Emilyd753

By: Emily Diaz, Nicolas Perez, Nicholas Masuda, Juan Maldonado

On Wednesday, April 12th we conducted a Zoom interview with Cal State Fullerton Communications Professor Gayle Jansen Brisbane as part of our term project for Professor Du’s Principles of Communications Research class (COMM 410). Professor Brisbane’s exemplary background in sports journalism and her experience with communications research made her an excellent candidate for this portion of the assignment. The bulk of our interview concerned questions we had about communications research related to her recent study “Side-by-Side Sports Reporters: A Between-Subjects Experiment of the Effect of Gender in Reporting on the NFL”.Our brief chat with her also provided us with invaluable information that will greatly help us with the final stage of this project, conducting our own research study. Some other topics covered in the interview were tips on pretesting methods, ways to minimize variables, and advice for beginning communications researchers.

Professor Brisbane’s CSUF staff bio summarizes her research background perfectly,

“Her research examines the progress of women in sports media as well as the intersection of religion, politics, and the media in our current politically divisive climate.”

This was extremely evident in the study that we interviewed her about (Side-by-Side Sports Reporters: A Between-Subjects Experiment of the Effect of Gender in Reporting on the NFL). The report helped us truly understand what is expected out of a Communications research experiment. The report also helped us realize what areas we still need some work on. We are grateful for the opportunity to interview Professor Brisbane and share our experience here in this blog post.

Interviewing Professor Brisbane clued us into the ins and outs of how to properly conduct an experiment and the many different variables that need to be accounted for in order for you to run a successful research survey as she conducted. When asked about advice she would give to newcomers who are looking to conduct their own research she mentions narrowing down your focus of study and making sure to not make it too general which in her words “makes your research more complicated”. Her second piece of advice is to conduct your research on things you are passionate about.

From rebounds to research: Former sports journalist Gayle Jansen brisbane pursues journalism Phd. College of Media, Communication and Information. (2019, January 23).

“If it’s something you are truly interested in it makes it just a more enjoyable process.”

These pieces of advice really summed up her ability to teach newcomers how to properly plan out their research before they even begin the experiment, and shows even though this was her first time conducting an experiment such as this survey, she was open to learning from those who were more experienced and was able to properly conduct her survey afterwards. As a group who is looking to join the media world, specifically sports media where she excelled for 20 years, this was the perfect advice that we needed in order to prepare ourselves for any obstacle or assignment that may be presented to us. She was very insightful when it came to answering our questions and even went more in depth about how and why she conducted this survey and the many different variables she accounted for before she even began the experiment.

When asked about advice she would give to newcomers who are looking to conduct their own research?

She mentions narrowing down your focus of study and making sure to not make it too general which in her words “makes your research more complicated”. Her second piece of advice is to conduct your research on things you are passionate about. “If it’s something you are truly interested in it makes it just a more enjoyable process.” These pieces of advice really summed up her ability to teach newcomers how to properly plan out their research before they even begin the experiment, and shows even though this was her first time conducting an experiment such as this survey, she was open to learning from those who were more experienced and was able to properly conduct her survey afterwards. As a group who is looking to join the media world, specifically sports media where she excelled for 20 years, this was the perfect advice that we needed in order to prepare ourselves for any obstacle or assignment that may be presented to us. She was very insightful when it came to answering our questions and even went more in depth about how and why she conducted this survey and the many different variables she accounted for before she even began the experiment.

Overall, It was amazing to be able to gain insight from a professor who conducted this study from a similar position, as a university student. She spoke about how student work truly does hold its ground in the industry. The specific topic being studied and how the question is asked is what helps make a study great. Along with the help and guidance of professionals in the attainment and execution of study, as stated before. Something else that she mentioned was how it was not important to weed out all the variables that could affect the study but it was important to account for them. This was one of the reasons why she believed that It was important to narrow down the study as much as one can. More complications typically arise with more variables involved, which develops a greater chance of missed or unaccounted variables. Another important factor that she informed us about including when conducting a study using survey format was to ask more question than needed. Professor Brisbane stated that it is

“Important to think about not only what you want to investigate but some additional things that wouldn’t take very long to ask and give you more options to break it down even further, by gender, by age, by socioeconomic background.”

All of the information she shared with us will help us tremendously when its comes to conducting our own survey because she gave us insight on the most valuable steps and keypoints of the study conducting process.

Author: Emilyd753

A conversation with Professor Gayle Jansen Brisbane, PhD