicit preoccupation
with the tactics of power, persuasion, and manipulation.
Communication is not about producing desired
results/outcomes.
Communication is not only about producing effects or changes.
Communication IS social interaction through symbols and
message systems. The production and perception of message
systems cultivating stable structures of generalized images is
at the heart of the communications transaction.
21. NILSEN ON COMMUNICATION
Category I Definition: stimulus-response situations in which one
deliberately transmits stimuli to evoke response.
Category II Definition: stimulus-response situations in which there need not
be any intention of evoking response in the transmission of the stimuli.
22.
23. • Ph.D., Mass Media &
Cultural Studies,
University of
Manchester, UK, 2000.
• At UM since 2007.
• Co-author of Islam dot
com: Contemporary
Islamic Discourses in
Cyberspace (Palgrave-
Macmillan, 2009).
24. • Ph.D., Purdue
University, 2006.
• At UM since 2005.
• Recipient of numerous
research
awards, including the
Outstanding Scholarly
Article Award from ICA’s
Intercultural
Communication
Division.
27. COURSEWORK, KNOWLEDGE, & SKILLS
The coursework you pursue and the plan of study
you design should accomplish several
objectives:
1. It should challenge you and provoke your
interest and enthusiasm. Take courses that ask a
lot of you, that require research, that are outside
of your comfort zone.
2. It should allow you to begin to formulate and
develop your dissertation.
3. It should make clear to you all that you don’t
know.
4. It should enhance your preprofessionalization
process.
5. It should fulfill the requirements necessary to
complete the degree.
28. THE (HI)STORIES WE TELL
• Three types of • The 3 COMM
stories: stories:
• the people • Speech story
• the ideas • Journalism story
• the process • Communication
story
31. DELIA’S STORY
Communication research in America:
Largely concerned with the study of mass
communication/media
Role of public communication media in
social/political life
Communication research is shaped by the rise
of the social sciences
Delia brings to the fore the question of method in
the (hi)story of Communication research.
32. GRUNIG’S STORY
Public relations research/scholarship is a biographical story
Scott Cutlip
James Grunig
Defining characteristics:
Public relations and relationships
Interdependence
Management function of public relations
Roles and models of public relations
33. PIETILÄ’S STORY
Mass Communication (Media Studies) has progressed through different
phases:
Mass Communication Research
New Leftist Media Studies
Cultural Criticism
34. TYPES/SCHOOLS OF COMMUNICATION RESEARCH
G E N E R A L C AT E G O R I E S UM RESEARCH AREAS
• Rhetorical = practical art of • Feminist Studies
discourse
• Semiotic = intersubjective • Health Communication
mediation by signs
• Phenomenological = experience • Intercultural
of otherness Communication
• Cybernetic = information
processing • Media Studies
• Sociopsychological = viewed • Persuasion & Social
expression, interaction, and
influence Influence
• Sociocultural = production of • Public Relations
social order
• Critical = discursive • Rhetoric & Political Culture
reflection/power
35. • Ph.D., University of
North Carolina, 2006.
• At UM since 2009.
• Lead investigator on
―Terrorist
Countermeasures‖
project with DHS
National Consortium
for the Study of
Terrorism and
Responses to
Terrorism ($1.3
million).
36.
37. • Ph.D., University of
Wisconsin, 1975.
• At UM since 1981.
• Chair of the
Department, 1997-
2007; Co-author of
The Measurement of
Communication
Processes: Galileo
Theory and Method
(Academic
Press, 1980)
38. • Ph.D., University
of
Wisconsin, 1973.
• At UM since 1986.
• Co-author of
Making Sense of
Political Ideology:
The Power of
Language in
Democracy
(Rowman &
Littlefield, 2006)
39.
40. • Ph.D., Purdue
University, 1968.
• At UM since
1968.
• Author/Editor of
nine
books, including
Listening and
Listenable
Briefings.
