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| Preface | |
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| Theory And Research Methods | |
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| Asking and Answering Questions | |
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| Research and Sources of Information | |
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| Research and the Consumption of Information | |
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| Asking Questions About Communication | |
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| Epistemology | |
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| The Role of Theory in Communication Research | |
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| Approaches to Studying Communication | |
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| Theoretical Orientations | |
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| Scientific Research and Theory | |
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| Humanistic Research and Theory | |
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| Considerations: Knowledge, Ethics, and Science | |
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| Rules of Scholarship | |
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| Treatment of Human Subjects (People) | |
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| Debriefing | |
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| Ethical Appropriateness | |
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| A Parting Note | |
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| Methods Of Communication Research | |
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| Getting Started: Finding and Evaluating Documents | |
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| Obtaining Documents | |
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| Establishing the Parameters of Study | |
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| The Role of Documents | |
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| Primary versus Secondary Sources | |
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| Finding Sources | |
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| Establishing a Notation System | |
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| Establishing a Document's Credibility | |
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| Putting It All Together: The Literature Review | |
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| Creating the End Product | |
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| Evaluating Sources: Historical/Rhetorical-Critical Methodology | |
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| An Overview of Historical Research | |
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| Historical Methodology | |
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| Rhetorical-Critical Methodology | |
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| Limitations and Hazards in Historical Research | |
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| Measurement Theory | |
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| What is Measurement? | |
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| Reliability | |
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| Validity | |
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| The Relationship Between Reliability and Validity | |
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| Measurement Scales | |
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| Attitudes as Examples of Intervening Variables | |
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| Types of Measurement Scales | |
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| Other Measurement Techniques | |
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| Content Analysis | |
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| Uses of Content Analysis | |
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| Defining the Method | |
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| Conducting the Content Analysis | |
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| Sampling | |
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| Use of Computers in Content Analysis | |
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| Advantages and Limitation of Content Analysis | |
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| Qualitative/Descriptive (Participant-Observation/Focus Group/In-Depth Interview) | |
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| Methodology | |
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| Participant-Observation | |
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| Focus Groups | |
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| In-Depth Interviews | |
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| Quantitative/Sampling | |
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| Sampling Theory | |
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| Nonprobability Sampling | |
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| Probability Sampling | |
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| Sample Selection | |
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| Contacting Respondents | |
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| Quantitative/Descriptive (Survey) Research | |
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| Types of Descriptive Research | |
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| The Survey as Descriptive Methodology | |
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| Collecting the Data | |
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| Structuring the Survey | |
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| "Journalistic" | |
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| Surveys | |
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| Other Considerations | |
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| The True Communication Experiment | |
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| Advantages | |
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| Establishing Relationships | |
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| Establishing Causation | |
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| Questions Appropriate for Experiments | |
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| The Laboratory Experiment | |
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| Role-Playing as an Alternative to Deception In Experiments | |
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| Limitations of the Laboratory Experiment | |
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| Experimental Strategies and Designs | |
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| Quasi-Experimental Design | |
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| External Validity | |
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| More Complex Designs | |
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| Modes Of Analysis | |
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| Descriptive Statistics | |
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| Types of Data | |
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| Distributions | |
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| Coding Data for Analysis | |
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| Describing Nonparametric Data | |
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| Bivariate: Correlational Analysis | |
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| Applications of Communication Research | |
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| Various Applications of Communication Research | |
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| Inferential Statistics | |
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| Using Statistics to Test Hypotheses | |
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| Nonparametric Statistics | |
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| Parametric Analysis | |
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| Bringing it Together: Writing and Presenting Research | |
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| Preparing the Final Product | |
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| Writing the Academic Research Report | |
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| Writing the Nonacademic Research Report | |
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| Visual and Oral Presentations | |
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| Special Case: The Research Prospectus/Proposal | |
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| Glossary | |
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| Index | |