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Thesis Overview
Why We Do Theses at Johns Hopkins UniversityThe thesis requirement of a master's degree has traditionally separated serious and elite programs from lesser ones. One reason is that the thesis process inherently transforms students from mere knowledge consumers into knowledge producers. We take that job seriously here at Hopkins. Through the thesis process, we train our graduates to advance the communication field and, in so doing, to become experts and leaders. By answering important questions, our students have the opportunity to build an area of exclusive expertise they can then leverage in the workplace. At Hopkins we use the methods of research and evaluation found in the communication workplace (e.g., focus groups, interviews, content analysis, survey), to help you learn valuable skills that you can apply to work. All well planned-communication campaigns contain a research component. You will use these skills when you go back to work in developing and testing messages and evaluating the effectiveness of communication programs. The thesis is also a unique opportunity to work one-on-one with three experts in the field. These experts help you answer an important and practical question that is relevant to you and your career. Through close supervision unique to the thesis process, you will grow in ways you would not in traditional classes or in capstone projects. The Thesis Process Begins In Research and Writing MethodsStudents in the MA in communication program begin their study with Research and Writing Methods. They are encouraged to begin thinking about their thesis in this course and write their final class project on a potential thesis topic. This allows students ample time to develop their thesis idea, cultivate an area of expertise, and do substantial reading on their thesis topic over the next eight classes. We do not recommend students take Research and Writing Methods late in the program, because students who do this often don't have enough time to fully prepare for the thesis class. Thesis Preparation Continues During Your Next Eight CoursesIn your second semester, once you have finished Research and Writing Methods, you should attend a Thesis Orientation. This seminar gives you hints for what you should be doing while taking classes to prepare for the thesis course. During your next eight courses you should be testing thesis ideas and reading extensively on your topic. Before you enter the thesis course you should be able to articulate:
We encourage students to test and discuss their ideas informally with the associate chair or the thesis-course instructor prior to beginning the thesis course. Thesis CourseCommunication students begin formally working on their essays in the Thesis course; this is the last course in the program. Students should enter the course already having evaluated potential ideas and with a clear idea for a research question or research hypothesis, an idea of why the question is important and interesting, and an idea of how they will answer their question. How Long Does A Thesis Take?You should take no more than two semesters to complete your thesis. Our experience has been that students who enter the Thesis course having read extensively on their topic, already equipped with a sound research question, and who work on their thesis each week, have no problem finishing their theses. Students who continue working on their essays after taking the Thesis course enroll in Thesis Continuation (480.888) in every subsequent semester, including summer, until they finish. The continuation fee is currently $500 per semester. Though continuation students not required to attend class, we expect students to continue to have regular contact with their advisors. Advisors and CommitteeYour thesis is examined by a committee with three members: your thesis class teacher (called your thesis advisor), an expert in the topic of your thesis (called the field advisor), and a representative from the communications program (usually the Associate Program Chair). You first submit your paper to your class teacher and your field advisor. You will likely submit multiple drafts before it is done. When they attest that the paper is defense-ready, you submit copies to the associate program chair and chair. They will either ask for revisions or confirm that the paper is defense-ready. The Thesis Advisor: The thesis advisor is the person who teaches the class in the semester in which you enroll. This person will guide you through the thesis writing process and tell you when and if you have met the criteria for a thesis. He or she will continue to be your advisor until you finish. The Field Advisor: It is your job to find a field advisor, someone you choose who is an expert in the topic on which you are writing. They need not be on the JHU faculty, though they may be. Your field advisor will approve your research question, suggest source materials, meet with you while you are developing your project, and read and critique full drafts of your paper. They must sign off on the final draft as being defense-ready. They must also attend the defense. The school will send a letter to the field advisor explaining their duties and pay your field advisor $250. Here is a copy of the letter. PROJECT ORDEREach thesis proceeds in 6 or 7 discrete stages: (1) proposal, (2) (if necessary) HIRB application, (3) literature review, (4) essay draft, (5) defense, (6) defense-required revisions, and (7) library submission. Each stage must be completed before students move on to the next. All work that students submit to their advisors and readers - proposals, HIRB applications, literature reviews, and essay drafts - must adhere to high standards of written English in terms of grammar, syntax, clarity, and conciseness. 