42. BASIC COMPONENTS OF A CV
• Name and • Publications
Affiliation • Conference
• Educational Presentations
Background • Award &
• Dissertation/Re Honors
search • Service
Information
• Memberships
• Work
Experience • Language/Skills
• References
49. WHAT IS RESEARCH?
The systematic investigation into the study of
materials, sources, etc. in order to establish
facts and reach new conclusions.
An endeavor to discover new or collate old
facts etc. by the scientific study of a subject or
by a course of critical investigation.
A procedure by which we attempt to find
systematically, and with the support of
demonstrable fact, the answer to a question or
the resolution of a problem.
The systematic, controlled, empirical, and
critical investigation of hypothetical
propositions about presumed relations among
natural phenomena.
50. WHAT RESEARCH IS NOT?
A simple gathering of facts or information
Moving facts from one situation to another
An esoteric activity, removed from practical life
A word to get your product noticed
51. YOUR RESEARCH IDENTITY
Intellectual identity
The social scientist
The theorist
The historian
The critic
52. YOUR RESEARCH IDENTITY
Disciplinary Identity
Theory competency
History/context
Knowledge of scholarship
Methodological skill/expertise
53. YOUR RESEARCH IDENTITY
1. Name your topic:
I am studying _____.
2. Imply your question:
because I want to find out who/how/why _____.
3. State the rationale for the question and the project:
in order to understand how/why what _____.
54. TPG RESEARCH IDENTITIES
I am studying the life and times of Judson Welliver because I
want to find out how the practice/institutionalization of
presidential speechwriting began in order to understand why
presidential speechwriting is a specialized craft in
contemporary political practice.
I am studying the popular culture expression of President Bill
Clinton because I want to find out how this president
continues to circulate as a cultural figure of some uncertain,
cipherous meaning in order to better understand how the
presidency and particular presidents are ideologically
defined in the contemporary U.S.
I am studying the political image in U.S. political because I want
to find out how such rhetorics operate as the source and
basis of political judgment in order to understand how
Americans in the 21st century engage in political
communication.
55. RESEARCH IDENTITY STATEMENTS
I am a rhetorical historian who studies U.S. higher education discourse. Using
the techniques of textual analysis and social/cultural historiography, I investigate
the construction and influence of philosophical, curricular, and pedagogical ideas
in higher education. Examples of such ideas include general education, critical
thinking, and academic freedom. In my current work, I am studying influential
discourses on liberal education in an effort to identify the rhetorical strategies by
which “timeless truths” in education are created. Through this and other research,
I seek to clarify the role of higher education in a democratic society, which
promises to enhance decision-making processes regarding this vital and powerful
U.S. institution.
56. RESEARCH IDENTITY STATEMENTS
I am a social scientist who studies family communication patterns. I employ both
quantitative methods such as statistics and experiments as well as the qualitative
method of ethnography. I am studying family communication patterns because
I want to find out which communication variables contribute to family closeness
and cohesion and which lead to the dissolution of the family unit. My research
is aimed at the general public with the intention of teaching communication
strategies to families in order to help improve and/or save their familial
relationships.
59. COMMUNICATION DATA & ARGUMENTS
In 2007, the flagship humor publication, The Onion, launched the Onion
News Network (ONN), a comic news organization producing online
sketch videos. This article argues that ONN is a distinctive form of
hyperreal social critique that uses ironic iconicity, rather than slapstick
or the usual tomfoolery of much comedy programming, to invite
rhetorical insights about contemporary media events and political
practices. ONN's videos draw attention toward communicative
dynamics, creating spaces for alternative civic understandings through
a televisual technique that imitates but also reconfigures the
structure, delivery, or content of mainstream news broadcasts like CNN
and Fox News. Although not without limitations, this ironic iconicity
crafts a multimodal online rhetoric and demonstrates the
contingency, recursivity, and judgment of news communication norms
and practices.
