ABSTRACT

A Handbook of Media and Communication Research presents qualitative as well as quantitative approaches to the study of media and communication, integrating perspectives from both the social sciences and the humanities. Taking methodology as a strategic level of analysis that joins practical concerns with theoretical issues, the Handbook offers a comprehensive and in-depth review of the field and a set of guidelines for how to think about, plan, and carry out media and communication studies in different social and cultural contexts.

The second edition has been thoroughly updated with reference to the development of the internet, mobile, and other digital media.

  • Each chapter addresses shifting configurations of established media organizations, media discourses, and media users in networked practices of communication.
  • The introduction and one further chapter probe changing conceptions on mass and interpersonal, online and offline communication – in research as in everyday life.
  • Three new chapters have been added to exemplify different forms of research employing multiple methods to study multiple media in multiple contexts.

List of contributors: Klaus Bruhn Jensen, Barrie Gunter, Rasmus Helles, Annette Hill, Stig Hjarvard, Peter Larsen, Amanda Lotz, Graham Murdock, Horace Newcomb, Paddy Scannell, Lynn Schofield Clark, Kim Christian Schrøder

chapter 1|20 pages

Introduction: The state of convergence in media and communication research

ByKlaus Bruhn Jensen

part |2 pages

PART I – HISTORY: SOURCES OF MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION RESEARCH

chapter 2|26 pages

The humanistic sources of media and communication research

ByKlaus Bruhn Jensen

chapter 3|18 pages

Media, culture, and modern times: social science investigations

ByGraham Murdock

part |4 pages

PART II – SYSTEMATICS: PROCESSES OF COMMUNICATION

chapter 4|16 pages

The production of entertainment media

ByAmanda D. Lotz, Horace Newcomb

chapter 5|19 pages

The study of news production

ByStig Hjarvard

chapter 6|25 pages

Discursive realities

ByKim Christian Schrøder

chapter 7|22 pages

Mediated fictions

ByPeter Larsen

chapter 8|18 pages

Media effects: quantitative traditions

ByKlaus Bruhn Jensen

chapter 9|15 pages

Media reception: qualitative traditions

ByKlaus Bruhn Jensen

chapter 11|16 pages

The cultural contexts of media and communication

ByKlaus Bruhn Jensen

chapter 12|16 pages

History, media, and communication

ByPaddy Scannell

part |2 pages

PART III – PRACTICE: SCIENTIFIC APPROACHES AND SOCIAL APPLICATIONS

chapter 13|28 pages

The quantitative research process

ByBarrie Gunter

chapter 14|18 pages

The qualitative research process

ByKlaus Bruhn Jensen

chapter 18|17 pages

Personal media in everyday life: a baseline study

ByRasmus Helles

chapter 19|20 pages

The social origins and uses of media and communication research

ByKlaus Bruhn Jensen