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A Handbook of Media and Communication Research

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Thoroughly revised and updated, this third edition integrates perspectives from the social sciences and the humanities, focusing on methodology as a strategic level of analysis that joins practical applications with theoretical issues.

The Handbook comprises three main elements: historical accounts of the development of key concepts and research traditions; systematic reviews of media organizations, discourses, and users, as well as of the wider social and cultural contexts of communication; and practical guidelines with sample studies, taking readers through the different stages of a research process and reflecting on the social uses and consequences of research.

Updates to this edition include:

• An overview of the interrelations between networked, mass, and interpersonal communication.
• A new chapter on digital methods.
• Three chapters illustrating different varieties of media and communication research, including industry–academic collaboration and participatory action research.
• Presentation and discussion of public issues such as surveillance and the reconfiguration of local and global media institutions.

This book is an invaluable reference work for students and researchers in the fields of media, communication, and cultural studies.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1 | 21  pages, introduction, part i | 47  pages, chapter 2 | 29  pages, the humanistic sources of media and communication research, chapter 3 | 16  pages, the social-scientific sources of media and communication research, part ii | 181  pages, systematics, section | 37  pages, media organizations, chapter 4 | 18  pages, the production of entertainment media, chapter 5 | 19  pages, news production, section | 44  pages, media texts, chapter 6 | 24  pages, analysing news discourse, chapter 7 | 20  pages, mediated fiction, media users, chapter 8 | 21  pages, media effects, chapter 9 | 16  pages, media reception, section | 59  pages, media contexts, chapter 10 | 20  pages, communication in contexts, chapter 11 | 19  pages, the cultural contexts of media and communication, chapter 12 | 20  pages, history, communication, and media, part 3 | 181  pages, section | 94  pages, empirical research designs, chapter 13 | 31  pages, quantitative approaches to media and communication research, chapter 14 | 21  pages, the qualitative research process, chapter 15 | 21  pages, digital methods for media and communication research, chapter 16 | 21  pages, the complementarity of qualitative and quantitative methodologies in media and communication research, section | 62  pages, multiple media, multiple methods, chapter 17 | 19  pages, personal media in everyday life, chapter 18 | 20  pages, media industries and audience research, chapter 19 | 23  pages, employing media-rich participatory action research to foster youth voice, section | 23  pages, communicating research, chapter 20 | 23  pages, the social origins and uses of media and communication research.

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Media and Communication

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Communications Research Methods: Articles & Books

• Methods in Media Studies (MiMS)

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• Communication Research Methods II: A Sourcebook An updated version of the "bible" of how to do research in communication and media studies.
• Handbook of Media and Communication Research: Qualitative and Quantitative Methodologies A great overview of both qualitative and quantitative approaches to content analysis and media studies research.
• Qualitative Media Analysis The authors of this work show readers how to obtain, categorize, and analyze different media documents. They look at traditional primary documents such as newspapers and magazines but also at more recent forms–television newscasts and cyberspace.
• Mass Communications Research Methods Originally published in 1988. Step-by-step, this book leads students from problem identification, through the mazes of surveys, experimentation, historical/qualitative studies, statistical analysis, and computer data processing to the final submission and publication in scientific or popular publications.
• Communication Research Methods in Postmodern Culture: A Revisionist Approach The second edition of Communication Research Methods in Postmodern Culture continues to explore research from a postmodern perspective. Typical qualitative and quantitative research methods are adjusted to fit the needs of contemporary culture.
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• Last Updated: May 23, 2024 2:40 PM
• URL: https://guides.nyu.edu/mediaandcommunication

Research in Journalism, Media and Culture

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Faculty in Journalism, Culture and Communication analyze emerging and enduring forms of public communication and the institutional and economic conditions that sustain them. They employ a range of research methods, including ethnography, textual and historical analysis, and political economic approaches to media industries. As digital technologies have transformed mediated practices, the faculty has opened a series of new areas of inquiry, including computational journalism, the study of algorithms in institutions, and the cultural history of Silicon Valley.

