Research Methods in Digital Communication

Teacher(s)

Jacobs Thomas;

Language

English

Content

This course challenges students to develop and carry out a communication-scientific research project in a socio-scientifically rigorous manner. It focuses in particular on helping students master the methodological aspects of analysing digital technologies, digital communication, and social media; as well as their products, their representation, their perception, and their societal impact. The students will get the chance to familiarize themselves in-depth with the techniques, the methods, the attitudes, the philosophies, and the research objects of their preference, with the goal of teaching them to conduct research in an autonomous and critical fashion. In doing so, the course proposes a broad conception of what constitutes methodology: it does not just focus on the methods and techniques necessary to conduct communication-scientific research, but also poses larger epistemological and ethical questions about knowledge production in the digital era. Among others, the following topics are covered in the course: A general overview of what is understood when we talk about methodology in communication science and in the social sciences at large: what is a methodology in social science? How can we evaluate them? How are they linked to and part of a larger communication- or social-scientific approach or demarche? A reflection about the position that methodology occupies in a broader research plan: how do we align research questions and methodologies? How can a methodology operationalise certain concepts covered in the state of the art? How can a methodology guarantee the coherence of a research project? The conception and execution of a research method linked to a research question. The distinction and relation between data collection, data analysis, and interpretation. A reflection on the stakes and the transversal debates involved in research on digital communication: the characteristics of the internet as an research object/environment and its methodological impact, big data, ethical questions (the status of the observer, informed consent, confidentiality, anonymisation,...), the opportunities and risks of online technologies as tools for data collection and tools for analysis.

Teaching methods

This course is based on a mix of the following teaching methods:

• General ex cathedra classes
• The reading, presentation, and discussion of methodological texts or case studies in an interactive and collaborative fashion
• Individual feedback and work sessions
• 'Flipped classroom' teaching sessions
• Peer evaluation

The course starts with a series of ex cathedra classes in which key methodological principles (which the students already ought to be familiar with) are covered and the course's objectives are explained. The students will then start working on their own personal research project, and are given the opportunity to regularly sollicit individual feedback on their progress during the classes in the second half of the course.  

Evaluation methods

Students are evaluated based on an individual research project in which they have to demonstrate their methodological expertise and their capacity to align research question and methodology; collect, analyse, and interpret data; and convincingly answer a research question. This research project comprises the writing of a research paper, the curation of a corpus, and the analytical processing of this corpus centred on a methodology of their choice. The evaluation of this project foceses on students' capacity to make, explain, legitimate, evaluate, critique, and reflect on methodological choices. 
A minimal participation in class is required to have one's research project admissable. In the event of an unjustified failure to participate in a sufficient number of feedback sessions, the student will receive a final mark of 0A/20 for the course at the first session.
All assignments produced in the context of this class are a personal production. Students are expected to scrupulously respect the rules and the good practices when it comes to citation, referencing, and avoiding (self-)plagiarism. Students are expected to know and understand as to what these rules and practices comprise. Any failure to apply them may lead to an academic and/or disciplinary sanction for plagiarism and/or irregularity, in accordance with the general regulations for studies and examinations.
“Reusing” a personal or group assignment carried out within the framework of any other teaching unit requires a great deal of caution. Such an approach may be considered, provided that the student requests explicit permission from the professor or the assistant; justifies this “reuse” in the assignment, which, as a whole, must obviously constitute an original contribution to the first work; and scrupulously applies the rules of citation and referencing to any use of this assignment. Failure to comply with these rules may be considered self-plagiarism and as such constitutes an irregularity.
The use of generative AI is accepted as long as it is occasional and limited. The use of AI must be explicitly indicated and referenced. Any part of the work relying, in any way, on generative AI must be clearly identified (for example, by a footnote), specifying which generative AI tool was used, for what purpose, in what way, and to what extent. Failure to do so may constitute an irregularity.

Other information

Students who cannot attend classes in person are invited to contact the lecturer to discuss alternative pedagogical avenues.
The powerpoints and reading materials used in this course will be available via Moodle.

Bibliography

Babbie, E. R. (2021). The practice of social research (15th ed.). Cengage.
Clark, T., Foster, L., Sloan, L., & Bryman, A. (2021). Bryman’s social research methods (6th ed.). Oxford University Press.
Housley, W., Edwards, A., Beneito-Montagut, R., & Fitzgerald, R. (Eds.). (2022). The SAGE handbook of digital society. SAGE.
Quan-Haase, A., & Sloan, L. (Eds.). (2022). The SAGE handbook of social media research methods (2nd ed.). SAGE.
Rivas, C., & Seale, C. (Eds.). (2025). Researching society and culture (5th ed.). SAGE.
(cette bibliographie est indicative des sujets couverts dans le cours ; this bibliography is intended as an indication of the themes and topics covered in this course)

Faculty or entity

> ESPB