Note that the (survey) instruments need not be 100% identical but can still be adapted to account for relevant variations. Comparative research in communication and media studies is conventionally understood as the contrast among different macro‐level units, such as world regions, countries, sub‐national regions, social milieus, language areas and cultural thickenings, at one point or more points in time. For example, having drawn a media sample in country A, what are the equivalents in countries B, C, and D? Formally speaking, most similar systems designs “manipulate” the independent variable by purposefully selecting cases for the analysis that in many ways are very similar (e.g., Scandinavian media systems) but differ in the one critical variable (e.g., granting press subsidies or not). In this paper, we are going to take a closer look at two different forms of research We expect that the unfamiliarity with the possibilities and challenges of comparative research among communication scholars also contributes to the paucity of solid comparative studies, and thus, we hope this entry fills part of this void. Additionally, careful theoretical argumentation is crucial. This technique often utilizes multiple disciplines in one study. For all five research goals, the selection of which cases are included in the comparison is crucial. Spatially, cross-national comparisons are by far the most common, although comparisons within countries, contrasting different areas, cultures or governments also subsist and are very constructive, especially in a country like New Zealand, where policy often changes depending on which race it pertains to. These external influences can express structural power or dependency relations between media systems (i.e., the hegemonic impact of core powers on peripheral systems in a given network), cultural imperialism of values (“Americanization”), penetration of ideological or economic values (from the West to the South or East), or more neutral processes of interconnectivity and diffusion of ideas. Put differently, transborder influences are likely to trigger cultural shifts and structural transformations within media systems. Both strategies have many parallels and can be pulled together under the rubrics of Most Similar Systems – Different Outcomes and Most Different Systems – Similar Outcomes. In other words, it is part of the emergence of episteme and philo-sophia, as a love for knowledge that is independent from material benefits. An issue for many of the studies, however, is the limited number of cases. Thus, it is not only territories that can be compared. Implicit comparisons use existing typologies as a yardstick to interpret and contextualize the single case at hand. KONTEYNER TERMİNAL EKİPMANLARI ARASINDA OPERASYONEL VERİMLİLİĞE GÖRE LİMAN EKİPMAN SEÇİMİ: KARŞILAŞTIRMALI BİR SİMULASYON ANALİZİ. These studies contain both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Research Methodology Vs. Research Methods A well-defined research methodology helps you conduct your research in the right direction, validates the results of your research, and makes sure that the study you are conducting answers the set research questions. Let us assume that one is interested in the relationship between press subsidies (i.e., state aid available to newspapers in some media systems but not in others) and press diversity (measured by the number of newspapers in the market): to examine whether press subsidies generally promote press diversity or not requires a comparative analysis. Whereas the so-called functionalists only look at the written law, the “law as culture”-approach demands for taking into consideration also the surrounding factors and conditions such as religion, society or economic situation. Finally, trends such as internationalization and globalization require the researcher to consider multiple units of analysis and integrate them into a single empirical design to better understand more of today's complex reality. The result from the back‐translation is then compared with the original version to evaluate the quality of the translation. Norris and Inglehart (2009) produced a ranking that vividly illustrates the extent to which the world's countries have become cosmopolitan, that is, absorbent of transborder influences. Health Monitor Journal of the Iranian Institute for Health Sciences Research. This explanatory logic can be distinguished from a mere descriptive comparison that is considered less mature, and it also extends clearly beyond the general advantages of comparison as outlined before and constitutes the status of comparative analysis as a separate and original approach. Research is defined as, a careful consideration of study regarding a particular concern or a problem using scientific methods. These include descriptive, basic explanatory, comparison of relation, and comparative explanatory questions. In addition to these general benefits, comparison also has specific scientific advantages. These new spaces are de‐territorialized, that is, they are no longer confined to territorial borders and have been variously called translocal mediascapes (Appadurai, 1996), “emerging transnational mediated spheres” (Hellman & Riegert, 2012), “new forms of public connectivity” (Voltmer, 2012) or, more briefly, “media cultures” (Couldry & Hepp, 2012). Fourth, the objects of analysis must be compared on the basis of a common theoretical framework and must draw on equivalent conceptualizations and methods rather than be analyzed separately. A hands‐on primer on how to conduct multilevel models is available in Hayes (2005). When the independent variable interacts with a variable measured at the higher level, a comparative explanatory question is addressed. 