Angèle Christin  is an associate professor. She is interested in fields and organizations where algorithms and ‘big data’ analytics transform professional values, expertise, and work practices. In her dissertation, she analyzed the growing importance of audience metrics in web journalism in the United States and France. Drawing on ethnographic methods, she examined how American and French journalists make sense of traffic numbers in different ways, which in turn has distinct effects on the production of news in the two countries. In a new project, she studies the construction, institutionalization, and reception of analytics and predictive algorithms in the U.S. criminal justice system.

Ted Glasser  is an emeritus professor.  His teaching and research focus on media practices and performance, with emphasis on questions of press responsibility and accountability. His books include  Normative Theories of the Media: Journalism in Democratic Societies,  written with Clifford Christians, Denis McQuail, Kaarle Nordenstreng, and Robert White, which in 2010 won the Frank Luther Mott-Kappa Tau Alpha award for best research-based book on journalism/mass communication and was one of three finalists for the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication’s Tankard Book Award;  The Idea of Public Journalism , an edited collection of essays, recently translated into Chinese;  Custodians of Conscience: Investigative Journalism and Public Virtue , written with James S. Ettema, which won the Society of Professional Journalists’ award for best research on journalism, the Bart Richards Award for Media Criticism, and the Frank Luther Mott-Kappa Tau Alpha award for the best research-based book on journalism/mass communication;  Public Opinion and the Communication of Consent , edited with Charles T. Salmon; and  Media Freedom and Accountability , edited with Everette E. Dennis and Donald M. Gillmor.  His research, commentaries and book reviews have appeared in a variety of publications, including the  Journal of Communication, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Critical Studies in Mass Communication, Journalism Studies, Policy Sciences, Journal of American History, Quill, Nieman Reports  and  The New York Times Book Review .

James T. Hamilton  is a professor and the director of the Journalism Program. His work on the economics of news focuses on the market failures involved in the production of public affairs coverage and the generation of investigative reporting. Through research in the emerging area of computational journalism, he is exploring how to lower the cost of discovering stories about the operation of political institutions.

Xiaochang Li  is an assistant professor. She is broadly interested in the history of informatics, computation, and related data practices. Drawing upon media history, history of science, and STS, her work is concerned with how information technologies shape the production and circulation of knowledge and the relationship between technical practices and social worlds. Her current research examines the history of speech recognition and natural language processing and how the pursuit of language influenced the development of AI, Machine Learning, and contemporary algorithmic culture. Her work also touches on sound studies and the history of acoustics and she has previously worked on topics concerning transnational media audiences and digital content circulation.

Fred Turner  is a professor and cultural historian of media and media technologies. Trained in both Communication and Science and Technology Studies, he has long been interested in how media and American culture have shaped one another over time. His most recent work has focused on the rise of American technocracy since World War II and on the aesthetic and ideological manifestations of that rise in the digital era. Before earning his Ph.D., Turner worked as a journalist for ten years. He continues to write for newspapers and magazines and strongly supports researchers who seek to have a public impact with their work.

Like all Communication faculty, the members of the Journalism, Communication and Culture group routinely collaborate with colleagues from around the campus. The group enjoys particularly strong collaborations with sociologists, historians, art historians, and computer scientists.

