PLATEAU STATE POLYTECHNIC BARKIN LADI
DEPARTMENT OF
MASS COMMUNICATIONS NDII
COURSE:
RESEARCH METHODS IN MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION
(MAC 212)
BY
YAKUBU JESSICA DAMMAYA
MAT NO
0134
ASSIGNMENT QUESTION:
1. GIVE AND ELABORATE EXPLANATION ON ANY TEN INDENTIFYING
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NATURAL SCIENCE RESEARCH AND SOCIAL
SCIENCE.
2. EXPLAIN IN 5 PARAGRAPH THE CONTRIBUTION OF MEDIA RESEARCH
TO BEHAVIORAL RESEARCH.
TO BE SUMMITTED TO:
DR. AYUBA JOHN RAMADAN
FEBRUARY. 2026.
1. Ten Differences Between Natural Science and Social Science Research
1. What They Study:
Natural Science: Studies nature and physical things. For example: rocks, chemicals,
plants, stars, and how the body works.
Social Science: Studies people and society. For example: how families work, why people
vote, or how culture changes.
2. Main Goal:
Natural Science: Wants to predict and control. It finds laws of nature so we can know
what will happen (like knowing water will boil at 100 degrees).
Social Science: Wants to understand and explain. It tries to understand why people
behave the way they do and what things mean to them.
3. Objectivity vs. Subjectivity:
Natural Science: Is very objective. The researcher must stay neutral and not let feelings
affect the results.
Social Science: Accepts some subjectivity. Researchers know that people’s feelings and
opinions matter, and it is hard to be 100% neutral when studying humans.
4. How They Do Research:
Natural Science: Mostly uses numbers and experiments. They measure things in labs and
do tests.
Social Science: Uses both numbers and words. They may do surveys, but they also
interview people or watch them in their daily lives.
5. Control Over Variables:
Natural Science: Has high control. In a lab, scientists can change one thing and keep
everything else the same to see what happens.
Social Science: Has low control. You cannot control everything when studying people
because life is too complicated.
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6. Repeating the Study:
Natural Science: Is easy to repeat. Another scientist can do the same experiment in
another lab and get the same results.
Social Science: Is hard to repeat. If you study a different group of people or a different
time, you may get different results.
7. Predictability:
Natural Science: Is very predictable. Under the same conditions, the same thing will
always happen.
Social Science: Is not very predictable. You can see trends (like "richer people vote
more"), but you cannot say exactly what one person will do.
8. Role of the Researcher:
Natural Science: The researcher is an outsider. They watch from a distance and do not get
involved.
Social Science: The researcher may become an insider. Sometimes they live with or join
the group they are studying to understand them better.
9. Ethical Issues:
Natural Science: Has some ethics (like not hurting animals), but studying a rock has no
ethics problems.
Social Science: Has many ethics problems. Researchers must protect people's privacy,
not lie to them, and make sure they are not hurt emotionally.
10. How Knowledge Grows:
Natural Science: Knowledge grows in a straight line. New discoveries build on old ones.
Social Science: Knowledge is always changing. Old ideas are not always wrong, but new
ways of looking at things can replace them.
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2. How Media Research Helps Behavioral Science
Media research studies things like TV, news, social media, and movies. It looks at how
these things affect people. This kind of research has helped behavioral science a lot. Behavioral
science is the study of why people act the way they do. By studying media, we have learned
many new things about human behavior.
First, media research showed that what we watch can change how we act. A famous
study by Albert Bandura used a Bobo doll. He made a video of a woman hitting a doll. When
children watched the video, they also hit the doll. This proved that people learn by watching
others. This idea, called observational learning, is now a big part of psychology. It helps us
understand why children copy what they see on TV or online.
Second, media research taught us that the news changes what we think is important. This
is called agenda-setting. If the news talks a lot about crime, people start to think crime is a big
problem. The news does not tell us what to think, but it tells us what to think about. This idea
helps behavioral scientists understand how our worries and opinions are shaped by the media we
consume.
Third, media research showed that watching too much TV can change how we see the
world. This is called cultivation theory. If people watch a lot of violent shows, they may start to
believe the world is more dangerous than it really is. This is called the "mean world syndrome."
This helps scientists see that media does not just affect us in small ways. It can slowly change
our whole view of life and make us more afraid or mistrusting.
In the end, media research is very important to behavioral science. It has given us new
ideas about learning, new ways to understand public opinion, and proof that media shapes how
we see reality. Because of media research, we know that to understand human behavior today,
we must also understand the movies, news, and social media that surround us every day.
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REFERENCES
Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Berger, A. A. (2014). Media and communication research methods: An introduction to
qualitative and quantitative approaches (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Bryman, A. (2012). Social research methods (4th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods
approaches (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage [Link]
Gerbner, G., Gross, L., Morgan, M., & Signorielli, N. (2002). Growing up with television:
Cultivation processes. In J. Bryant & D. Zillmann (Eds.), Media effects: Advances in theory
and research (pp. 43–67). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
McCombs, M. E., & Shaw, D. L. (1972). The agenda-setting function of mass media. Public
Opinion Quarterly, 36(2), 176–187.
Neuman, W. L. (2014). Social research methods: Qualitative and quantitative approaches (7th
ed.). Harlow, England: Pearson Education.
Okunna, C. S. (1999). Introduction to mass communication. Enugu: New Generation Books.
Wimmer, R. D., & Dominick, J. R. (2011). Mass media research: An introduction (9th ed.).
Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.