4 (November): 501–506. Again, this input includes the scores of a mid‐range number of cases according to a predefined set of variables. To conduct multivariate statistical techniques, a considerable number of cases are required, and in many instances, data for a sufficient number of cases are unavailable. The second model relies on random effects wherein relationships across variables measured at the lower level differ across higher level units. The two main choices within this model are comparing two stages in time (either snapshots or time-series), or just comparing the same thing over time, to see if a policy's effects differ over a stretch of time.[3]. Examples of de‐territorialized communities include international movements of online activism, audiences of global crisis events and international entertainment programs, fans of international celebrities, followers of international religious movements, and satellite television viewerships of ethnic diasporas dispersed over many countries. In this case, two levels are combined, the individual (micro) level and the macro (country) level, where the first is nested in the latter. In those instances, techniques such as multidimensional scaling, correspondence analysis, or cluster analysis may be warranted. A sophisticated extension of the most different and most similar logic was developed by Charles Ragin (1987, 2008). 397–398). Content Analysis, Quantitative; This question of comparability leads us to the problem of equivalence, as differences and similarities between cases can only be established if equivalence has been secured at various levels. A recent synthesis by Esser and Hanitzsch (2012a) concluded that comparative communication research involves comparisons between a minimum of two macro‐level cases (systems, cultures, markets, or their sub‐elements) in which at least one object of investigation is relevant to the field of communication. As Rihoux (2006, p. 682) points out, QCA assumes that (a) causality is often a combination of “conditions” (explanatory variables) that in interaction eventually produces a phenomenon—the “outcome” (phenomenon to be explained); (b) several different combinations of conditions may produce the same outcome; and (c) depending on the context a given condition may very well have a different impact on the outcome. Applying fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis to the personalization of mediated political communication, Dimensions of political news cultures: Sound bite and image bite news in France, Germany, Great Britain, and the United States, On the why and how of comparative inquiry in communication studies, Meeting the challenges of global communication and political integration: The significance of comparative research in a changing world, Comparing political communication. Similarly, when drawing samples for cross‐national surveys, external statistical data on the structure of a country's population must be considered. 10+ Comparative Research Examples In the latter case, descriptive comparative analysis employs statistical techniques, such as factor analysis or cluster analysis, whereas explanatory comparative analysis employs statistical techniques, such as regression analysis or analysis of variance. Only in the past decade have communication scientists slowly begun to more widely integrate comparative elements into their research. In such instances, not only do the number of observations increase, but also both cross‐sectional and cross‐time variance in the dependent variable can be considered. Determining whether socioeconomic or political factors are more important in explaining government action is a familiar theme. This book contributes new … They investigate the effect of exposure to conflict framing on turnout for the 2009 European parliamentary elections campaign. Mono‐national case studies can contribute to comparative research if they are composed with a larger framework in mind and follow the Method of Structured, Focused Comparison (George & Bennett, 2005). Those interested in more advanced techniques for testing and for optimizing equivalence, such as congruence coefficient analysis, multigroup confirmatory factor analysis or latent class analysis, may refer to the work of Wirth and Kolb (2012). In many respects, the challenges to conduct solid comparative research are tremendous, as will become clear throughout this entry. His approach, Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), is a configurational or holistic comparative method which considers each case (system, culture) as a complex entity, as a “whole,” which needs to be studied in a case‐sensitive way. Researchers get easily lost when embarking on comparative legal research. Comparative research aims to understand how characteristic factors of the contextual environment shape communication processes differently in different settings. As an alternative, Wirth and Kolb (2012) suggest that scholars offer qualitative discussions of functional equivalence based on explorations of the concept's dimensions, theoretical considerations, additional information, and expert advice. It is a concept that requires the researcher to explicitly detail the relationship of an individual system