ABSTRACT
The research process often focuses on comparisons. Communication theories and the hypotheses they generate frequently predict how two groups will differ from each other. These groups may be defined by sex or education (e.g., people with or without a college education) or perhaps how much they use the Internet (a little versus a lot). Or the groups may be artificially created for the purpose of the study, such as whether they are asked by a researcher to spend 30 minutes reading a print or an online version of the Los Angeles Times. Or the researcher may make predictions about how two different stimuli (such as two TV programs or two persuasive messages) might affect a person’s thoughts, attitudes, opinions, memory, or behavior differently.
