TY - BOOK AU - Reinard, John TI - Introduction to communication research SN - 9780072358698 U1 - 302.0072 22 PY - 2001/// CY - Boston, New Delhi : PB - McGraw-hill KW - Communication-research N1 - 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 ER -