Journal Article Review

Journal Article Review

Introduction

An empirical journal article that selected for this assignment is “Playing a Different Race Card: Examining the Limits of Elite Influence on Perceptions of Racism”. The article published in the Journal of Politics in 2007. This study focuses on assessing the impacts of influential allege of racial discrimination on public view of policy conduct. This essay provides a review of the article, mainly representing its research methodology, type of research, theories of sociology (functionalist theory, symbolic interaction theory, and conflict theory), research question or hypothesis, and sociological aspects in the research study.

Discussion

Hypothesis/Research Question

The main hypothesis or research question tested in this study is “how the race of the participants and the racial and partisan characteristics of the speaker independently and jointly affect the participant's inclination to call the event racial” (Nelson, Sanbonmatsu, & McClerking, 2007). In the given case, a shooting scene between black and white men watched by participant. These participants include an equal number of black as well as white people. Therefore, the main hypothesis is to test the influence of racial, partisan characteristics on people's perception that calls the event racist. Researchers also used other hypothesis to support this major hypothesis, where they based on the perceiver's expectations, typecasts, and impersonations of the narrator.

Research Method

The research method followed in this research study is 'survey'. This is because the participants had to read an article and after reading that article they had to fill out a questionnaire. The questionnaire asks about their judgments and perception as well as their general political background and views about the incident presented in the article.

Survey represents one of the most common types of social sciences research. In this research method, the researcher chooses a sample of respondents from a population and administers a standardized questionnaire to them (Brown, Ruch, & Johnson, 2003). In the given research study, a sample of Columbus, OH community members selected consisted of equal white and black participants and they filled a standardized questionnaire after reading the given article. Therefore, it is clearly evident that this study uses survey as its research method.

Methodology

The research method used in given research study falls under quantitative methodology. Quantitative research is about determining relations and quantities among characteristics, subsequent to a set of methodically accurate measures. Survey is a quantitative research methodology used in circumstances in which there is prior existence of knowledge regarding the incident of attention that allows the exercise of a regular method of gathering information (Ebrahim & Bowling, 2005). The given research study incorporated a survey for gathering data from a sample of the population of interest, whose analysis involved a numerical study. In social sciences studies, quantitative research through surveys is very common (Kumar, 2008). Thus, the methodology used in this research study falls under quantitative methodology of research.

Relation of Research Study With Three Theories

Three major sociological theories focused particularly on explaining the existence of racism include functionalist theory, symbolic interaction theory, and conflict ...