Faculty — Journalism, Media and Culture

Doctoral Students — Journalism, Media and Culture

Selected Graduates

• Sanna Ali, Ph.D. 2023. AI Policy Analyst, Stanford Cyber Policy Center and RegLab
• Jeff Nagy, Ph.D. 2023. Assistant Professor, Communication and Media Studies, York University
• Anna Gibson, Ph.D. 2022. Postdoctoral Fellow, MIT Comparative Media Studies/Writing
• Jihye Lee , Ph.D. 2022. Assistant Professor, School of Advertising and Public Relations, UT Austin
• Andreas Katsanevas, Ph.D. 2020. Technology Policy Researcher, Meta
• Sheng Zou,  Ph.D. 2020. Assistant Professor, School of Communication, Hong Kong Baptist University
• Christine Larson , Ph.D. 2017. Assistant Professor, Journalism, University of Colorado, Boulder
• Yeon Joo , Ph.D. 2014. Associate Professor, Department of Digital Media, Myongji University, Seoul
• Morgan G. Ames , Ph.D. 2013. Assistant Adjunct Professor, School of Information, University of California, Berkeley
• Seeta Pena Gangdaharan , Ph.D. 2012. Assistant Professor, Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics
• Mike Ananny , Ph.D. 2011, Associate Professor, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California
• Daniel Kreiss , Ph.D. 2010, Associate Professor, School of Media and Journalism, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• John Kim , Ph.D. 2009, Associate Professor, Media and Cultural Studies, Macalaster College
• Erica Robles-Anderson , Ph.D. 2009, Associate Professor, Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University
• Isabel Awad , Ph.D. 2007, Associate Professor, Department of Media and Communication, Erasmus University (Netherlands)
• Cherian George , Ph.D. 2003, Professor, Associate Dean, School of Communication, Hong Kong Baptist University
• Francis Lapfung Lee , Ph.D. 2003, Professor, School of Journalism and Communication, City University of Hong Kong

Innovative Methods in Media and Communication Research

• © 2016
• Sebastian Kubitschko 0 ,
• Anne Kaun 1

University of Bremen (ZeMKI), Bremen, Germany

You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

Södertörn University, Huddinge, Sweden

• Includes introductory chapters by Saskia Sassen, Noortje Marres, Sarah Pink and Lev Manovich
• Focuses on innovative, cutting-edge empirical research methods
• Acknowledges early-career scholars’ expertise in the field of methodology
• Gives insights to contemporary methods to inform new research projects as well as teaching

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Media and Communication Studies in the Age of Digitalization and Datafication: How Practical Factors and Research Interests Determine Methodological Choices

Mediatized Worlds — Understanding Everyday Mediatization

Rethinking Media Research in Africa

• media and communication studies
• research methods
• empirical research
• media technologies and infrastructures
• contemporary media environments
• changing media landscape
• cultural studies
• science and technology studies
• information
• qualitative methods
• quantitative methods
• digital methods
• ethnography
• visualization

Table of contents (15 chapters)

Front matter, an introduction to innovative methods in media and communication research.

• Sebastian Kubitschko, Anne Kaun

Materiality

Engaging (past) participants: the case of radicalprintshops.org.

• Jess Baines

A Materialist Media Ecological Approach to Studying Urban Media in/of Place

• Erin Despard

Socio-spatial Approaches for Media and Communication Research

Neither black nor box: ways of knowing algorithms.

• Taina Bucher

Sketching Bitcoin: Empirical Research of Digital Affordances

• Pablo R. Velasco

Beyond Blobology: Using Psychophysiological Interaction Analyses to Investigate the Neural Basis of Human Communication Phenomena

• Richard Huskey

As We Should Think? Lifelogging as a Re-emerging Method

• Alberto Frigo

Visual Ethnography and the City: On the Dead Ends of Reflexivity and Gentrification

• Emily LaDue

Exploring Inclusive Ethnography as a Methodology to Account for Multiple Experiences

• Paola Sartoretto

Interviewing Against the Odds

Visualization, ways of seeing data: toward a critical literacy for data visualizations as research objects and research devices.

• Jonathan Gray, Liliana Bounegru, Stefania Milan, Paolo Ciuccarelli

Urban Sensing: Potential and Limitations of Social Network Analysis and Data Visualization as Research Methods in Urban Studies

• Luca Simeone, Paolo Patelli

Mapping Topics in International Climate Negotiations: A Computer-Assisted Semantic Network Approach

• Nicolas Baya-Laffite, Jean-Philippe Cointet

‘Creative’ and Participatory Visual Approaches in Audience Research

• Katharina Lobinger

“This book breathes fresh air onto established research methods, as well as introducing some new ones. It is an excellent resource for opening up discussion with our students about pushing methodological boundaries. I’m sure many of us will draw on it liberally as we teach and think about the important issue of how to do media and communications research now and in the future.” (Helen Kennedy, University of Sheffield, UK)

