Sampling

1. What is the difference between probability and nonprobability samples? Explain in your own words and give examples of each type of sample.


Probability sample:

• You have a complete sampling frame. You have contact information for the entire population.
• You can select a random sample from your population. Since all persons (or “units”) have an equal chance of being selected for your survey, you can randomly select participants without missing entire portions of your audience.
• You can generalize your results from a random sample. With this data collection method and a decent response rate, you can extrapolate your results to the entire population.
• Can be more expensive and time-consuming than convenience or purposive sampling.

Non-probability sample:

• Used when there isn’t an exhaustive population list available. Some units are unable to be selected, therefore you have no way of knowing the size and effect of sampling error (missed persons, unequal representation, etc.).
• Not random.
• Can be effective when trying to generate ideas and getting feedback, but you cannot generalize your results to an entire population with a high level of confidence. Quota samples (males and females, etc.) are an example.
• More convenient and less costly, but doesn’t hold up to expectations of probability theory.

2.What are the advantages of choosing a probability sample in your research?


Non-probability sampling:
-the method is easy to use, but that advantage is greatly offset by the presence of bias.
-it can deliver accurate results when the population is homogeneous.
- the reduced cost and time involved in acquiring the sample.
- Insures some degree of representativeness of all the strata in the population


The following are the basic advantages of probability sampling methods:
•Probability sampling does not depend upon the existence of detailed information about the universe for its effectiveness.
•Probability sampling provides estimates which are essentially unbiased and have measurable precision.
•It is possible to evaluate the relative efficiency various sample designs only when probability sampling is used
• Easy and convenient


3.If you want to do a random cluster sampling of 10 people out of this entire class, how should you go about it?


I estimate my class will have 100 students. First, I’ll cluster my sample by region. I may have 40 chinese, 30 Malays, 25 Indians and 5 from other country. I select Chinese and Indians. From the two groups I selected. I cluster them by different states for example Selangor, Perak, Johor and Penang. I may select penang and Selangor. After that, I’ll determine a list of the topic from the selction and finally I random my sample from the last cluster.


4. If you want to do a random stratified sampling of 10 people – 7 females, 3 males – out of this entire class, how should you go about it?

We will be using disproportionate stratified sampling method. This method is used to oversample or over-represent a particular stratum. The approach is used because that stratum is considered important for marketing, advertising, or other similar reasons. For example, Pantene is promoting a new shampoo that just emerged in the market, the shampoo is mainly used by girls but also can be used by men.


5. What is ‘sampling error’, in your understanding?

An error in a statistical analysis arising from the unrepresentative of the sample taken.

Tutorial Questions Week 8

Differences between qualitative and quantitative

Quantitative	Qualitative
Seeks out the ‘why’ researcher can be away from instrument	Usually concerned with ‘how often’ researcher need to be as instrument
Method is standardised (structured questioning)	Uses a varied questioning- open-ended, unstructured, flexible questioning
Large sample size	Small sample size
Generalised results (numerical statistical data) artificial experimental setting	In depth results natural setting
Reliable data	Data may not be reliable

Types of research method

Quantitative

1)      Questionnaire surveys

2)      Telephone surveys

3)      Mail surveys

4)      Structured personal interviews/ Mall interviews

5)      Internet/ Email/ Web surveys

6)      Content analysis

Qualitative

1)      Focus group

2)      Field observation

3)      In depth/intensive interviews

4)      Case studies

5)      Ethnography

6)      Textual analysis

Advantages of Quantitative

-          Testing and validating already constructed theories about how and why phenomena occurs

-          Testing hypothesis that are constructed before the data is collected

-          Can generalize research findings when that data are based on random samples of sufficient size

-          Useful for obtaining data that allows quantitative predictions to be made

-          Data collection using some quantitative methods is relatively quick
       accurate and precise results.
       can be generalised (sample size)
       convenience, under control (setting)

Disadvantages of Quantitative

-          Researchers categories that are used might not reflect local constituencies understandings

-          Researchers’ theories that are used might not reflect local constituencies’ understandings

-          The researcher might miss out on phenomena occurring because of the focus on theory or hypothesis is testing rather than on theory or hypothesis generation

-          Knowledge produced might be too abstract and general for direct application to specific local situation, contexts and individuals
      time consuming (sample size)
     

Advantages of Qualitative

·       Data based on the participants’ own categories of meaning

·       Useful for studying a limited number of cases in depth s

·       Useful for describing complex phenomena s Provides individual case information

·       Can conduct cross-case comparisons and analysis

Disadvantages of Qualitative

·       Knowledge produced might not generalize to other people or other settings (i.e., findings might be unique to the relatively few people included in the research study).

·       It is difficult to make quantitative predictions.

·       It is more difficult to test hypotheses and theories with large participant pools.

