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COMM 390: Research Methods in Communication

Literature Reviews

COMM 390: Lit Review


Example literature review

What is a literature review?

A literature review is not research, it is a review of the research that has been done on your topic.

A literature review is NOT just a summary, but a conceptually organized synthesis of the results of your search. It must

  • organize information and relate it to the thesis or research question you are developing
  • synthesize and critically analyze the results comparing and contrasting their findings
  • identify controversy and themes that appear in the literature

A literature review is a piece of discursive prose, not a list describing or summarizing one piece of literature after another. It's usually a bad sign to see every paragraph beginning with the name of a researcher. Instead, organize the literature review into sections that present themes or identify trends, including relevant theory. You are not trying to list all the material published, but to synthesize and evaluate it according to the guiding concept of your thesis or research question. (From Univ. of Toronto)

Check out these sites for more help understanding literature reviews

Tips on conducting research for a literature review

  • Use bibliographies and reference pages of articles to direct your research. You may start to see some trends with the people who are writing about your topic. Check the bibliography for more articles about your topic.
  • Use the authors who you have found to be writing on your topic as starting points. Look for additional articles, and rebuttals, retractions or responses to their research

Use this chart to track articles you read for your literature review:

comm 390 articles for lit review

Comm 390 Literature Review In-class Activity

Article 1:

Barnes Jr., J. H., & Doston, M. J. (1990). An exploratory investigation into the nature of offensive television advertising. Journal Of Advertising, 19(3), 61-69.

Article 2:

Phau, I., & Prendergast, G. (2001). Offensive advertising: A view from Singapore. Journal Of Promotion Management, 7(1/2), 71.

Article 3:

Waller, D. S. (1999). Attitudes towards offensive advertising: An Australian study. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 16(3), 288.

Identifying Scholarly Articles

what is a scholarly article (aec)

What is a scholarly article?

A scholarly article is how researchers (scholars) communicate the findings and analysis of their research. Scholarly articles:

  • Provide original research and analysis - these articles are based on studies or experiements, or analyze an artifact or event. Every scholarly article presents something new about the world we didn't know before.
  • Are written by scholars - scholars tend to hold PhDs, or other advanced degrees and are professors at universities.
  • Are published in peer-reviewed journals - you won't find these floating about on the internet, they have to be published in a journal. Most times you'll find them in the library databases.
  • Might be hard to read - they act as the primary conversation between scholars about a field of study. Since they are written by scholars, for scholars, they contain specialized language that might be hard for the lay person to understand.

Now that you know what they are, how do you read them? Watch this presentation to learn more. 

Qualitative v. Quantitative Methods

qual quant

Researchers use different types of methodologies based on their research question, or area of study. How can you tell what kind of methodology they've chosen?

Qualitative Methods Quantitative Methods

Methods include focus groups, in-depth interviews, reviews of documents or literature themes, and observations

 Surveys, controlled experiments,  and reviews of records or documents for numeric information
More subjective: describes a problem or condition from the point of view of those experiencing it More objective: provides observed effects (interpreted by researchers) of a program on a problem or condition 
Text-based  Number-based 
More in-depth information on a few cases  Less in-depth but more breadth of information across a large number of cases 
No (or few) statistical tests  Statistical tests are used for analysis
Less generalizable  More generalizable

 

Use this chart to help organize your work (used in K. Brown's Comm 390 course)

 

Additional resources:

Library Databases for Communication

COMM 390: Articles

 

Journal articles provide you with the latest research in your field. The research databases below will provide you with both scholarly and popular journal articles in communication.

Most Useful

Database Full Text Coverage Scholarly
Communication & Mass Media Complete
Provides abstracts and full text for more than 200 communication journals.
 		 Partial Full-text + SFX 1950→current some
Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA)
Provides abstracts of articles from about 2,000 journals (published worldwide), coverage of recent books, book review citations and dissertation listings.
 		 SFX 1973→current all
Academic Search Premier
Our most popular database. Covers a wide array of subjects with full text for nearly 1,850 scholarly journals, including more than 1,250 peer-reviewed titles.
 		 Partial Full-text + SFX 1984→current most

 

Also Useful

Database Full Text Coverage Scholarly
ERIC
A national database of education literature, including reports and journal articles.
 		 SFX 1966→current some
PsycINFO
Available via EbscoHost: A comprehensive international database of psychology, covering the academic, research, and practice literature in psychology from over 45 countries in more than 30 languages.
 		 Partial Full-text + SFX 1887→current all
Sociological Abstracts
Provides access to the latest international findings in theoretical and applied sociology, social science, and political science.
 		 SFX 1963→current all

Citations

COMM 200: Why Cite?


Why cite?

  • To give credit where credit is due;
  • So your reader (professor) can get the source that you mentioned in your assignment;
  • To add credibility to your research - shows you did the work;
  • Avoid plagiarism.

Learn more about writing citations and avoiding plagiarism by visiting these websites:


APA Style Guides

 

How to find an article's DOI (Digital Object Identifier

Need Help?

Allison Carr

Academic Transitions Librarian
Allison Carr, Academic Transitions Librarian
acarr@csusm.edu
760-750-4337
Office Location: 
KEL 3425

What is OneSearch?

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