A Handbook of Media and Communication Research ─ Qualitative and Quantitative Methodologies

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

Klaus Bruhn Jensen is Professor in the Department of Media, Cognition, and Communication, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He is a member of the Editorial Boards for the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media; Journalism: Theory, Practice, and Criticism; Communications: The European Journal of Communication Research; Comunicacion y Sociedad (Mexico); and MATRIZes (Brazil); and Corresponding Editor for the European Journal of Communication. Life Member for Service of the Association of Internet Researchers and a Fellow of the International Communicology Institute. Recent publications include contributions to the International Encyclopedia of Communication (2008), for which he serves as Area Editor of Communication Theory and Philosophy, and Media Convergence: The Three Degrees of Network, Mass, and Interpersonal Communication (Routledge, 2010).

1 Introduction: The state of convergence in media and communication research, Klaus Bruhn Jensen PART 1 – HISTORY: SOURCES OF MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION RESEARCH 2 The humanistic sources of media and communication research, Klaus Bruhn Jensen 3 Media, culture, and modern times: Social science investigations, Graham Murdock PART 2 – SYSTEMATICS: PROCESSES OF COMMUNICATION Media organizations 4 The production of entertainment media, Horace Newcomb and Amanda Lotz 5 The production of news, Stig Hjarvard Media texts 6 Discursive realities, Kim Christian Schrøder 7 Mediated fictions, Peter Larsen Media users 8 Media effects: Quantitative traditions, Klaus Bruhn Jensen 9 Media reception: Qualitative traditions, Klaus Bruhn Jensen Media contexts 10 Communication in contexts: Beyond mass-interpersonal and online-offline divides, Klaus Bruhn Jensen 11 The cultural contexts of media and communication, Klaus Bruhn Jensen 12 History, media, and communication, Paddy Scannell PART 3 – PRACTICE: SCIENTIFIC APPROACHES AND SOCIAL APPLICATIONS Empirical research designs 13 The quantitative research process, Barrie Gunter 14 The qualitative research process, Klaus Bruhn Jensen 15 The complementarity of qualitative and quantitative methodologies in media and communication research, Klaus Bruhn Jensen Multiple media, multiple methods 16 Audiences in the round: Multi-method research in factual and reality television, Annette Hill 17 A multi-grounded theory of parental mediation: exploring the complementarity of qualitative and quantitative communication research, Lynn Schofield Clark 18 Personal media in everyday life: a baseline study, Rasmus Helles Communicating research 19 The social origins and uses of media and communication research, Klaus Bruhn Jensen