·       It might have lower credibility with some administrators and commissioners of programs.

·       It generally takes more time to collect the data when compared to quantitative research.

2)

(i)                          Nominal- Malay, Chinese, Indian, Scottish

(ii)                Ratio- 0,2,4,6

(iii)               Interval- Not happy, Still okay, Neutral, Happy, Very happy

(iv)              Ratio- 0,2,4,6

(v)                Ordinal- SPM, Diploma, Bachelor degree, Master degree

How to read a journal article.

In your small group, find a relevant Journal Article from the Library portal. Use the following questions and the reading given to guide you in understanding the Journal Article. Present a summary of your chosen Journal Article on your respective blogs.

1.     What is the Research Topic?

Who “Likes” You.. and Why?

A Typology of Facebook Fans

2.     What Background Information did the authors give you in order for you to understand their research?

The authors talked about different type of fan behavior affect the pages that they like.

3.     Why do you think each of those topics/sections of Background Information is necessary?

Give a brief knowledge for reader to make sure they know what the research is about

4.     What are the Research Questions of this study, if any?

“Do you have a Facebook account that you have accessed since March 1st?”

“Have you selected a brand you ’Like’ on Facebook in the past year?”

5.    What is the Hypothesis of this study, if any?

Different kinds of people have different insights on why they become fans of brands.

 6. What is covered in the Literature Review?

How Facebook likes enhance marketing communications, characteristics of Facebook fans, Characteristics of an Exploratory Facebook Fan Typology, research design, survery design, data collection, sample, measures, cluster analysis, and scale validation.

7. Why do you think the above topics are covered in the Literature Review?

• Targeting strategies and brand communications can be enhanced by pragmatically studying four key segments of Facebook Fans.
• “Fan”-atics have strong loyalty and brand love. Fan-atics help spread WOM due to their numerous Facebook friends. Facebook “shares” may encourage Likes from Fan-atics.
• Self-expressives like to impress others. They may be influenced by messages about brands’social desirability.
• Incentives for Liking may not be effective for all Fans types: Utilitarians who Like for incentives have lower loyalty and brand love and also offer less WOM than other Fans.
• Authentics, with strong brand loyalty and brand love, are less active on Facebook, although they have strong social ties. This group is best reached on Facebook through their friendship networks.

8.     What Method(s) did the authors use to conduct their research? Briefly outline what they did and how they did it.

Survey design, data collection, sample, measures, cluster analysis and scale validation.

9.     What were the Results obtained from the Method(s)?

Analysis of variance (ANOVA) tested for differences across the four clusters. Post hoc multiple comparison tests using Tukey’s HSD for equal variances and Games-Howell for unequal variances investigated significant group differences among cluster means. The 

variables used to inform the exploratory typology of Facebook Fans provide a more detailed profile of each cluster.

4 different clusters:

- Fan-Atics

- Self-expressives

- Utilitarians

- Authentics

10. What Discussion points / Conclusions did the authors bring up as a result of their study?

The current study provides a foundation exploration into whether it was possible to categorize Facebook Fans who Like brands based on their attitudes in relation to brands and their own personal and social characteristics.

The findings suggest four Fan types:

• Fan-atics,

• Self-Expressives, • Utilitarians, and • Authentics.

The authors are unaware of another Fan typology based on an empirical analysis of Fans’ personal and social characteristics and brand relationships. The findings of the current study add weight to the idea that there is a disconnection between Likes and brand consumption (Nelson-Field et al., 2012) and also offer a perspective in relation to why Fans may Like, yet not buy.

The authors view this study as a start- ing point for further research, including possible validation of clusters through replication studies with other samples (Aldenderfer and Blashfield, 1984).

11.     What were the Implications / Significance / Importance of this research study, according to the authors?

This exploratory study provides insights into Liking on Facebook by examining Fans’ attitudes about their Liked brands. As this study prepares a foundation for future studies, it does not investigate a range of brand-related activity; rather, it provides perspective in relation to a brand related behavior, Facebook Liking, which has received much attention in the recent literature. Next, this study offers insights into consumers’ relationships with Facebook and brands. This research distinguishes between Fans based on their reasons for Liking. The challenge marketing managers face is that consumers infrequently regard the brands they buy as being different from other brands in the categories (Romaniuk, 2013). And although there may only be a marginal gain from using Likes to lever- age change, it could make a small contribution. From the perspective of the marketing literature, the finding of this exploratory study in relation to incentives is consistent with Ehrenberg’s research on sales promotions.

