ALC208 Week 8-Topic 7

1. ALC208Week 8-Topic 7 Survey Research Assigned Readings: Text: Chapter 8; Reading 7.1: Moody (2004) & Reading 7.2: Weerakkody (2004): Reading 7.3: US Census (emailed)

2. Surveys • Commonest data collection method in quantitative research • Census every five years in Australia, 10 yrs in the USA • Self-administered (given to respondents to complete) or • Researcher –administered (face2face or over the phone ) • Survey interviews – structured; Depth (semi-structured), intensive (unstructured) interviews in field studies • Survey questions in: MCQ exams & SETUs • Closed ended questions give quantitative data and open ended questions give qualitative data

3. Survey Questions • Operationalise variables with structured questions an relevant categories of responses to a (close ended) question • e.g. what is your sex? 1. Male 2 Female • Age: measured as nominal, ordinal, interval or ratio variables • Surveys can use constructs to measure concepts or variables that cannot be directly observed or measured using Likertor Semantic differential scales.

4. What surveys can and cannot do • Checks factual knowledge of respondents (e,g. MCQs at exams). • Collects info on people’s beliefs, attitudes, perceptions , opinions etc. (e.g. Yes/No; True/False; Agree/Disagree; their feelings (e.g. Positive/negative, like/dislike); behaviours (e.g. On a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree) • Can compare and describe relationships between variables. e.g. Sex, party affiliation and support for a policy • Tells about correlations between variables – not their causality (as one causes the other/s) • Cause and effect relationships need experimental designs where variables can be controlled and examined.

5. Survey Methodology The steps involved: 1. Developing the survey instrument / questionnaire • Selecting the population and sample (of respondents) • Administration of the survey • Data analysis

6. 1. Developing the survey instrument / questionnaire • Decide on research questions /hypotheses to be tested in study and variables to be examined • Phrase and organise questionnaire • Decide if to be self-administered or researcher-administered • Decide if to be face-to-face, phone, mail, email or internet based • How much time needed to complete the survey • What closed and open ended to be included

7. 2. Selecting the population and sample (of respondents) • Decide what the target population is. (e.g. Registered voters in Australia) • Obtain the sampling frame (e.g. voter registration lists) • Choose a suitable sampling method (e.g. a convenience sample for an exploratory study or a random, representative sample if generalisation of findings is needed) • Weighting (higher proportions of specific groups such as the older, females, majority ethnic group, uni students etc.) • Balancing (in proportion to census figures)

8. 3. Administration of the survey • Face-to-face interviews • Telephone interviews • Mail surveys • Online (email or internet) surveys SurveyMonkey, MySpace

9. Raliability & Validity of Surveys • Important to consider when designing a survey • Interviewers need to be well-trained and survey instrument tested with a few people from the same population. • Several other factors affect reliability (give same results when repeated) and validity (measure what you are supposed to measure).

10. Factors Affecting Reliability and Validity • Unreliability of answers given by respondents; they forget things etc. – Joke answers or missing data 2. The Social desirability effect 3. Unstable opinions of respondents 4. Question wording- e.g. Push polling 5. Misinterpretation of questions by respondents

11. Factors Affecting Reliability and Validity (Contd.) 6. Question order : Funnel format & reverse funnel format 7. Response set eg. The ‘Donkey Vote’ 8. Question format – closed or open ended 9. Unqualified respondents 10. Cultural bias of questions. Eg. Big Brother, Caviar

12. Secondary Analysis of Data • Using data collected in previous studies in a new study. e.g. census data • Uses data from archives for a fee • Disadvantage of problems in previous study passed on to new one • But the national census and other well designed studies provide inexpensive source of good data

13. Things to Remember • Ensure mutually exclusive categories of responses • Responses must match question posed • Responses in logical order in a continuum • Question clarity • Avoid double-barrelled questions • Respondent competent to answer

14. Things to Remember (Contd.) 7. Respondents’ willingness to answer- to reduce no responses and social desirability effect • Simplify the questions and make them readable • Avoid negative wording ‘We should not do X’ etc. to be avoided • Avoid biased wording (e.g. A supreme court decision on X says...; and use neutral terms: Not induce perceptions such as attractiveness of a person related to the survey question

15. How to Organise a Questionnaire • Question order- follow a coherent order • Contingency ordering- Question’s relevance to those that follow. E.g.1. ‘Do you have email at home?’ Yes / No This is a filter question. If no, go to question 5 etc. as questions 2 to 4 are about home email use irrelevant to those without email. Include demographic questions • Layout & design • Giving instructions • Pre-testing

16. Analysis of Survey Data • Close ended questions provide uniform answers to surveys questions- easy to analyse, quantitative data. • Use of Excel software of manual coding using /, //, ///, ////, //// to indicate 1 to 5 times • SPSS- Statistical Packages for the Social Sciences- Version 17 • Open ended questions give qualitative data to be analysed using common themes

17. Strengths and Limitations of Survey research Strengths: can use large samples when self-administered to describe characteristics of large populations. Flexible and allows for many questions to be asked at once. Limitations: Subject to artificiality, Only collects self-reports of past and future or hypothetical action Some topics not suitable for surveys

18. Use of Surveys in Journalism, PR and Media and Communication • Journalism- Journalists calling people or using other people’s surveys when news gathering ; About the profession with working journalists • PR- program evaluation • Media and Communication- Adoption and use of a new media technology e. g. The 2006 Aus. census asked about internet access at home.

19. Any questions?