In, “the importance of research design in political science,” Gary King and Robert O. Keohane present a model for effective research design and theory development. King and Keohane make clear that their proposed methodology is not exclusive to quantitative or qualitative research and instead argue that the differences between these two methods are minimal regarding “the logic of inference.”  King and Keohane begin their paper with what they believe to be the fundamental problem with social science saying, “Social science statistics focuses too little on research design, and its language seems arcane if not impenetrable. The numerous languages used to describe methods in qualitative research are diverse, inconsistent with jargon and methodological advice and not always helpful to researchers.” In the face of these traditional differences King and Keohane argue that there can be a common language and method of inference between both quantitative and qualitative methodology. King and Keohane emphasize the need for social science research to pursue generalizable inferences about how the political world operates. To merely describe events or seek absolute truth and law is to miss the capabilities of social science research. Lastly, King and Keohane emphasize the mode of inference they provide is based on the idea of “triangulation” this methodology is about bringing about the most data sources possible in relation to the theory presented.

In, “The Message Overwhelming the Message: Ideological cues and perceptions of Bias in Television News,” Joel Turner sought to explain the persisting belief that major cable news networks, CNN and Fox News, are ideologically biased despite there being no empirical evidence of this.  Turner theorizes that it is not the news being reported that causes viewers to perceive bias but instead the network affiliation. To test this Turner was able to utilize a unique methodology for social science research by conducting a controlled experiment. While social science research is generally constrained to the use of real world scenarios, turner could use a fake news studio to produce replicated news stories and then present these stories to unknowing participants to achieve a high degree of control to his study. This strength in research design and methodology certainly bolstered his conclusion that the news content of the major networks was not biased but it was instead people’s perception of the news network that made them believe in considerable bias.