1. Proposal Each student submits a proposal before officially beginning work on the thesis. Its purpose is to show the thesis advisor and the field advisor that the project is worth doing and manageable: that the research question is worthwhile, that the thesis contains some element of originality, that the proposed method is appropriate to the research question, that the student has the requisite knowledge to carry out the method, that the student is conversant with the appropriate literature bearing on the question, and that the scope of the project is reasonable for a master's essay. The thesis advisor and field advisor officially approve the proposal and notify the associate chair. Only then may the student consider that he or she is formally working on a thesis. Thesis proposals are five to eight pages long, maximum. They must conform to our program's guidelines - students should consult the thesis course syllabus for details on proposal organization, formatting, and content. Most proposals require two or three revisions before being approved. 2. HIRB application Students whose research methods entail so-called human-subjects research (e.g. surveys, focus groups, or interviews) must describe their projects and apply for either an exemption or approval from the Homewood Institutional Review Board (HIRB). IRBs, which are federally mandated, serve to ensure that researchers do what they can to minimize any risks involved for participants in research, that participants are fully informed of any risks that do remain, and that they freely consent to participate. The application process is not complicated and students should not let it deter them from pursuing public opinion research or interviews as their research method. The review process usually takes about 3 weeks; this needn't delay progress since students may work on their literature reviews (see below) while awaiting HIRB action on their applications. For more information students should consult the HIRB, http://web.jhu.edu/Homewood-IRB. 3. Literature Review Each thesis proposal includes a literature review. This is formal review of the scholarly literature relevant to the topic of the thesis. It tells the audience what we already know about the topic. Advisors generally have questions and suggestions regarding the review so students should expect to revise it at least once and sometimes more. 4. Thesis drafts As noted above, a thesis presents an argument or the answer to a question, logically reasoned and based on evidence engendered by the student's research. It is not a platform for expressing personal opinion, or for exhorting or prescribing changes in people's behavior. Claims and assertions must be supported by evidence. Most theses follow the traditional organization for scholarly research paper.
All theses must have the following elements:
We expect each student to be familiar with the University's "Guidelines for the Preparation of Dissertations and Theses," and to insure that his or her thesis conforms. The Guidelines are available at www.library.jhu.edu/services/cbo/guidelines.html. The thesis must also conform to APA format.
Theses are usually between 30 and 75 double-spaced pages. The exact page count is trivial. What matters is that the thesis make a clear, persuasive, and interesting argument supported with evidence. To address questions, comments, suggestions, and problems raised by the advisors or recognized by students themselves, essays require multiple revisions. Most students defend the third or fourth version delivered to their advisors. 5. Defense A defense of a master's essay is a customary feature of academia. The thesis advisor and field advisor decide when a student's essay is ready to be defended. When the two advisors have determined the thesis is defense ready the student may schedule the defense. It is the student's responsibility to find a day and time that is agreeable to all three committee members. Students will not be able to defend unless all committee members are present in body or by speaker phone. Students are responsible for getting a finished draft of their theses to all committee members two weeks before the scheduled defense date, not including breaks and holidays. Students should keep in mind that some committee members may not be available at certain times to read a student's final thesis draft. Students are allowed a grace period of up to four weeks into a new semester to defend their theses. Students will not incur the $500 thesis continuation fee for that semester if they defend within the first four weeks. In the Communication program, defenses usually last about an hour. Typically, a defense begins with a brief statement from the student, followed by questions from the defense committee. Questions may be wide-ranging, but often deal with the student's method, evidence, theoretical framework, or the implications of the findings. The student then leaves the room while the committee discusses the thesis, the defense, and reaches a consensus on the essay's quality. The student then returns to the room and learns the committee's decision. In our program the possible outcomes are: pass with honors, pass with no revisions, pass with modest revisions, pass with substantive revisions (requiring that the student resubmit the revised thesis to one member of the committee before it can be accepted), or fail. Outright failure is, however, uncommon, since the thesis and field advisors rarely allow such weak essays to be scheduled for defense. 6. Defense-required revisions In the course of the defense, the committee often concludes that aspects of the thesis need changing. These may be minor, such as typing or editing errors, or they may be more extensive, dealing with material requiring elaboration, clarification, or excision. Most essays, even some receiving honors, require at least minor revision before the committee feels they can be submitted to the library as the official thesis. Students are told at the defense what revisions, if any, they should make. For minor revisions the student is usually entrusted to make the changes and deliver the thesis to the library without the committee again reviewing it. However, if the thesis needs one or more substantial changes but is still deemed passable, the committee may decide to appoint one of its members to serve as a Master to review the revised thesis and verify that the student made the requisite changes, before the student can submit the essay to the library. 