“Informative and inviting, this book opens a new window full of cutting-edge innovations and, more important, critical perspectives to think about methodological breakthroughs in digital media research. I can’t wait to use this book in my graduate seminars.” (Jack Linchuan Qiu, Ph.D. Professor at the School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong)

“Across the sprawling and diverse domain of media and communication research, digital methods have emerged and evolved alongside the digitisation of communication at all scales. Atthe same time, new advances and hybrid practices in qualitative and creative sociocultural research more broadly have occurred across the humanities and social sciences. In this vibrant, multidisciplinary collection, an international cohort of established and emerging authors model, explore and interrogate the cutting edge of these shifts.” (Jean Burgess, QUT Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology) 

Editors and Affiliations

Sebastian Kubitschko

About the editors

Bibliographic information.

Book Title : Innovative Methods in Media and Communication Research

Editors : Sebastian Kubitschko, Anne Kaun

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40700-5

Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan Cham

eBook Packages : Literature, Cultural and Media Studies , Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)

Copyright Information : The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016

Softcover ISBN : 978-3-319-40699-2 Published: 05 January 2017

eBook ISBN : 978-3-319-40700-5 Published: 26 December 2016

Edition Number : 1

Number of Pages : XXVII, 330

Number of Illustrations : 4 b/w illustrations, 23 illustrations in colour

Topics : Media and Communication , Media Research , Communication Studies , Research Methodology , Regional and Cultural Studies , Cultural Studies

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MS in Media Science: Marketing Communication Research

Put data to work.

Data is the new universal language, and virtually every industry needs to to understand it to succeed. Will you harness its potential -- and your own?

Academic Bulletin

• 02/01/2024 Priority Deadline
• 05/01/2024 Rolling Admission Deadline
• Degree Requirements
• Request Info

Program Notes

• No GRE required.
• Merit scholarships available, with no additional application required.
• International students: This program is eligible for the OPT STEM extension.

Boston University’s Master of Science in Media Science: Marketing Communication Research (MCR) prepares you with instruction in advanced research methods to gain consumer insights, predict purchasing behaviors, evaluate the impact of media consumption, and analyze consumer decision-making processes about brands, services, products, and political candidates. Over three semesters, students master quantitative and qualitative methods, tools and techniques to better understand audiences — their values, likes, needs and wants — and match that understanding to communication strategies.

Coursework includes: Contemporary Mass Communication, Communication Theory, Communication Research, Advanced Communication Research, Sampling Design and Measurement Techniques, and Technical Writing for Communication Research, Communication Writing. MCR students are also given the option to supplement the core requirements of their master of science degree with a sequence of courses focusing on social media analytics and, when successfully completing this sequence, to earn a Certificate in Data Analytics in addition to their master’s of science degree.

What You Read and Watch Is Changing Media Forever

Like most stories about data science, this one begins with a very big number: 150 million. That’s roughly how many…

Students combine this curriculum with learning opportunities outside of the classroom, such as research with professors, internships, and participation in student-led agencies such as AdLab and PRLab.

The MS in Media Science: Marketing Communication Research (MCR) prepares you to succeed in the burgeoning fields of marketing research and consumer insights research. These are fields that offer lucrative entry-level positions, ranging from marketing research and consumer data analysis to market planning, data visualization, and analytics, among others.

Which degree is for me?

COM offers master’s degrees in Media Science, Emerging Media Studies, Media Ventures and Marketing Communication Research. How do they compare?

Teachers, Researchers, Mentors

COM boasts faculty steeped in both research and practice, large in number and diverse in expertise. They are internationally recognized thought leaders in the fields of advertising, consumer insights, public relations, media law, psychology, political communications, design, and more. 

Faculty members serve as mentors for students by working alongside them in conducting original research. Together, they leverage the technology at COM’s Communication Research Center , COM’s primary research hub to examine communication phenomena, and the state of-the-art social media tools offered at the Zimmerman Family Social Activation Center. Your faculty are a great resource to help you position yourself for success after graduation.

