Center for Communications Research

Our Purpose

The purpose of the Center for Communications Research, also known as the CCR, is to provide comprehensive survey research services to Texas Tech University and clients in both the public and the private sectors. Our position within the university allows us to undertake research projects that are of both an academic and an applied nature.

Our Organization

The CCR is housed in the College of Mass Communications on the Texas Tech campus. Equipped with a 20-station computer-assisted telephone interview, also called CATI, phone bank, Internet survey technology and focus group facilities, the CCR provides telephone survey, focus group, mail survey, and interviewing research services to a variety of clients. Such research provides our clients with relevant and timely information, which allows them to provide value-added services to their stakeholders.

The CCR provides clients with state-of-the-art research technologies such as the Ortek, an Electrodermal Response system and an eye tracking system.

The Ortek is a continuous and instant data collection system that records audience reaction to media content during the content’s consumption. The Ortek system is uniquely suited to gauge real-time perceptions of radio and television messages.  The system is commonly employed in copy-testing advertisements and the gathering of audience reactions to televised political debates and speeches.

The Electrodermal Response (EDR) system measures heart rate, skin conductivity and facial responses.  The EDR measures media effects on a person’s subconscious.  Psychophysiology research is the scientific discipline devoted to the study of the interrelationships between the physiological and psychological aspects of behavior.

The eye-tracking system is the key to conducting research on attention readers/viewers pay to messages or stimuli in advertisements, news stories, commercials and/or information contained in newspapers, magazines, computer screens and televisions.  The eye-tracker measures eye responses to movement, color and images based on the person’s interest and fixation.

Our Services

  • Project planning and study design
  • Questionnaire authoring
  • Sample generation
  • Data collection
  • Data analysis and reporting
  • Project management

Our Clients

Our clients include advertising agencies, small businesses, industries, educational and governmental agencies. We also assist university faculty, staff, and students in their individual research projects. Past clients include:

  • American State Bank
  • United Supermarkets, Inc.
  • The Buddy Holly Museum
  • South Plains Mall
  • The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
  • Lubbock Emergency Communication District
  • Price Communications Group
  • The City of Lubbock
  • Bank of the Panhandle, Guyman, OK
  • Texas Tech University Office of News and Publications
  • Texas Tech Student Publications
  • Texas Tech Student Affairs
  • Texas Tech University Medical Center
  • Madison Avenue Advertising
  • Lubbock Apartment Association
  • The Griffin Group Incorporated
  • The Center of Tobacco Prevention and Control

Contact Information

For more information about our services, please contact:

Austin Sims
College of Mass Communications
Texas Tech University
Box 43082
Lubbock, TX 79409-3082
(806) 742-3385
(806) 742-1085 FAX