to a larger, more potent connecting structure, such as its membership to a European film industry, a shared and border‐transgressing journalism culture, an Asian media market, and so on, that affects the behaviors of its parts. The goal is to determine the extent to which two or more variables co‐vary. This is also the case in the study by Strömbäck and Van Aelst. A similar technique is correspondence analysis, a technique in which specifically nominal variables are used to construct dimensions. Regression Analysis, Linear; The goal of the second sub‐approach is to develop new classification schemes that may serve as a foundation for new forms of comparison. Through non-experimental or qualitative research, you can include this type of research method in your comparative research design. His books include Comparing Political Communication (2004, with B. Pfetsch), Handbook of Comparative Communication Research (2012, with T. Hanitzsch), and Comparing Political Journalism (2016, with de Vreese and Hopmann). You'll learn howto use comparative methods for constructive explanation and theory building and applyit to real-world politics. Cosmopolitan communications: Cultural diversity in a globalized world, Doing research in political science. The first combines a presidential system with low party identification, and the second is low party identification combined with professionalized campaigns and strong tabloid media. Additionally, macro‐level factors are considered moderators that influence relationships between variables at the lower level. To answer this question, we distinguish five practical steps, each connected to a specific research goal. 56–57). Comparative Research Method. Emic Approach to Qualitative Research; An early framework that attempted to account for the complex relationships between supranational forces and individual cases is Tilly's (1984) idea of encompassing comparisons. One such challenge is the rigid application of comparative logics, which is in line with work on most similar and most different systems designs as found in political science. If preliminary analyses based on literature research, expert testimony, pretests and triangulation of alternative methods reveal that different indicators are necessary to capture the same underlying meaning of the concept, researchers can still undertake their study by following an emic approach. Reliability; Hospital accreditation method: A comparative study. It is now vital that these concepts and frameworks be used, criticized, amended, and refined as beginning from scratch in each new publication will not advance the field of comparative communication research. The first option is to determine the extent to which they have actually achieved construct equivalence after the fact, primarily by means of statistical analysis. are used and the outcome from these methods is represented in numerical form. An example of a comparative explanatory question is found in the study by Schuck, Vliegenthart, and de Vreese (2016). The challenge to establishing a causal link lies in the question of how to deal with all the other known and unknown variables that also differentiate these media systems (for example, market size) and may have plausible effects on the outcome variable (that is market pluralism). Consequently, they call for “harmonization of the research object and the research method” across studies to guarantee the best possible comparability and generalizability. (KW, 02-2020) 2004. While this solves the issue of too few observations, it also poses additional challenges related to the particular characteristics of pooled time series, in particular, the fact that the observations are not independent. If one is able to sufficiently distinguish two carry the research conclusions will not be very helpful. Today, “the” standard form of comparative analysis is usually equated with research methods based on John Stuart Mill's (1843) Methods of Agreement and Difference and Adam Przeworski and Henry Teune's (1970) Most Different and Most Similar Systems Designs. Sample equivalence refers in surveys to an equal selection of respondents and in media content analyses to an equal selection of news outlets. One key characteristic of QCA is that it dichotomizes the variables included such that a certain phenomenon (being an explanatory variable or an outcome variable) is absent (out) or present (in). Different contextual conditions (=factors of influence) are used to explain different outcomes regarding the object under investigation (=embedded in these contexts and hence affected by them), while similar contextual conditions are used to explain similar outcomes. Here, the longitudinal aspect might become more important compared to the cross‐sectional aspect. Providing contextual descriptions of a set of foreign systems or cultures enhances our understanding and our ability to interpret diverse communication arrangements. With the medical students gathered around, the physicians conducting the autopsy observed that the patient's lungs were speckled with large dark masses of cells that had caused extensi… The third issue to consider is that of contemporaneous correlation, which indicates there is correlation between observations within different units that are measured at the same time. toavoidbiasesinmeasurement,instruments,andsampling.Weintroduceatypology. Reese (2001) argues, for instance, that the meaning of journalistic professionalism varies across countries depending on factors of influence on several layers of analysis. Thus, a native language approach where all coding instruments are translated into the various native languages is a less than ideal approach because it is essentially impossible to determine meaningful reliability coefficients among the coder groups in different languages. London: Routledge. Alternatively, multidimensional scaling can be used to check the cross‐cultural validity of a survey scale. Thus, each biannual observation can be considered a separate case. [4] A typical method of comparing welfare states is to take balance of their levels of spending on social welfare.