Researching Communications - Hardcover

Deacon, David; Pickering, Michael; Golding, Peter; Murdock, Graham

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0340731931 ISBN 13: 9780340731932

Publisher: Hodder Education, 1999

Synopsis

Studying communications and the media requires a range of research methods drawn from disciplines as diverse as sociology, psychology, literary analysis, linguistics and economics. This textbook sets out a comprehensive guide for students and researchers on methods for researching communications. As well as explaining the basics and background to differing research methods, it provides examples, illustrative research analyses, and step-by-step guides on how to do research. Covering all aspects of communication research, the book also explains the ethical issues involved in research and sets out questions of objectivity, qualitative and quantitative approaches, and the role of empirical research. The authors use a range of examples to illustrate the chapters, and draw on their experience of teaching media and communication studies at a variety of levels and in many countries. The book includes a glossary of key terms and provides a guide to all facets of researching and communication for the student embarking on a project, or the researcher designing and developing a study.

About this title

Review

Researching Communications does a superb job of explaining both cultural analysis and social research methods. Covering everything from semiotics to statistics and discourse analysis to computers, it is also an up-to-date, authoritative, and extremely well-written introduction to communications in general. I recommend this book to anyone who teaches courses in research and communication. (Arthur Asa Berger, San Franciso State University,)

... an enormously useful text for anyone interested in an up-to-date guide to cultural analysis; it will be indispensable for teaching research methods in communication studies. (Hanno Hardt, University of Iowa, USA)

About the Author

David Deacon is Professor of Communication and Media Analysis in the Department of Social Sciences, Loughborough University, UK. He has written widely on theoretical and methodological issues relating to communication and media studies.

Michael Pickering is Professor of Media and Cultural Analysis in the Department of Social Sciences at Loughborough University, UK. He is the co-editor of Rhythms of Labour: Music at Work in Britain (2013) and, with a grant funded by the Leverhulme Trust on media and memory, The Mnemonic Imagination (2012).

Peter Golding is Professor and Pro Vice Chancellor of Research & Innovation at Northumbria University, UK. He holds the post of Hon President of the Media Research Network of the European Sociological Association.

Graham Murdock is Professor of Culture and Economy in the Department of Social Sciences, Loughborough University, UK. Murdock has held the Leerstoel (Teaching Chair) at the Free University of Brussels, the Bonnier Chair at Stockholm University, served as Professor II at the University of Bergen, and held visiting professorships at a number of other universities including Auckland, California at San Diego, Curtin (Western Ausralia), Mexico City, and Helsinki.

Edition details

• Publisher: Hodder Education
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0340731931
• ISBN 13: 9780340731932
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 250