Qualitative Communication Research Methods

The Second Edition of Qualitative Communication Research Methods takes readers through every step of the qualitative research process -- from the research idea to the finished report. Unique for its coverage of the entire discipline of Communication, this text now includes a new chapter on computer-mediated communication (identities, relationships, and communities) as well as fully updated and expanded key topics including: developing research questions, coding data, using computers in analysis, and transcription. Processes covered in the text include interviewing, writing field notes, and creating ethical relationships with participants.

Key Features

• In-depth discussion of research methods, designs, types of analysis, and writing strategies
• Student exercises and helpful samples of field research texts and materials
• Solutions to issues and problems of qualitative communication research
• Progressive approach to qualitative research and its contribution to the knowledge of rapidly changing technological cultures
• Examination of how new directions in critical and interpretive theory are influencing research practice in Communication.

Qualitative Communication Research Methods, Second Edition, provides students with numerous examples of work in the field illustrating how studies are designed, carried out, written, evaluated, and applied to theory. This interesting and accessible text provides a rewarding and challenging introduction to qualitative methodology.

Thomas R. Lindlof is a professor in the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Kentucky.  His research and teaching interests focus on the cultural analysis of mediated communication, media audience theory and research, and qualitative research methodology. His research has appeared in numerous scholarly outlets, including Communication Research, Journal of Communication, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Journalism Quarterly, Journalism Studies, Social Science Computer Review, and Communication Yearbook. He has served as the editor of the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. He has written or edited six books, including Qualitative Communication Research Methods (with Bryan C. Taylor) and Hollywood under Siege: Martin Scorsese, the Religious Right, and the Culture Wars.  In 2011 he received the Distinguished Scholar Award from the Broadcast Education Association.  He currently resides in Austin, Texas.

Bryan C. Taylor is a Professor of Communication, and the Director of the Peace, Conflict and Security Program at the University of Colorado-Boulder. His teaching and research interests include qualitative methods, security studies, organizational communication, and technology studies. He has published in the Annals of the International Communication Association, Communication Research, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Journal of Applied Communication Research, Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Management Communication Quarterly, Quarterly Journal of Speech, Rhetoric and Public Affairs, Culture and Organization, and elsewhere. He is co-author with Thomas Lindlof of Qualitative Communication Research Methods (Sage) and co-editor of Nuclear Legacies: Communication, Controversy and the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Production Complex (Lexington Press), which received the 2008 Christine Oravec Research Award from the Environmental Communication Division of the National Communication Association.