Don Waisanen, “Crafting Hyperreal Spaces for Comic Insights: The Onion
News Network’s Ironic Iconicity,” Communication Quarterly 59 (2011): 508-528.
60. COMMUNICATION DATA & ARGUMENTS
This article examines the evolving dynamic between
citizens, journalists, and politicians—what we call agenda control—
using the CNN/YouTube presidential primary debates as a case. A
systematic content analysis of questions asked and candidates’
answers as compared with standard journalist-as-questioner debates
hosted by MSNBC reveals that the dynamic between
politicians, journalists, and citizens suggests that journalists do a better
job of getting candidates to answer questions than do citizens in the
YouTube video format, not by virtue of being journalists, but by virtue of
asking the right form of question. Results also indicate that the
CNN/YouTube debate questions from citizens failed to reflect the broad
set of issues of interest to those who submitted questions, and instead
included a disproportionate number of culture–war issues and
campaign strategy questions. Findings suggest that journalists
maintain the upper hand in agenda control.
Jennifer Stromer-Galley & Lauren Bryant, “Agenda Control in the 2008
CNN/YouTube Debates,” Communication Quarterly 59 (2011): 529-546.
61. COMMUNICATION DATA & ARGUMENTS
This essay highlights and explores a point of tension between theoretical
writings on style and moral frames. Past political communication
scholarship points to the importance of the feminine style in today's
televisual era of politics. In this same political era, the conservative strict
parent moral frame has dominated most policy debates. Surprisingly, this
highly successful moral frame appears squarely at odds with the feminine
style so closely connected with political success. This essay attempts to
unravel this tension between styles and frames by examining discourse
drawn from the 2007 debate over comprehensive immigration reform. To
account for the success of conservative messages within this debate, this
essay both (a) calls into question the nature of the relationship between the
television medium and the feminine style and (b) expands our understanding
of the discursive operation of deep moral frames by drawing a distinction
between intra-familial and extra-familial policy discourse.
David Levasseur, J. Kanan Sawyer, & Maria A. Kopacz, “The Intersection between
Deep Moral Frames and Rhetorical Style in the Struggle over U.S. Immigration
Reform,” Communication Quarterly 59 (2011): 547-568.
62. COMMUNICATION DATA & ARGUMENTS
This study explores the lived experiences of people who act as allies in the
interest of social justice. Interviews were conducted to investigate the
meaning of the ally identity and the tactics allies use to interrupt
stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination against others. Findings
suggest that people who speak out on behalf of social justice from
positions of relative power do so (a) out of identity concerns that
emphasize moral obligations, (b) largely through authoritative and
dialogic strategies that draw on their symbolic capital, and (c) in ways
that reflect ideologies of culturally dominant groups. The study also
describes tensions arising out of the contradictory nature of deploying
social power against the system that confers it. Conventional
definitions of ―allies‖ that rely on static notions of power, finally, are
challenged as too simplistic.
Sara DeTurk, “Allies in Action: The Communicative Experiences of People Who
Challenge Social Injustice on Behalf of Others,” Communication Quarterly 59
(2011): 569-590.
63. COMMUNICATION DATA & ARGUMENTS
In an attempt to enrich Sloop and Ono's (1997) theory of outlaw discourse,
this article draws from the more extensive literature on the trickster to
demonstrate how the two concepts have a shared heritage. First, the
nature of outlaw discourse is reviewed, and then the myth of the
trickster is discussed. Following these overviews, the similarities and
differences between the two are explained by providing three brief
examples of trickster-influenced outlaw discourse that demonstrate the
potential for a trickster perspective to enrich the study of certain kinds
of outlaw discourse.
Sarah Hagedorn VanSlette & Josh Boyd, “Lawbreaking Jokers: Tricksters Using
Outlaw Discourse,” Communication Quarterly 59 (2011): 591-602.
