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DESCRIPTION
This book provides a comprehensive, balanced introduction to communication research methods. Designed for readers who have little or no familiarity with research methods, this book helps one become a more knowledgeable and competent consumer (and limited producer) of scholarly research and of the everyday research to which they are exposed by the mass media. Praised for its accessible writing and extensive real-life examples, this book takes a step-by-step approach through the communication research process. Investigating Communication shows how communication research is conducted from start to finish, with the book's organization modeled after a traditional research study. By making the material accessible rather than impossible to learn, readers become excited about studying research methods. For anyone interested in the introductory methods of communication research.
Contents:
* Introduction to Research Culture
* Asking Questions About Communication
* Finding, Reading, and Using Research
* Observing and Measuring Communication Variables
* Designing Valid Communication Research
* Research Ethics and Politics
* Experimental Research
* Survey Research
* Textual Analysis
* Naturalistic Inquiry
* Describing Quantitative Data
* Inferring from Data: Estimation and Significance Testing
* Analyzing Differences Between Groups
* Analyzing Relationships Between Variables
