Funding of Research

Funding Increasingly Complex Research Methods

The growing complexity and scope of communication research methods has also resulted in an increased reliance on technology. Some studies now use physiological data collection whereas others conduct online surveys of random samples of all U.S. citizens. Experiments conducted in the field require a means to recruit thousands of participants throughout the world and the computing power needed to record, store, and analyze these data. As the scope of these projects expands, research teams consisting of multiple people with complementary skills are needed. Entire labs, mirroring the level and complexity of those in the natural sciences, now produce the high-quality best social science research.

All these changes reflect the growth of social science research and the ability to test theories that are increasingly effective in impacting the public good, including promoting public health and improving personal and professional lives. All this, however, comes at a cost. Universities that used to be able to provide the needed resources for social science now look externally to federal agencies or foundations to support their research. As a result, “funded research” is now a reality for most researchers and research teams. When one talks about funded research, one is invariably talking about research that is supported by a party not directly involved in the research (e.g., an external body paying for the equipment, recruitment, and other resources needed for the research). For example, if a research team were interested in studying how people’s narratives could be used to create messages to promote healthy behaviors, they would [Page 600]require access to people willing to spend up to an hour talking about their experiences. They would also need a place to conduct these interviews and the technology to record and analyze these data. They would further need to be able to produce sophisticated messages to compete in the media market and a large group to test their effects over long periods of time. There was simply no way this could occur without external funding.

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