64. COMMUNICATION DATA & ARGUMENTS
This article offers a theoretical examination of civility within the modern
U.S. Senate (USS), grounding the contemporary literature—which
conceives of civility as a set of standards for public argument—in the
notion of civil society as espoused by Adam Ferguson. Ferguson's
theory of civil society suggests that civility within deliberative bodies
should be weighed against other factors, including the antagonistic
nature of debate and the morality (in a utilitarian sense) of its
participants and outcomes. The essay concludes with examples of how
critics might apply this perspective to USS debate to reveal the
rhetorical functions of (in)civility.
Christopher Darr, “Adam Ferguson’s Civil Society and the Rhetorical Functions
of (In)Civility in United States Senate Debate,” Communication Quarterly 59
(2011): 603-624.
65. COMMUNICATION DATA & ARGUMENTS
This article updates and clarifies what is known about where political
information is gathered online. Some studies have found that the online sites
of traditional media companies dominate online interest and marginalize
non-traditional sites that present independent views, which damages the
Internet's ability to provide diverse viewpoints. Other research shows a trend
toward more non-traditional site use. This study uses survey data from
political information gatherers during the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign to
measure how much traditional and non-traditional media sites dominated
their attention and whether factors such as demographics, political interest,
social ties, and use of offline media limited or contributed to that domination.
The survey found that non-traditional sites controlled respondents' online
attention as much as traditional media sites in terms of political information,
and several factors contributed to accessing traditional and non-traditional
media online.
John Parmelee, John Davies, & Carolyn A. McMahan, “The Rise of Non-Traditional
Site Use for Online Political Information,” Communication Quarterly 59 (2011): 625-
640.
66. ARGUMENTS FOR COMMUNICATION RESEARCH
• Historical Social networks
• Comparative experienced by
• Descriptive media
organizations in
• Correlation developing
• Experimental countries.
• Evaluative
• Action
What data would
• Ethnogenic you collect for
• Feminist each of the
• Cultural argument
categories at
left?
67. • Ph.D., University of
Georgia, 2005.
• At UM since 2008.
• Author of ―President
Clinton and the White
House Prayer
Breakfast,‖ in The
Political Pulpit
Revisited (Purdue
University
Press, 2004).
68.
69. AREAS OF RESEARCH
Disciplines
Sub-disciplines
Fields
Specialties
Areas
70. COMMUNICATION
Communication and Technology Interpersonal and group communication (including communication in
family, developmental, and relational settings);
Critical/cultural Studies of Organizational communication
Communication/Media Intercultural and international communication
Health Communication Health communication
Political communication
Intercultural/International
Communication and technology
Communication
Rhetorical studies (including theory, history, and criticism)
Interpersonal/Small Group Discourse studies (including language pragmatics, discourse analysis, and
Communication similar studies)
Critical, cultural, interpretive studies of communication and media
Mass Communication Research
Feminist communication studies
Organizational Communication Mass communication research (including institutions, effects, media and
society)
Political Communication
Communication law and policy
Rhetorical Studies Advertising and public relations
85. BOOKS IN COMMUNICATION RESEARCH
Types of Types of
books Publishers
Textbooks University Presses
Academic/scholarly Commercial
monographs Publishers
Edited volumes Self-publishers
Handbooks/encyclop
e-dias, etc.
90. • Ph.D., University of
Georgia, 2007.
• At UM since 2007.
• Author of The
Faithful Citizen:
Popular Christian
Media and Gendered
Civic Identities
(Baylor University
Press, 2010).
91. IMPORTANCE TO PH.D. CURRICULUM
1. Coursework in a broad 6. Required comprehensive
range of theoretical exams or project
perspectives 7. The breadth of course
2. Quantitative methods offerings outside the
coursework PhD-granting
3. Methods courses taught department or school
within the PhD-granting 8. Required preliminary or
department or school qualifying exams
4. The quality of course 9. Critical-cultural studies
offerings outside the coursework
PhD-granting 10. Coursework on the
department or school economics and law of
5. Qualitative methods communication
coursework industries
11. Rhetoric coursework
Source: K.A. Neuendorf, et al., “The View from the Ivory Tower: Evaluating Doctoral Programs in Communication,” Communication Reports 20
(2007): 24-41.