7. Library Submission The University library (Milton S. Eisenhower Library on the university's Homewood campus in Baltimore) maintains a permanent collection of all doctoral dissertations and master's essays written by JHU Arts & Sciences and Engineering students. Additionally, the Resource Center at 1717 Massachusetts Avenue maintains a collection of all master's essays completed by AAP students. After making whatever revisions were required or suggested by the Thesis Committee, students submit copies of their essays to these two collections so that their work may be permanently added to the worldwide oeuvre of scholarly research. Students whose essays receive Honors must provide an additional copy for the Communication Program collection. Details for submitting essays are included in the thesis-course syllabus and are also given to the student at the defense. Submitting the library copies constitutes the final step in the student's completion of the master's thesis. How Does A Thesis Receive Honors?The committee awards honors when, in addition to meeting all of the above requirements,
HONORS THESESAuthor: Bettina Fairman Abstract: Thepower of metaphor and language in the media is well known. Therelationship between this fact, regional variation, and the divisiveHispanic immigration issue is less well known. Building on previousresearch, this critical analysis explored the coverage of immigrantsand immigration in 64 news articles published during the two weekspreceding the 2006 midterm election in "elite" national newspapers andborder-state newspapers. Using the sources cited in news articles, aswell as the language employed in these articles, this study examinedthe differences in portrayal of Hispanic immigrants. Specifically, itexplored how proximity to the U.S.-Mexico border influenced mediacoverage of immigrants and the issue of immigration. This analysisfound that border-state newspapers presented immigrants as both victimsand perpetrators of the immigration process. Importantly, the studyrevealed that immigrants were generally criminalized within the localcontext of the social and economic ramifications of immigration. Incontrast, national newspapers placed immigrants as a group within theborder context of policy, law, and business; stories of individualstended to be human-interest pieces, glorifying a Hispanic immigrant.These results suggest that proximity to the U.S.-Mexico border may haveplayed a role in media treatment of Hispanic immigrants before the 2006midterm election. Read the full paper.
Abstract: Thisoriginal research examines the perceptions of working journalists andexperts in journalism regarding the possible value of voluntarycredentials. Thirty interviews were conducted with practicingjournalists working in print, online, or broadcast media. In addition,ten interviews were conducted with experts in journalism orcredentialing. While half of working journalist respondents agreed thata voluntary credential measuring quality for individual journalistswould be perceived as having value, nearly three-fourths said theywould seek to earn such a credential. Respondents listed primarybenefits as improving credibility with the public, developing standardsgoverning knowledge, skills, and abilities, and defining who is ajournalist and worthy of protection. Barriers included fears about theimplications of limiting who can be a journalist or, conversely,fostering competition; prospective government interference withnewsgathering; no need due to marketplace quality co ntrol; excessivecosts in time and money; lack of consensus on logistics; and aprerequisite that early-adopters be established and influentialleaders. Read the full paper. Author: Jessica Speedling Abstract: Politicalcartoons are single panel graphics that comment on political events andpolicy, and serve both to define the significant topics of politicaldiscourse and record them, thus creating a "snapshot" of the politicalclimate in a given time period. Building on previous scholarship, thisanalysis explored the main themes of 187 daily newspaper and onlinecartoons on the 2004 presidential debates and inquired into ideas thatwere expressed about the candidates individually, the issues, and thedebate process as a whole -- especially through the use of metaphor asa rhetorical device to convey meanings. Specifically, it exploredwhether cartoons focused primarily on the candidates' character traits,their issue positions, or some other aspect of the debates. Thisanalysis of political cartoons on the 2004 presidential debates foundthat traits were the primary focus as compared to issues, but revealed morecomplex forces at work than the traditional tension between image andis sues. The heavily mediated nature of the debates as political eventsand the resultant attitudes towards this media influence were exploredthrough cartoons that emphasized personality over policy, and mediaspectacle over substance. Read the full paper. Author: Olga Doty Abstract: Thisthesis investigated a new area in communication research - the hostilemedia effect (HME). HME is the tendency by partisans to perceivehostile bias in news coverage that appears evenhanded and objective toa neutral audience. This thesis argues that media consumers perceivehostile media bias with varied intensity in response to a neutral mediareport concerning an issue about which they have formed an opinion thatis different from other opinions introduced in this report. Mediaconsumers perceive a stronger media bias when the media focus on groupconflicts that evoke the consumers' group identity and prompt them toreact as group members rather than as individuals. Support for theconclusions of this thesis was strengthened by the findings from socialpsychology research in group behavior. Read the full paper.
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