This text teaches students the basics of communication research in an accessible manner by using student-focused real-world examples, engaging application exercises, and up-to-date resources. The Fifth Edition adds coverage of artificial intelligence (AI), and references the latest research and data sources related to changes in communication brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Donald Treadwell earned his master's degree in communication from Cornell University and his PhD in communication and rhetoric from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He developed and taught communication research classes in classroom and online settings and also taught courses in organizational communication, public relations, and public relations writing. He is the coauthor of Public Relations Writing: Principles in Practice (2nd ed., Sage, 2005). He has published and presented research on organizational image, consumer response to college names, health professionals' images of AIDS, faculty perceptions of the communication discipline, and employers' expectations of newly hired communication graduates. His research appears in Communication Monographs, Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, Public Relations Review, Journal of Human Subjectivity, and Criminal Justice Ethics. He is professor emeritus, Westfield State University, and has international consulting experience in agricultural extension and health communication.
Chapter 1: Foundations: The Ideas That Shape Our Research Chapter 2: Getting Started: From Inspiration to Implementation Chapter 3: Ethics: Our Responsibilities as Researchers Chapter 4: Resources: Reading, Recording, and Reviewing Research Chapter 5: Measurement: Research Using Numbers Chapter 6: Sampling: Who, What, and How Many? Chapter 7: Statistics: Choosing and Using Quantitative Tools Chapter 8: Surveys: Putting Numbers on Opinions Chapter 9: Experiments: Researching Cause and Effect Chapter 10: Content Analysis I: Quantitative Understanding of Words and Images Chapter 11: Content Analysis II: Qualitative Understandings of Words and Images Chapter 12: Observation: Qualitative Understandings of Behaviors and Attitudes Chapter 13: Now What? Reporting and Presenting Research Results
Praise for the previous edition: "Introducing Communication Research is the one-stop shop for teaching communication research. It covers every fundamental an undergraduate or graduate student needs to know in a remarkably accessible style." -- Sandra Duhe "This text is distinct in that it makes a large, complex topic very easy to break down for students of all abilities!" -- Patricia Atkinson
