Welcome to SM 349

1
Welcome to SM 349
If I had a world of my own, everything would be
nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because
everything would be what it isn't. It would be
so nice if something would make sense for a
change. Curiouser and curiouser. Curiosity
often leads to trouble. Alice (in Wonderland)
2
Doing the Class

• Get to CTools I use www.umich.edu
• Click on SM 349 001 W08
• Check Announcements
• Go to Resources START HERE

8/16/2009
3
Anything Else?

• Add here

8/16/2009
4
Chapter 1- What Is Research
When a workman knows the value of his tools, he
can make a door as well as a window. --Mary Anne
Evans (English novelist, aka George Eliot).
5
Chapter Overview

• What research is not.
• What research is.
• Discovering the discipline.
• Some fun.

6
Warm Up the 2007 U.S. Open

• Google U.S. Open ratings down
• www.newyorkbusiness.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID
  /20070904/FREE/70904008/1040
• First week total viewers down 18 relative to the
  same time last year.
• Attendance appears stronger than last year
  659,563 for same two weeks last year, already
  625,000 for one week (not including walkups).
• Up against Americas Got Talent and CSI.
• U.S. Open directors moved the Venus
  Williams/Jelena Jankovic quarter-final to
  Thursday PM.

7
Warm Up the 2007 U.S. Open

• Google U.S. Open ratings down
• www.multichannel.com/article/CA6475095.html
• Early ratings returns from USA Network are down,
  but in line with the channels expectations.
• 2006 benefited from Agassiz swan song.
• Drop in viewers 25 to 54.
• Steady among viewers 18 to 49.
• Daytime was a mixed bag, down only slightly.

8
What Is the Issue?

• Viewership is down.
• Thurs. PM appears to be a hot spot as people come
  home from work and (I guess) relax a bit with
  some tennis relative to other evenings.
• If you were to think about this issue, what
  occurs to you?

9
Student List

• Down significantly? Related Is it that big a
  deal?
• What are the other options for viewers that might
  have changed.
• What is different about The Open, itself? E.G.
  Agassiz retirement in 2006.
• Weather?
• Others?

10
Article Viewing Data (000)
11
Data Assessment

• There are more households viewing this year, up
  13. Might wish you could get more of them, but
• Adjusting as a share of last years households,
  rating becomes
• 731,000/107,625,000 0.7
• 0.7 v. 0.8 is (7-8)/8-12.5
• Does it seem significant, statistically speaking?
• Does it seem important? How do you decide?

12
An interesting other Google

• Google U.S. Open attendance
• http//www.usta.com/news/fullstory.sps?inewsid360
  543
• U.S. Open Sets First Week Records For TV
  Viewership, Attendance and Website Traffic
  9/4/06 753 PM
• USA Network ratings were up 57 through Thursday
  (first four days) with the Agassi-Baghdatis match
  on Thursday night equaling USA Networks highest
  rating in four years.
• USA Network earned its best Opening Night rating
  in its 23 years of U.S. Open coverage.
• CBS Sports rating . on Sunday, September 3, was
  the highest rating for a first weekend Sunday
  since 1990.  The rating was a 30 increase over
  2005 and peaked in the 2 pm to 230 pm.
• So, is the issue important, comparative speaking?

13
A Broader Approach

• Is the issue important? Why?
• Is the issue worth investigating? Why?
• If so, how would you approach the issue? What is
  already known? What remains to be discovered?
• What determines viewing?
• What is the precise statement of the problem?
  What is the hypothesis test?
• What measures of viewing are useful? And which
  are not useful?
• How will the measures be used to analyze the
  data?
• How will significance be evaluated after the
  analysis is completed?

14
Chapter 1. Research What is it and what is it
NOT?

• Which of the following examples illustrates
  research the way it is defined in your text
• Surveying the research library on writings about
  the effects of steroids on fan welfare and
  attendance.
• Surveying fans and team marketing personnel, and
  assessing any changes in other fan spending
  opportunities, to make sense of a decline in
  attendance for the local hockey team.
• Deciding which prices to charge for sports
  memorabilia by shopping as many similar
  businesses close to your location and farther
  away.

15
Research What is it and what is it NOT?

• Which of the following examples illustrates
  research the way it is defined in your text
• Surveying the research library on writings about
  the effects of steroids on fan welfare and
  attendance.
• Surveying fans and team marketing personnel, and
  assessing any changes in other fan spending
  opportunities, to make sense of a decline in
  attendance for the local hockey team.
• Deciding which prices to charge for sports
  memorabilia by shopping as many similar
  businesses close to your location and farther
  away.

16
Research What is it and what is it NOT?

• Doing research means gathering and interpreting
  information in a systematic fashion so as to
  increase understanding of some phenomenon.
• Always cyclicalcloses the circle from question
  to understanding.
• Sometimes helical!Opens lines of subsequent
  questions. The more I know, the less I
  understand!

17
Where Does Research Begin?

• The formal research process begins with
  identifying
• The formal hypothesis statement.
• A feasible research plan.
• A careful data gathering technique.
• The research problem.

18
Where Does Research Begin?

• The formal research process begins with
  identifying
• The formal hypothesis statement.
• A feasible research plan.
• A careful data gathering technique.
• The research problem.

19
Where Does Research Begin? Continued

• Without an important, carefully considered,
  specific problem, all the rest is wasted.
• Pitfall A broad, imprecise problem statement.
• You can only spin your wheels with such a poor
  start!

20
Where Does Research Begin? U.S. Open

• Can we get a problem statement for the U.S. Open
  example?
• Put problem statement here.
• Can we put it in the form of a hypothesis test?
• Put formal hypothesis statement here
• H0
• HA

21
Support versus Fail to Support

• Researchers set out to fail to support the
  maintained hypothesis. This is because
• This is a more rigorous test than trying to
  support the hypothesis.
• Nothing can actually be proven by accumulating
  and analyzing data.
• Both of the above.
• Neither of the above.

22
Support versus Fail to Support

• Researchers set out to fail to support the
  maintained hypothesis. This is because
• This is a more rigorous test than trying to
  support the hypothesis.
• Nothing can actually be proven by accumulating
  and analyzing data.
• Both of the above.
• Neither of the above.

23
Support versus Fail to Support

• Researchers set out to fail to support the
  maintained hypothesis. This is because
• Doing your level best to disprove something, and
  failing to do so, provides stronger evidence in
  favor of the maintained hypothesis.
• E.G. If Im actively trying to disprove
  something, Ill stretch my resources and
  imagination as far as possible. If not, Ill be
  satisfied with a less comprehensive approach.
• Accumulation of data and its analysis is just one
  example on one data set proof requires review
  and replication and, even then, it is an
  accumulation of what is known so far.

24
Be Careful About Your Own Biases

• Assumptions come into play
• In regard to nearly every aspect of every
  research study.
• In qualitative research but not in quantitative
  research.
• When research is not well thought out.
• Rarely, if ever.

25
Be Careful About Your Own Biases

• Assumptions come into play
• In regard to nearly every aspect of every
  research study.
• In qualitative research but not in quantitative
  research.
• When research is not well thought out.
• Rarely, if ever.

26
Be Careful About Your Own Biases U.S. Open

• What type of assumptions might govern the actual
  assessment of the U.S. Open example?
• List them here.
• Bias and EIAs.

27
Evaluative Checklist Helps.

• Youll know a good piece of research, when you
  see it eventually, if it clicks on the checklist
  on p. 9-10.

28
Chapter Overview

• What research is not.
• What research is.
• Discovering the discipline.
• Some fun.