Zimmerman Family Social Activation Center

The Zimmerman Family Social Activation Center offers the opportunity for advertising, public relations and journalism students to work in COM’s…

Benefit from Boston

One of BU’s greatest resources is its location. Consistently ranked among the most livable cities in the world, Boston is “America’s college town,” a city rich in history while remaining on the cutting edge. Boston is a Top 10 U.S. media market, and home to some of the world’s best agencies, media companies and leading employers — offering boundless opportunities for internships and careers.

Purpose Driven

COM stands out from our peers. Our faculty offers a mix of researchers and practitioners who endorse a cross-discipline, hands-on approach to learning. Our location lies at the heart of an electric, media-savvy city.

But it may be COM’s shared values that matter most. We believe that communication requires diversity, critical thinking, and creative expression. We believe that communication must be grounded in truth, authenticity, effectiveness, and purpose. We believe that communication builds understanding among people and across society.

Media Science Research

Assessing china’s news coverage and soft power in latin america.

Abstract: This study assesses the impact of China’s mediated communication strategies implemented in Latin America from 2013 to 2021. We…

Capturing Social Presence: Concept Explication Through an Empirical Analysis of Social…

Initially the province of telecommunication and early computer-mediated communication (CMC) literature, multiple systematic reviews suggest “social presence” is now used…

Channel Affordances for Sexting: Social Presence Relates to Improved Self-Esteem, Sexual…

Sexting involves the sharing of sexually explicit material, including photos and text-based messages, with another person via smartphones and computers.…

Compliance With the US Food and Drug Administration’s Guidelines for Health…

We developed the Warning Label Multi-Layer Identification (WaLi), a computer vision that is 99.3% accurate in detecting presence of health…

Meet the Media Science Faculty

Yi Grace Ji

Assistant professor in the department of mass communication, advertising, and public relations.

Professor, Media Science

Tammy R. Vigil

Senior associate dean; associate professor, media science.

T. Barton Carter

Stephanie Schorow

Lecturer, mass communication, advertising & public relations.

Patrice Oppliger

Assistant professor, media science, media science news, moderators should point out factual errors in real time, americans say in poll on eve of presidential debate.

Leery of Government Regulation, Americans Want Social Media to Police Misinformation, Survey Finds

Social Media Use Linked to Tobacco Initiation Among Youth

Media Science

Media and communication studies

Media and communication play a central role in the activities of various institutions and organisations. Modern democracies are based on public discussion, political communication and the creation of imagined communities. Companies, NGOs and other institutions need media and communication to make themselves visible and promote their goals. Organisations also need media and communication to increase the commitment and engagement of their staff or activists. Media – both traditional and new digital media – maintain public spaces in which key social issues are addressed and negotiated. Media and communication are also closely connected to the exercise of power which is communicative in modern societies: the pen is mightier than the sword.

Media and communication studies explores the above social phenomena from diverse and critical perspectives by analysing the role and methods of media and communication as well as related social changes. The discipline examines topics including media activities and presentations, journalism and political communication, communication policy, organisational communication, promotional communication, and science communication.

At the University of Helsinki, media and communication studies covers a wide range of research.

• The public sphere
• Organisational communication
• Political communication
• Communication policy
• Science communication

Some of the projects listed below are only in Finnish.