[3]. Comparative studies can be used to increase understanding between cultures and societies and create a foundation for compromise and collaboration. First, they must be embedded in a comparative context and their analytical tools must come from the comparative literature. The fourth step is explanation. It combines quantitative, variable‐based logic and qualitative, case‐based interpretation. Political affairs coverage in U.S., British, German, Swiss, French and Italian newspapers, Case studies and theory development in the social sciences, Comparing media systems: Three models of media and politics, Modeling perceived influences on journalism: Evidence from a cross‐national survey of journalists, Explaining journalists' trust in public institutions across 20 countries: Media freedom, corruption and ownership matter most, Cross contextualization in cross‐national comparative research, Statistical methods for communication science, Emerging transnational news spheres in global crisis reporting: A research agenda, Political communication across the world: Methodological issues involved in international comparisons, Sourcebook for political communication research: Methods, measures, and analytical techniques. To conduct a multilevel model, one needs a reasonable number of higher level units, specifically, a minimum of 10–15 units is required. Multidimensional scaling, however, can be based on any similarity/dissimilarity matrix. Comparative Research Methods; Norris (2009) states that without a guiding theoretical map, comparativists “remain stranded in Babel” (p. 323) and that only the development of widely shared core theoretical concepts and standardized operational measures can reduce the “cacophonous Babel” in comparative communication research (p. 327). Macro‐level cases, however defined, are assumed to provide characteristic contextual conditions for a certain object that is investigated across cases. However, as these authors also note, though the techniques just mentioned work well for multi‐country surveys, they are less efficient for comparative content analysis. On the one hand, this can be interpreted as a sign of communication science maturing as a research discipline. isegoria and parrhesia), as part of Greek politics, is associated with the effort of the first historians to reflect on home institutions through researching those of others.[10]. Explore comparative analysis and itsimportance in the social sciences. The first is heterogeneity, which refers to the differences in levels of the dependent variable across units (in this example, countries) that cannot be explained by the independent variables included in the model. An ideal study combines both options by first developing a conceptual framework based on multinational input and then identifying the extent to which conceptual equivalence can be assumed on the basis of the investigated empirical material. With both strategies, the systems are selected with regard to the specific contextual conditions influencing the object under investigation (for details, see Landman, 2008). That is, if the value items yield similar patterns of correlations across all countries under study, external construct equivalence is assumed to be ensured (Wirth & Kolb, 2012). This logic is inherent in all most similar systems designs. And the same applies to comparative research based on content analyses; here similar tests of measurement equivalence can be conducted (Wirth & Kolb, 2012). Each dimension must be interpreted post hoc based on its underlying variables. The fourth issue is that of unit‐level heteroscedasticity, which suggests that the model explains variance for one unit better than it does for the other. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Comparative_research&oldid=984211156, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 18 October 2020, at 21:12. Globalization has been a major factor, increasing the desire and possibility for educational exchanges and intellectual curiosity about other cultures. We introduce a typology of different types of research questions that can be addressed with comparative research, as well as the most common statistical techniques associated with those research questions. As comparative research offers the opportunity to address a particular set of questions that are of crucial importance for our understanding of a wide range of communicative processes, it deserves a central position in communication science. Nonetheless, substantial progress has been made due to the increased application of comparative conceptual frameworks and the availability of comparative, mainly cross‐national, data. He noticed there was a difference in types of social welfare systems, and compared them based on their level of decommodification of social welfare goods. 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