Research Template
Research design is a template that the actual researcher would follow in conducting thorough and detailed research. Several aspects of quality research are thus taken into consideration when designing a research framework. In this regard, this paper will design a research template regarding the role gender plays in determining the actual content of newspaper material. In society, it is normal for women editors to present more feminine aspects while editing various news and newspaper contents. Therefore, the most relevant research question in this template would seek answers to the question: what role does gender play in determining the content of a newspaper? This question is considered specific to the point and lacks a fishing expedition. Besides, it is a realistic question because some of its answers can be generated from the already published newspapers available in the university archives. Thus, the research question is attainable.
Hypothesis
The testable hypothesis for this type of research will also have much bearing from the research question. In this case, one of the testable hypothesis would be: content disparity regarding the types of stories can be realized in the newspaper published by women. This hypothesis is closest to observable features in the journals published by women. Besides, the hypothesis, clear, simple, relevant to the research question, and testable against an alternative hypothesis that the content of the newspapers published by women lack disparity.
Methodologies
This type of sociological research can utilize various research methods. However, cognizant to the research question, and the hypothesis, the research will bear mixed research methods, but the quantitative analysis will be much utilized. Quantitative research is statistics oriented and involves questions that can be answered in numbers (Creswell, 26). The quantitative approach will be essential in collecting the newspaper samples in random from the University’s archives and selecting the storylines that were published by women, their contents against those published by men. In the same scenario, the method would ensure the newspapers are grouped accordingly based on the gender of the publishers before looking at the contents. In this case, the variable being measured is a content disparity.
Some of the data collection techniques that will aid this process include sampling the newspapers published by both men and women — sampling the contents published by both men and women and determining how contents are much inclined to the gender of the publisher. Besides, rolling out questionnaires would be an important method of collecting such data. In this regard, the questionnaire would target some sample groups where sample surveys would be conducted (Jick, 605). Individuals would be sampled and asked about what they feel in terms of contents published by males and females in the newspapers. These individuals would be obtained from the University with complete informed consent. The majority can be students with a few staff in the library who interact with the newspapers once they reach their collection. Manipulating pre-existing data using various techniques will not work well for data collection in this research. The reason is that this is a quantitative method, which will purely rely on the collected data in real-time. Surveys and questionnaires are advantageous in this process because they limit bias by gathering prompt information from the respondents. Sampling newspapers based on gender and content will ensure the research outcomes are attached to the research question and thus, proceed in testing the various hypotheses. Nevertheless, these processes are tedious and time-consuming, and this would demand more time allocation for the research.
Dependent and Independent Variables
In this research, the dependent variable would be the content. Primarily, the researcher would be interested in the content of the newspapers before looking at the gender of the publisher. Therefore, the gender of the publisher will become an independent variable. This is because the spirit of the research by the research question and hypothesis believes that gender affects the contents published in the newspapers. The two variables will act as a blueprint in conceptualizing the research frameworks. In any quantitative research, it is important to define the variables so that it gives the research the overall framework for arriving at the research question and thus testing the hypotheses (Jick, 603). Besides, identifying the variables would form a framework for an interactive discussion between the two variables, and in the process providing answers to the research question.
The concept of gender and newspaper content would form the basis for testing the hypothesis. In this regard, these two concepts will be operationalized based on the test statistics presented by the normalization approach. In this case, the various statistical analyses tools will be put in place to assess the various percentages of the contents published by both men and women. The analysis will look into how the independent variable affects the dependent variable.
Sampling Strategies
Sampling techniques will be very critical in determining the type of data collected for the study. As mentioned before, sampling of the newspapers published and available in the archives in the university will play a critical role in the statistical analysis (Creswell, 32). Some of the strategies that will be used include simple random sampling and systematic sampling. The simple random sampling will ensure each is chosen from the sample groups from the staff or the students in the university. In the same approaches, this sampling will only ensure those who have interacted with the newspapers are selected to form the study groups. After sampling the desired population for the study, the simple random sampling will be applied only after knowing the study group (Jick, 608). That is when randomness will be used.
The simple random sampling will allow for the calculation of the errors after the individuals are assigned arbitrary numbers. The error will be calculated and reduce selection bias. Age, gender, and occupation will be factors to consider while performing the sampling for the study group. This is because specific age cohorts only like reading certain concepts in the newspapers. Youths also have different tastes regarding newspaper contents. Besides, some male students may also like sports pages in the newspaper, which are predominantly published by men. Ladies may love certain pages on love and relationships that are also mostly published by females. So when conducting the initial sampling, these aspects must be taken into consideration in what may inform the systematic sampling.
In systematic sampling, individuals are selected at regular intervals to ensure the sample size. In the attainment of this sample size, the selection can be made based on the tastes and preferences of the newspapers, the frequency of accessing the various contents, and sampling what age cohorts like to read. The Systematic sampling will ensure the study groups are sampled for their opinions on the newspapers. The simple random sampling will also ensure there is alteration in the number of males and females presented for the questionnaire sections, other than giving personal opinions.
Procedure
The methods for carrying out the research will depend on the methods for data collection. First, I will use the sampling technique. I will sample the newspapers that will be used in the study. While sampling the newspapers, I will consider those with contents on the student newspapers published and stored in the archives. The number of newspapers will be of great importance because the method will be based on a sampling technique where a portion of a population is taken to represent a whole. Moreover, the sampling will take into consideration those contents published by both men and women writers so that the use of statistical analysis will develop a comparative basis. The sampled newspapers will be looked at based on their contents and the gender of the publisher. Those whose contents focus on feminism will be recorded as well as the masculine contents.
The respondents will respond to various questionnaires developed to assist in data collection. Some of the questions that will guide the data collection in the questionnaires will be as follows:
- On the scale of one to ten, how many newspaper women write contents you have read?
- Who is the prominent student newspaper writer, you know?
- Do you think women write most student newspaper contents? Yes or No?
- How many men write love letter columns you have read?
- How many women write love letter columns you have read?
Data Analysis
The tool that will be mostly used for this analysis will be Microsoft Excel. Based on the data collected from the sample surveys, and questionnaires, the excel worksheet will take into consideration the total number of the respondents. Then, the percentages will be calculated based on the number of respondents to a particular question on the overall population sample. Each of these percentages will communicate the answers to the research question and thus answering the hypothesis. The questionnaires will be collected after they are filled appropriately, and the analysis of the various questions conducted. Again, the questionnaires will be produced depending on the number of the anticipated respondents or the sample size. Care needs to be taken to have a reasonable sample because the small sample sizes produce biased information. It’s also not logical to have the whole university population as a research population. All the responses collected from the questionnaires will be analyzed based on the percentages. If the percentages conform to the research question, the discussion part will answer the research question and consequently uphold or reject the null hypothesis.
Ethical Concerns
This research being sociological has some ethical considerations. First, obtaining the consent of the respondents will be necessary because the research will be conducted in an institution. Besides, students read newspapers for various reasons. Such reasons will not be of interest to this research to maintain confidentiality and privacy. Participants in this research will not be identified using names due to anonymity issues.
Works Cited
Creswell, John W., and J. David Creswell. Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approach. Sage publications, 2017. pp. 23-57.
Jick, Todd D. “Mixing qualitative and quantitative methods: Triangulation in action.” Administrative science quarterly 24.4 (1979): 602-611.