Project description
JLMC 560 Risk Perception and Risk Communication

Research Paper Guidelines

You are required write a research paper that is suitable for publication in a refereed mass communication journal. Please use APA (American Psychological Association) style, 5th edition. You can buy an APA stylebook at the bookstore or you can look at some journals that use it.

Your research paper should be based on a theory or cohesive body of research – it is not acceptable to just dream up a hypothesis for testing. You must have a strong theoretical justification for testing the hypothesis. I can help you match theories to your hypothesis ideas. The paper must use statistics to test one or more hypotheses.

Your paper will have the following chapters:

Introduction – (A couple of paragraphs; maximum 2 pages) This tells the reader about what problem is being addressed in the paper, why do we care, the type of analysis being used to study the problem, and a bit about the theoretical perspective being taken. The last sentence of this chapter says, “The purpose of this study is to test relationship between A and B or to investigate the characteristics of A.”

Theory – (Approximately 5 or more pages) This section outlines the theory being used in the study. Review definitions of key concepts and variables and summarize empirical findings of the previous studies. At the end of the theory section, you should explicitly state the hypothesis or research questions. After each hypothesis, highlight a theoretical linkage, a reason why this hypothesis should exist. For example, your hypothesis says that there is a positive relationship between amount of news consumption and level of risk perception of terrorism. Cultivation theory and/or agenda setting can be reviewed as theory. You need clear definition of media use, news consumption, and risk perception, etc. A theoretical linkage indicates that news organizations are more likely to focus on harms and risks to society because one of main functions of journalism is a watch-dog to monitor what is happening to society. Because of this journalistic routine, people are relatively more exposed to negative news (e.g., risk of terrorism) than positive one and this excessive consumption elevates the level of risk perception.

Method – (Approximately 3-4 pages) You state the type of method you are doing – such as survey, content analysis, or experiment. Specify the subjects or objects to be analyzed, including name/source, geographical location, time frame, and sampling. Provide operational definitions for each major concept in the hypotheses. Provide in-depth information about how the research will be performed, including survey questions, instructions to coders, information on expected inter-coder reliability, and so on. Give as much detailed information as possible. When you turn in your method section draft, also turn in copies of all tables and figures (without any results!) that you will use in your paper. Select a sample article for your template and try to resemble it.

Do not start collecting data until these first three sections of the paper are approved!

Results – (Approximately 2-3 pages plus tables) Begin your analysis with univariate statistics of all variables (e.g., percentages, means, standard deviations, etc.). Then, hypothesis by hypothesis, show the bivariate statistics that test each hypothesis. Indicate whether the hypothesis is supported, and refer to tables and figures that have your statistical tests in them.

Discussion – (Approximately 3-5 pages) Here you tie your results back into the theory section and previous literature. How do your results compare with results from other studies? What has your study contributed to the theory? The end of this section briefly outlines the limitations of your study, including what you might do differently if you were to re-do the study. You should also indicate what types of research are still needed to more fully test the theory and/or add to the body of literature.

Please send me the draft of first three parts which is Introduction, Theory and Method before next Tuesday (11/5/2013). Thank you.