12.     What recommendations for Future Research did the authors propose?

The authors propose that hat follow-up larger-scale studies test the robustness of the clusters and pro- files identified among a broader profile of consumers, spanning all ages. Besides, it recommended that further research with cross-cultural samples be under- taken to provide a basis for comparisons and to contribute additional insights into Fan types. Further research could explore the nature of Face- book Fan typologies that include those who have un-Liked a brand and compare the results with the current study to deter- mine whether insights can be gained in relation to customer defection. Fur- ther research could also investigate whether there are gender differences between Fans, their reasons for becoming Fans, and the relationships between their Likes and their offline brand relationships. Next, they should investigate whether those

who are intrinsically motivated to Like a brand (with or without incentives) have a greater propensity to offer positive WOM, have greater brand loyalty and brand love, than those who receive extrinsic rewards (such as incentives) but who are not intrinsically motivated. Future research also is needed to examine factors that sustain intrinsic motivation in this context. Lastly, future research could examine the relationships between the characteristics of different Fan types and their offline brand relationships.

 13.  Were their Limitations in the study, according to the authors?

Lack of prior research studies on the topic

Cultural and other type of bias

14.  What Kind of Sources did the authors use for their entire research paper?

Journals, University papers, Internet, Reviews

E-Tutorial Week 5

Question 1

Scientific research must be internally and externally valid. What do Internal Validity and External Validity mean?

Internal validity refers to how well an experiment is done, without having the existence an artifact/confounding variable in the study.

External Validity is the process of generalization and it means that how well is the data can widespread to the people. For example, teenagers in Malaysia are addicted to Instagram. Instead of just conducting the research on a large group in two states, the research should be based on more than just two states of Malaysia. This way, a general study is more valid and effective.The interaction in an analysis of variable can affects it. For example: subject selection, instrumentation and experimental conditions.

Question 2

What do researchers need to take into account when ensuring that their research results are externally and internally valid?

Internal validity is important for researchers because a certain problem would have different possible reasons. And if we were to conduct a research on the only possible explanation, we must first extinguish all the other incorrect yet possible reasons. If it does not extinguish all other variables, then the hypothesis cannot be investigated. For example, if we were to study about teenagers who go to the gym are healthier than those who not. There are still other possible explanations that can prove this theory. It may be that the proteins they take are causing them to be healthier, rather than the exercise is making their body healthier.

For externally valid, Researchers need to make sure the analyses of variables are correct for example, subject selection, instrumentation and experimental condition. This is because if it is not considered properly, it does not exactly prove that the research is done generally. The more heterogeneous samples used, the better. Let's say the research is on Malaysian drivers. We should use samples not only on the drivers in Selangor, but also in other states as well, because "Malaysian Drivers" mean a general statement of the country.

Week 4

Question 1
Research is divided into two major sectors – academic and private. From your textbook, read up on the section relating to academic vs private research and summarise the points that differentiate between these two. You may find this reading in Chapter 1 of Wimmer and Dominick (pages 14-16 in the latest 9th edition).

Difference between academic and private research:

Academic	Differences	Private
Scholars from colleges & university.	Conducted by	Non-governmental companies / their research consultants.
Intended to explain the mass media & their effects on individuals.	Aim	Intended to facilitate decision-making.
Public	Service	Private (Public after few years)
No specific deadlines except when they receive research grants.	Deadlines	Have deadlines, imposed by management or an outside agency or client.
Less expensive	Cost	More expensive; to cover overhead cost for office rent, equipment, facilities, computer analysis, subcontractors and personnels.

Question 2
Explain the 8 steps of research, giving examples to illustrate what each step entails, if necessary.


Steps:
8 steps
1. Selecting and defining research problem.

• Observe things around you to get an idea on what you want to research
• Your little cousins are watching cartoons; you want to know what effect the programme has on your cousins.

2. Determining Topic Relevance and significance.

• Is the topic you want to research worth being researched?
• Do you have the resources and enough financial support to analyze the data?
• Are the results needed?

3. Review of Literature

• Learn from previous research
• So that we wont plagiarise a same research that had been done
• Using existing data to justify your own research
• As background and building block
• Same time, costs

4. Stating a Hypothesis or research question

• Research question are open ended questions that researchers want to know
• What is the effect of violence cartoons to children
• Hypothesis is a sentence, a theory

5. Preparing research Instrument

• Questionnaire
• Interview questions
• Journal

6. Data Collection

• A fieldwork to collect the data you want to know using specific instruments

7. Data Analysis and Interpretation

• Analyse the data that have collected
• i. External validity – results can be generalized to population *random samples
• ii. Internal validity – study and investigate the proposed research questions *history

8. Presenting results

• Present in a clear manner
• Project paper
• thesis

Tutorial Week 3

Question 1:

List the 4 non-scientific sources of knowledge as introduced in Lecture 1, giving 2 examples for each of these methods of knowing.

1) Agreement reality- Brushing your teeth before going to bed, Stealing is a bad thing to do.

2) Experiential reality- Hunger when breakfast is not eaten, Pain when you fall down from the stairs.

3) Tradition- Chopsticks must not be stuck into rice in a bowl, Cannot wear black during Chinese new year.

