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
5
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.
Delivering a high-quality product at a reasonable price is not enough anymore.
That’s why we have developed 5 beneficial guarantees that will make your experience with our service enjoyable, easy, and safe.
You have to be 100% sure of the quality of your product to give a money-back guarantee. This describes us perfectly. Make sure that this guarantee is totally transparent.
Read moreEach paper is composed from scratch, according to your instructions. It is then checked by our plagiarism-detection software. There is no gap where plagiarism could squeeze in.
Read moreThanks to our free revisions, there is no way for you to be unsatisfied. We will work on your paper until you are completely happy with the result.
Read moreYour email is safe, as we store it according to international data protection rules. Your bank details are secure, as we use only reliable payment systems.
Read moreBy sending us your money, you buy the service we provide. Check out our terms and conditions if you prefer business talks to be laid out in official language.
Read more