Media and Communication Research Methods

Description

This essential textbook provides a clear and authoritative introduction to qualitative and quantitative methods for studying media and communication. Written by two highly experienced researchers, the book draws on a wide range of media and communication research to introduce students to the relative strengths of the different research approaches. Beginning with an overview of the changing contexts and trends in media and communication research approaches, the book demystifies ‘research’ and the ‘research process’ by offering practical and accessible guidance on how to design, plan and carry out successful research projects in media and communication.

This is an indispensable text for all students of media and communication studies, particularly those undertaking their own research projects or taking modules in research methods.

Key Features

• Rigorous and accessible
• Includes international case studies and a student-friendly glossary
• Provides guidance on how to ask the ‘right’ research questions and select the ‘right’ research method
• Places methods in their broader historical and theoretical contexts, to explore how they relate to the analysis of media production, content and audiences

New to this Edition

• Updated references, statistics and examples throughout
• Expanded number of case studies
• Increased coverage of research ethics
• Greater engagement with visual methods
• Enhanced emphasis on the benefits of triangulation and the value of combining qualitative and quantitative methods in the same research project
• Updated sections on media ownership in the digital landscape
• New sections on contemporary photographic archives, video analysis and computer-assisted algorithmic content analysis
• Expanded discussion of corpus linguistic approaches

Table of Contents

1. Preface to the second edition
2. Introduction to media and communication research
3. The research process
4. Researching ownership and media policy
5. Ethnography and observational methods
6. Content analysis
7. Critical Discourse Analysis
8. Analysing narratives and discourse schema
9. Analysing photographs and video
10. Survey research
11. Focus group interviewing
12. Managing and analysing communications research data
13. Glossary
14. References
15. Subject index
16. Author/name index

Author Description

Anders Hansen is Associate Professor in the School of Media, Communication and Sociology at the University of Leicester, UK.

David Machin is Professor at the School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences, Örebro University, Sweden.