8 *-What is Communication Research?

We’re still situated in the macro idea of research, but we’re narrowing to focus on communication research specifically. A scientist’s paradigm can often affect what communication processes they investigate, but a lot of the time scholars research similar processes and contexts, but using a different methodology.

What is Communication Research?

The field of communication is very diverse. They study different fields and use  communication research to look at patterns and processes within:

1. Businesses and Organizations
2. Media
3. Politics
4. Health /Health Care
5.  ”Relationships”
   1. Interpersonal
   2. Group
   3. Dyadic (between people)
   4. Family

Researchers are not limited to just one field, in fact many overlap.

Another important fact is when communication research is published they use MLA, APA and, Chicago to format. In this class we focus on APA, as it is the style most often used in the journals where social scientific communication researchers publish.

Reminder from the last chapter: Communication research is a type of scientific research. They both propose a question and test it through observation. Scientific research is a broad term that covers many different research areas (e.g., communication, psychology, anthropology), where the focus is on different aspects of society. Communication researchers study a communication process. We’re interested in how people exchange information, how they use messages to create “meaning”, and what happens when meaning isn’t shared. We’re interested in information processes. We study information (even everyday ways of knowing!) creation, use, exchange, and breakdown in different contexts (e.g., family, organizational), across different channels (e.g., social media, face-to-face), in and through the media (e.g., representations of BIPOC, older adults, or health issues), and within and across different cultures.

II. Unit 2: [Knowing things through] Academic (and Communication) Research

5. Scientific Ways of Knowing

6. Problems with Scientific Ways of Knowing

7. Other ways of knowing…. Research

8. What is Communication Research?