Two Classmate's Blog!

    This week will be my last blog entry for the semester! I hope you have enjoyed reading my post this semester. For this week’s blog I will be commenting on two of my classmate’s blogs once again. I wanted to go back to the first two classmate’s blogs which I focused on in the beginning of the semester to see how they have progressed over time. I went back and looked at Alyssa’s blog on fast food and read her posts from the last time I tuned into her blog until now. Alyssa has done a great job integrating our class discussion into our discussion.

    One post which Alyssa posted on her blog was regarding qualitative research. I found this post very interesting which she posted, she included an article regarding an analysis of the fast food industry. The article explained how “analysis is a marketing research function that shows how certain fast food restaurants compare with their competitors on sales, service and even product quality.” One of the most recent posts which Alyssa has written was regarding survey research. For my class presentation I focused on survey research, so I was very interested to see what Alyssa had to say about survey research in the fast food industry. Alyssa discussed how in marketing and business survey research is a vital tool to receive feedback from costumers. Alyssa provided an article! Which discussed tactics used for restaurants to get costumers to fill out those surveys! Make sure you read your receipts! I really enjoyed reading Alyssa’s blog.

     My other classmate which I wanted to go back and read their blog is Sacha’s Blog. I really enjoyed reading Sacha’s blog last time because she focuses on non-profit public relations which coincides with my blog topic of American Cancer Society. One article Sacha posted which shocked me when I was reading was how research is very important for nonprofit organizations but! some organizations do not use their research! “How can non-profits then who are not as successful improve their skills so they can better help the community?” is a question Sacha raised in her blog post regarding survey research. Sacha provided an article which answered this question which you can read by clicking this link! Overall, this semester both of my classmates have done a great job and I really enjoyed reading their blogs.

      I still cannot believe this is my last blog of the semester I have loved writing each week and I hope you all have enjoyed reading it as well! If you would like to learn more about what American Cancer Society is doing each month or even weekly! Please visit their website!

Experimental Research!

            For this week’s Blog I wanted to talk about the concept of Experimental Research. Over this semester I have spoken about various research methods and types of research which you! can perform. Organizations throughout the United States use the tools of research to progress in their field; experimental research is one of those vital tools which they can perform.

            Experimental research is extremely important to the American Cancer Society, experimental research allows the organization and scientists to research cancer and create new innovative treatments. American Cancer Society is fighting back each and every day to find a cure for Cancer. On ACS’s website one can find multiple experimental research projects which they have performed and are currently performing over the years. One of the most interesting experimental research projects which ACS is currently discussing on their website is regarding breast cancer imaging.

ACS explains,

“Research in the field of breast imaging is continuing in order to

• Find more cancers even before they can be felt by the patient or her doctor
• Find even smaller cancers than those now detected by mammograms
• Find better ways to tell the difference between benign (not cancer) breast conditions and breast cancers”

This experimental research can be a huge step in the medical world for cancer and save thousands of lives and help celebrate more birthdays!

            Through research ACS has been studying the different forms of nuclear medicine. According to ACS, nuclear medicine “... (Also called nuclear scans) inject small amounts of slightly radioactive substances into the body and use special cameras to see where they go. Depending on the substance used, different types of abnormalities may be found. Unlike most other imaging tests that are based on changes tumors cause in the body's structure, nuclear medicine scans depend on changes in tissue metabolism.” Scintimammography (molecular breast imaging), Tomosynthesis (3-D mammography), Electrical impedance imaging (T-scan), Thermography (thermal imaging), Optical imaging are the types of experimental testing for research which American Cancer Society has been performing. Other experimental research is being done during this time for breast cancer imaging research.

If you would like to read more about these experimental research methods please visit this Link! ACS describes each nuclear medicine examples I have listed.

Survey Research!

For this week’s blog I will be focusing on the survey research method! And how the American Cancer Society uses this method to help improve their organization and help fight the battle against cancer! According to our textbook Advertising and Public Relations Research by, Donald W. Jugenheimer, Samuel D. Bradley, Larry D. Kelly, and Jerry C. Hudson a Survey is:

Survey:  

·         Is one of the most popular methods for collecting quantitative research for a topic

·         Surveys are commonly used by advertising and PR researches to provide information about populations to clients, government agencies, businesses, nonprofit organizations, and educators

·         The term “Survey” is used to describe methods of asking questions to respondents

o   Surveys are divided into two broad areas: questionnaires and interviews

o   The survey can range from 5-100 questions

·         Surveys can be  classified as cross-sectional or longitudinal

·         Survey is a vital tool for collecting data over a large population.

o   Due to technology and software, some forms of survey research by telephone or electronic methods may be automated with a pre-recorded messages, instructions and questions.

·         Surveys are customized to fit a specific research goal. Each question is developed to solicit information to expand knowledge about a particular issue.

·         The more specific you are in developing your goals, the easier it will be to collect quality data

·         Survey information and data are collected using standardized procedures for each question and project.

·         Each questionnaire must be pretested to confirm the accuracy of the question formatting

·         Researchers should protect the anonymity of respondents, and individually respondents should never be identified.

·         Reports of the data should be presented in such forms as numbers, percentages, and statistical tables and charts.

This made me think how the American Cancer Society uses the research method of Surveys to help their organization.  I went to ACS's website and found that they do a survey for every single cancer prevention study. This Link will show you all of the surveys which they have conducted for the different cancers.  For this research I found it very interesting to see the variety of surveys which the American Cancer Society has conducted over the years. This shows how the survey research method is a great tool for their organization.

November 1 Marks the start of Lung Cancer Awareness Month! Please visit American Cancer Society’s website and read about events such as The Great American Smokeout and facts and figures regarding Lung cancer in general.