4) Authority- Diet coke mixed with Mentos mint would cause a small explosion from scientist, A ping pong ball will return to its original state if put in hot water from a science teacher.

Question 2:

One of the foundation of social science inquiry states that social science researchers are interested in groups, aggregates or collections, but not in individuals. What kind of groups can you think of that mass media researchers would be interested in when conducting their research? What kind of topics do you think mass media researchers would be interested to research on with these groups?

The first group that mass media researchers would be interested in when conducting their research is teenagers. Teenagers are the main users of mass media, therefore this group is highly considered while conducting research. Mass media is a medium that easily influences teenagers and their way of thinking because of the high exposure of content in their daily lives.

Teenagers love following the trends. The first topic that is the most important is fashion. Many teenagers idolize their favourite celebrities to the extent where they would dress and style themselves to look like them. Teenagers are also into small businesses nowadays. Many young teens have the ability to get suppliers and sell various items, such as clothes, accessories, and sometimes even electronic devices. Many of them use social media platforms like Instagram and blogs to set up their stores.

The second group would be the ethnic groups of Malaysia, which are Malays, Chinese and Indians. The mass nowadays are aiming towards a solidarity country. This is why we can see many advertisements and commercials based on the unity concept. The mass media aims to build a harmonious bond between races and religion of different kinds. The mass loves to research on special occasions, such as Hari Raya, Chinese New Year, Deepavali and so on. This is because the media plans to encourage the citizens to be more thoughtful and respectful towards the different cultures in Malaysia.

The third group that we could think of is the gender aspects. Mass media researchers would be interested in this particular group because they are considered a dominant in the social world, whereas the female species are considered innocent. The topic they would be interested to research on is whether it is true that the male species gravitate more towards jobs like medicine, engineering rather than pursuing social science career. Other than that, the next topic would be the gender of the criminals causing crime. Many believe that males are the mastermind behind crimes, but in reality, more and more women are causing crimes as well. So are females still considered pure and innocent as opposed to the days before?

Question 3:
Define variables and their attributes.

Give four (4) possible attributes for each of the following variables:
i. Racial group
ii. Education level
iii. Number of magazines a teenager buy in a month
iv. Agreement/Attitude towards violence on TV
v. Types of Smartphones in the market today



Variables
- Things of concept and idea
- Logical groupings of attributes

Variable: Racial group
Attributes: Chinese, Malay, Indian, Kadazan

Variable: Education level
Attributes: primary, secondary, kindergarten, University

Variables: Number of magazines a teenager buy in a month
Attributes: 10, A dozen, 1, 5
Variables: Agreement/Attitude towards violence on TV
Attributes: Strongly agree, disagree, support, do not support

Variables: Type of Smartphone in the market today
Attributes: wireless charging, slim design, touchscreen, speed charging

Blog Task 1: Scientific Research

QUESTION: Define “scientific research” in your own words by answering the following:

What does research mean? What does research hope to achieve? Why do we need scientific research? (As much as possible, use your own words and description to explain your understanding.)

Yoong Yuen Tung:

As far as I know, scientific research means to find out the facts and truth step by step. There is no short cut for us to discover the facts other than follow the series of method. Besides, research means to find out the information about an issue and what it hopes to achieve is helping people to solve their problems and questions. I personally think that we need scientific research because we can get the answer that we want more accurately after using a proper way of doing research.

Wong Shu Faye:

Scientific research to me is a planned out procedure, featuring a series of steps in researching. Where the 'scientific' word comes into place, is when the outcome is based on logic and facts that has been proven by experiments and observation. This research is used to help people to gain a better understanding of the issue or the subject, and also clarify the facts that have been stated accurately. Scientific research is needed because it goes through proper steps in researching, rather than just going through the subject in a vague manner.

Sum Ming Ming:

Research means sort things out and analyze what is real. We can get answers and solutions for our questions by research. Research is needed so that we can get to know more information and improve.

Edwin Thiang:

Research is a form of activity or way that people use, in order to find more details or to conduct a deeper investigation regarding an issue. Research is also done in hopes to enable people to have a better understanding and knowledge on a certain topic. Scientific research is needed so that certain theories and conclusion that have been stated or created through studies, can be used by researches to prove or clarify certain issues, topics or investigations.


Cedric Sim:
Based on my understanding, the definition of scientific research is that a set of procedure and rules are followed when carrying out a scientific experiment. A more thorough explanation would be research that is carried out that obeys a set of already set protocols and long established rules or structure.


Pearl-Lyn:
The term 'research' could mean many things. In this case, research could mean an analysis, an experiment or even an investigation. Research is something we do to fulfill our questions with an accurate answer. Research is also done to improve one's self and learn about something in more detail. In addition to that, research is also done when a person wants to feel accomplished about one's work.