The benefits of COM450, what differentiates it from other communication courses, is its focus on developing good research skills and a competency with statistics.

A key element in your future success as a professional is the ability to conduct sound research. The importance of this competency should not be taken lightly.

The typical student today often lacks the competency known as critical thinking, and more importantly, the ability to 'free associate' and identify things that are important to them, and that have inter-related characteristics. It is these relationships between prospective survey variables that serve as the focus for the students' survey questionnaire(s).

There are two major assignments that must be completed in order to successfully pass this course: (1) A Communication Research Assignment, also known as the "NOIR assignment." Whether students realize it at the time or not, this journal article finding exercise is an essential prerequisite that must be completed before undertaking an mass communication research. The completion will yield viable journals articles that might serve as useful guides to the larger final research project. (2) The Final Survey Research Project; students will be asked to gather together previous studies and relevant background information, using these to educate themselves on a topic of public interest - one that intrinsically relates to a mass medium. These items will be used to write a literature review and formulate hypotheses, educated predictions concerning the relationship(s) between two or more variables. Students will then be required to design a survey questionnaire that might adequately address (test) these hypotheses. Surveys will be distributed, information collected and inputted into a statistics software program, and then calculations known as statistical analyses will be performed. The resulting figures will be tabulated as findings that the lay person can understand. Enough detail should be provided for a second research to adequately replicate the student's research.

There is one minor assignment to be completed before the final research project is the Theory Assignment. This exercise encourages the student to think and research the differences between competing mass communication theories. The educated student will be best served by contrasting two where one or both might be applicable to the type of survey research they intend to undertake in their final project.