Introduction to communication research / John Reinard.

Contents;

Part 1 Introduction to the field
1 The role of research in communication
What is research ?
The challenges of communication
Research

2 Communication research problems and hypotheses
Qualities of research problems
Using hypotheses
Identifying variables in hypotheses and problems

Part II Understanding rudiments of research reasoning
3 Conceptualization research
Developing theoretic conceptualizations in communication
Developing definitions for concepts

4 Using communication research sources
Approaching research materials
The" how ? " managing research materials
The " where ? " The key library tools
Using the Library
etc.

5 Composing the communication argument: The reasoning and the evidence
Constructions of articles you will read and review
Writing scholarship
Writing classroom reports
Checking on the research argument

6 Conducting textual and content analyses
Analysis of message qualities
Qualitative analysis: Critical studies of texts
Qualitative analysis

7 Participant observation research
Role of participant observation studies in communication research
Forms of participant observation studies
The fluid process of participant observation study

8 Measurement in communication research
The role of sound measurement in communication research
Characteristics of operational definitions and measures
Popular approaches and tools in communications studies

9 Design of descriptive empirical research in communication
Invitations to empirical research in communication
Survey research
The questionnaire survey
The interview survey
etc.

10 Design of experimental research in communication
The notion of an experiment
Experimental validity and invalidity
Specific experimental designs
Some elements found in good
Experiments

11 Sampling
The role of sampling in quantitative
Research
Essentials of sampling
Forms of sampling
Dealing with sampling problems

Part IV Statistical analysis of data
12 Descriptive statistics
Statistics in communication research
Distributions
Measures of association

13 Introductory inferential statistics I:Hypothesis testing with two means
Using probability distributions to play the odds
Reasoning in statistical hypothesis testing
Comparisons of two means II : The t test

14 Inferential statistics II:Beyond two means
Selecting an appropriate statistical test
Comparisons of more than two means:
Analysis of variance
Basic nonparametric testing
etc.

Glossary : p. 432-444 . _ References : p. 445-457 . _ Name index : p. 458-460 . _ Subject index : p. 461-468.