Communication 300 – Shaker Principles of Communication

Literature Review

Aim. Your aim in this assignment is to write a literature review that: 1) states a clear thesis

about a specific media effect; 2) outlines the theoretical process that might be responsible for

the effect in question; and 3) critically evaluates available research bearing on the effect and

the processes hypothetically driving it. The assignment should not involve any original data

collection (for instance, analysis of media content, interviews, or surveys). Rather, you will

make use of existing research as reported in books and journal articles to argue your thesis.

(See “Writing Your Literature Review”).

Length. Your literature review should be 8-10 pages long (typed, double-spaced, 12-point

Times New Roman font, l-inch margins).

Content. The paper should contain the following:

1. An introduction, from one to three paragraphs in length. This section of your paper

should try to draw the reader into your argument and set the stage for what follows. Be

sure to state your thesis clearly and give the reader a sense of how your argument (not

just your paper) will be structured.

2. A well-organized main body that arranges arguments and evidence supporting your

thesis in a logical and structured way. You may organize your paper in any number of

ways, provided that it gives the reader a coherent body of support for your paper’s

overall thesis. You must incorporate a minimum of ten to tw e l ve pieces of scholarly

research outside our syllabus (see “Writing Your Research Paper”). However, you

should not merely review each work serially. Organize your ideas into larger, main

lines of argument that support your thesis.

3. A forceful concluding section that recapitulates your argument and underlines its

significance.

Assignment Timeline & Components. We will work on the literature review throughout the term

as the primary focus of Communication 300. As such, there is a series of related assignments that

build towards the submission (and presentation) of your final paper (cumulatively worth 50% of

your course grade).

Topic & Research Proposal. On October 12
th

, you will submit a document that has two

parts: a short 300-500 word statement that includes your planned thesis and outlines your

paper topic + a bibliography of sources you will use for the paper.

Annotated Bibliography. On November 2
nd

, you will submit an annotated bibliography

that revises and expands upon the list of sources that you submitted previously. Along

with each citation, you will now provide short summaries/notes that outline the relevant

elements of each source that you plan to use in your paper. Additionally, please include

Communication 300 – Shaker Principles of Communication

your proposed thesis statement at the top of the document. I recommend that you take the

time to group these summaries together in a coherent fashion that forecasts how you will

synthesize them into the sections that support your argument. You may use written prose

summaries or bullet-points to organize these annotations. See the assigned readings for

more information on annotated bibliographies.

Complete Rough Draft. On November 16
th

, you will submit a completed rough draft of

your paper via Canvas. This draft should be correctly formatted following APA

standards, including a title page and a works cited section (see citation section below). To

reiterate, this should be a complete—not partial—draft of your paper. Bring two printed

copies of this draft to class. We will engage in structured self- and peer-review of your

paper.

Final Paper & Revision Memo. On November 30
th

, the final draft of your literature

review + a memo that outlines the changes you made between your submitted rough draft

& your completed final draft are due via Canvas. Your final paper should be polished

work that shows the advantages of iterative work. Expect the grading (outlined by the

provided rubric) to be stricter than on the rough draft. So: a good grade on the rough draft

does not guarantee a good grade on the final draft. Meanwhile, your memo (300-500

words) should explain the problems that the self/peer-review process identified & the

changes you made to fix them.

Presentation Slides. The (very brief) slides that you’ll use to present your work to the

class must be uploaded via Canvas by November 30
th

. Put simply, your task is to distill

your literature review to three tweets. See Canvas for a template to use. Each student will

present their work starting on November 30
th

.

Citations and references. Use the APA author/date system for all in-text citations, e.g.,

“Agenda setting theory received an important boost from an empirical study by McCombs

and Shaw (1972).” Direct quotations from a source must include page numbers, for example:

(McCombs and Shaw, 1972, p. 177). List all of your references at the end of your paper, in

alphabetical order, following the APA’s general style as in the following example:

McCombs, M. E., & Shaw, D. L. (1972). The agenda-setting function of the media.

Public Opinion Quarterly, 36(1), 176-187.

Consultation. You are strongly encouraged to consult me or your TA early about this

assignment. You may be confused: talk to us! We will do our best to offer ample office hours

for this purpose, but cannot guarantee availability if you wait until late in the quarter to see

us.

Communication 300 Principles of Communication

3

Writing Your Literature Review

To write a successful paper, you must have a thesis to argue. Specifica1ly, you will need to

select a particular hypothesis about an effect of the media and systematically examine

available evidence about that effect, gleaned from research literature. Below, find a series of

steps to follow in generating your thesis, gathering information about it, revising or

extending it, and then organizing your research into an effective paper. (NOTE: You should

not write your paper using these steps as an outline. See step six below.)

1. Choose a Research Question

Your research question should be relevant to the study of Communication. What interests

you about this field? Social media? News and politics? Video games and children? These are

all broadly viable areas, but you will have to translate the general topic (e.g., news media or

social media) into a question (e.g., “How is the decline of print media affecting American

politics?” or “What implications do social media have for American family life?”).

You will need to be able to explain why the question you have selected is important. Why

does it matter? It may be the case that the question you have identified has practical

implications for media organizations, broad social implications, or something important to

add to our theoretical understanding of mass communication processes. You need to be in a

position to identify and explain, in clear and specific terms, why the question is compelling.