92. RESEARCH METHODS IN COMMUNICATION
Basic premises about scientific inquiry
1. realism: science is an attempt to find out about one real world.
2. demarcation: clear distinction between scientific theories and other
beliefs.
3. science is cumulative.
4. observation-theory distinction.
5. foundations—observations and experimentation.
6. deductivism.
7. concepts are precise; meanings are fixed.
8. the unity of science.
93. RESEARCH METHODS IN COMMUNICATION
Non-scientific (interpretivist) approaches to COMM:
1. meaning is individualized, interpretive, and socially evolved.
2. knowledge is often subjective, individualized, and inductively derived.
3. methods: interpretation of subjective meanings; arguments and critical
theory.
4. research is governed by phenomenology, ethnomethodology, and symbolic
interactionism.
Phenomenology: the study of structures of consciousness as experienced
from the first-person point of view.
Ethnomethodology: the study of the everyday methods people use for the
production of social order; goal is to document the methods and
practices through which society’s members make sense of their world.
Symbolic interactionism: people act toward things based on the meaning
those things have for them; and these meanings are derived from social
interaction and modified through interpretation; human beings are best
understood in relation to their environment.
94. RESEARCH METHODS IN COMMUNICATION
Critical/Humanistic Methods:
1. Historical
2. Ideological
3. Literary
4. Biographical
5. Critical/Cultural
6. Journalistic
95.
96. RESEARCH REPORTS
Provide citation information—author(s), title, journal, date
Discuss the questions/arguments raised in the article.
What is their basis? What is their theoretical foundation?
Discuss the methods that are employed in the article.
Discuss the conclusions/findings of the article. Offer an
evaluation of those conclusions and/or findings.
Discuss any questions/concerns/issues that you discover
about the research.
97. THE ENDS OF RESEARCH
Why do we do research? What is our
purpose?
Where will our research have the most
impact?
How does research
influence, effect, enrich other people?
Where are the spheres of influence for
our research?
98. GOAL #1—DISSEMINATING RESEARCH
Public Publication
presentation Outlet
Audience Process
Convention Product
Community
Process
99. DISSEMINATING RESEARCH—ACADEMIC CONVENTIONS
Select Convention
Select Interest Group
Different types of
conventions Select Format
Divisions
National/Int’l Caucuses Competitive
Regional Paper
Specialty Groups
Specialty Panel Proposal
Poster
103. HONESTY, ETHICS, & RESEARCH
Issues Issues
Ownership, aut Participants
horship, plagiar Research
ism (self and Design
other)
Informed
Citation and Consent
acknowledgme
nt IRB
Writing
Parsimony
104. • Ph.D., Indiana
University, 1992.
• At UM since 1998.
• Author of The
Rhetorical Presidency,
Propaganda, and the
Cold War, 1945-1955
(Praeger, 2002); Co-
editor of The Handbook
of Rhetoric and Public
Address (Wiley-
Blackwell, 2010)
105.
106. • Ph.D., University of
Minnesota, 2005.
• At UM since 2008.
• Author of many
publications, includin
g recent articles in
Health
Communication, Vac
cine, and Human
Communication
Research.
107. HONESTY, ETHICS, & RESEARCH
Issues Issues
Ownership, Participants
authorship, Research
plagiarism (self Design
and other)
Informed
Citation and Consent
acknowledgme
nt IRB
Writing
Parsimony
108.
109. • Ph.D., Purdue
University, 1975.
• At UM since 2004.
• Among many
publications, co-
author of Women
in Public
Relations: How
Gender Influences
Practice (Guilford,
2001).