2. Provide a Tentative Answer to your Question

The next step involves formulating a tentative answer to your research question. This answer

encapsulates your planned argument or thesis (e.g., “The decline of print media threatens

democracy” or “Social media use furthers the clustering of Americans in smaller social units

defined by close family ties”). You can base this initial argument on a “best guess” grounded

in experience, on some logical deductions from a few premises you are willing to accept,

through a prediction stemming from a particular theory, or from observations gleaned from

your prior reading. Whatever the source of your initial answer, you will need to take a stand

in response to your research question and explain clearly and specifically why you’ve adopted

this particular point of view.

3. Find Sources that Support, or Contain Evidence Contrary to, your Thesis

Now that you have narrowed your broad topic down to a specific (albeit tentative) argument,

you need to find peer-reviewed sources show you whether your initial thesis is most likely

correct, in need of modification, or most likely incorrect. This is the information-gathering

phase of your research, and you will be most successful here if you have a clear thesis in

mind. Formulating a tentative answer to your question above narrows the range of material

you need to seek out and it helps you determine more quickly what sources you locate are

useful.

Communication 300 Principles of Communication

4

At this stage, try to remain completely open to the possibility that your initial thesis is

incorrect; in fact, setting out to prove yourself wrong is often a useful strategy. If you

succeed in convincing yourself that another argument is superior, then you will have

amassed good evidence for that new thesis. If you remain convinced of your initial thesis,

you will have considered careful counter-arguments and can use them to defend your stance.

For this paper, you are expected to make use of a minimum of 10-12 peer-reviewed sources

of information. Although you may find general interest sources (e.g., Politico, The Atlantic)

or trade publications (e.g., Editor & Publisher) to be useful, you should depend mainly on

academic publications (though you can include non-academic sources as supplements).

There are many useful journals to consult for this purpose, both within the field of

communication, (e.g., Journal of Communication, Communication Research, New Media &

Society, Political Communication, Public Opinion Quarterly, Journal of Broadcasting and

Electronic Media), and in other social sciences (e.g., American Journal of Political Science,

American Political Science Review, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,

American Journal of Sociology). Visits with your TA can be of value in giving direction as

you search for information sources relevant to your research question and preliminary thesis.

My favorite database to search is the Web of Science; you may also find Google Scholar and

Oxford Bibliographies Online helpful.

I recommend that you use citation-management software such as Zotero to facilitate your

research and streamline the attribution process. Using it from the start of your research

process will eliminate the most tedious work at the end of writing your paper.

4. Revise and Restate your Thesis

After you have completed your reading, you should be able to restate your final thesis in very

clear and direct terms. You may, for example, be able to focus on a particular aspect of your

thesis that, in your view, has the largest or most interesting implications (e.g., “Though new

digital sources of political news offer rich access to national political information, only some

members of the public are capable of effectively navigating the digital environment to locate

quality information.” or “Social media, by effectively collapsing many communication

functions within single platforms, remove a number of currently public activities from the

sphere of local community and place them in the private sphere.”). Keep in mind that, if you

have changed your thesis, you can now use your own “first hunch” to powerful rhetorical

effect (e.g., “Although many would suppose that social media represent the next major phase

of privatization in American life, these technologies in fact offer new opportunities for social

interaction and community building that may strengthen communities.”)

5. Evaluate the Implications of your Thesis

The final and perhaps most important part of your task will be to return to your initial

Communication 300 Principles of Communication

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question, to the reasons you found the question important, and to consider again in light of

your research, what can or should be done. That is, what does your thesis suggest about

logical next steps: More research? If so, what sorts of studies? Consumer awareness? If so,

how? New social policy? If so, of what kind? Consideration of these issues will capture

reader interest, help you say something useful, and give your work added relevance. These

insights are especially useful at informing the introduction and conclusion sections of your

paper.

6. Write a Well-Organized Argumentative Paper Explaining and Defending your Thesis

The final step of the process involves the actual writing of your paper. Your paper will not be

organized around the five preceding steps: Those are phases of the research process, and the

point of your paper is not to rehearse what you went through. Your process is not important

to the reader; your product is what counts. Focus on presenting your evidence and

conclusions as clearly and persuasively as possible.

Three general points are important to keep in mind as you draft the paper. First, be direct and

to the point. State your thesis clearly and specifically in your introduction, and signal the

general organization of your argument to the reader. Second, arrange supporting arguments

in a coherent and structured way. Do not simply review the books and articles you have read

in a serial fashion. Instead, if you have many different pieces of research to relate, synthesize

them into larger, main lines of argument (e.g., three general points) in the body of your

paper. Third, be certain to end your paper with a strong concluding section that wraps up the

argument in a forceful way and underlines its significance.

Please use the American Psychological Association’s author/date system for in­text citations,

as in the following examples. This is very simple to automate with Zotero.

“Agenda setting theory received an important boost from an empirical study by

McCombs and Shaw (1972).”

“Agenda setting research has been a key area of media research for the past

quarter­century (e.g., McCombs & Shaw, 1972; Iyengar & Kinder, 1987).”

List all of your references at the end of your paper, in alphabetical order, following the

general style recommended by the APA, as in the following examples:

Iyengar, S., & Kinder, D. R. (1987). News that matters: Television and American

opinion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

McCombs, M. E., & Shaw, D. L. (1972). The agenda-setting function of the media.

Public Opinion Quarterly, 36(1), 176-187.