• Johanna Sumiala,  Mediatized Religious Populism (MERELPO) , Academy of Finland, 2021–2025
• Mervi Pantti, MAPS Media platforms and social accountability: Dynamics, practices and discourses , Academy of Finland, 2020–2024
• Mervi Pantti: NORDIS Nordic observatory for digital media and information disorders, European Commission 2021–2023, Twitter account: @nordishub
• Johanna Sumiala, The Nordic Network of Religion, Media and Populism (NOREMPO) . The Joint Committee for the Nordic Research Councils in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NOS-HS) 2021—2023
• Esa Väliverronen,  Mediating expertise (MEX) consortium  
• Marko Ampuja,  Conjunctural Changes in Information Technological Innovation Discourses, Academy of Finland 2017—2022.
• Juha Herkman, Communication Rights in the Age of Digital Disruption (CORDI) , Academy of Finland, 2018–2022
• Mervi Pantti, RAISD Reshaping and inclusion strategies for distinctively vulnerable people among the forcibly displaced , Horizon 2020, 2019-2022
• Anu Kantola,  Tackling Biases and Bubbles in Participation , Strategic Research Council 2017–2021
• Juha Herkman,  Mainstreaming Populism in the 21st Century , Academy of Finland 2017–2021
• Johanna Sumiala,  Hybridi terrori. Terroristinen väkivalta globaalina mediatapahtumana - kohti uutta tutkimusmallia, HYTE  (in Finnish), Academy of Finland 2017–2021
• Janne Matikainen,  Tunteet pelissä: Median auktoriteetti ja yleisön luottamus  (in Finnish), Helsingin Sanomain Säätiö 2019–2020
• Mervi Pantti,   Racisms and public communications in the hybrid media environment, HYBRA  (in Finnish), Academy of Finland 2016–2019
• Juha Herkman,   Representations of the Nordic Populism , Academy of Finland 2013–2018
• Johanna Sumiala,   Diginuoruus Mediakaupungissa - Urbaanietnografisia avauksia Helsingin ja Pietarin kaduilla ja asemilla, Kone Foundation 2016–2018
• Kari Karppinen,  Changing ideologies of media and communication policy , Academy of Finland 2014–2018
• Anu Kantola,   KAMU: Kaikki mukaan? Avoin hallinto ja uudet osallistumismuodot  (in Finnish), Kone Foundation 2015–2017
• Mervi Pantti,   Tieto ja tunteet pakolaiskeskustelussa - Big data -tutkimus vuonna 2015 käynnistyneen pakolaiskriisin julkisuudesta, Helsingin Sanomain Säätiö 2016–2017

Media and communication studies researchers cooperate with organisations in the field as well as with political and governmental actors, NGOs, research institutes and researchers in Finland and abroad. They engage with the public in various ways, for example, by producing research, commenting on current phenomena in the media and public debate, writing columns and blogs, giving popular lectures, and offering expert assistance and training for various communication-related issues.

Practical courses taught by professionals in the field also help maintain connections with the community. Alumni activities promote contacts with former students who are now in the job market.

Here you can find some blogs (in Finnish) by our staff and partners. Follow us to learn about current hot topics!

• The “Media society” blog written by Esa Väliverronen, professor of media and communication studies
• ​​​​​​​ The blog written by Janne Matikainen, docent of media and communication studies, on phenomena in the online world
• ​​​​​​​ The P3 Publics, Politics & Promotion research group comments on public life and activities.
• ​​​​​​​ The “Interface” blog on digital research
• ​​​​​​​ Petro Poutanen, a media and communication studies researcher and consultant, writes on organisational communication and creativity.
• ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ “Media & Communication” journal

Discipline coordinator:  Professor Esa Väliverronen

Director of Bachelor’s Programme in Politics, Media and Communication:  University Lecturer Janne Matikainen

Postal and street address

PO Box 54 (Unioninkatu 37) 00014 University of Helsinki  

Information for media and press

Services for press and media

Anders Hansen, David Machin (2019). Media and Communication Research Methods. London: Red Globe Press; 2nd Ed., 314 pp., ISBN: 978-1-137-52824-7.

• Related Documents

Introduction to Media and Communication Research Methods

Media and communication research methods, the problem of internationalizing media and communication research, the english language in academia: identifying power structures, denaturalizing daily choices. ecrea 2018 special panel report.

Media and communication research has been dominated by the Anglo-American paradigm and English has become the lingua franca of academic life. The 2018 ECREA conference focused on centres and peripheries, inclusions and exclusions, cores and margins in the field. In line with the programme, this special session on Language in Academia tried to respond to contemporary critical asymmetries, analysing a specific dimension often taken for granted: the English language hegemony. The centrality of the English language is often assumed without questioning or critical reasoning.

Rethinking the Rethinking

Abstract During the last few decades, the possibilities and limitations of qualitative media audience research have regularly been discussed in media and communication research. Quantitatively oriented researchers have claimed that qualitatively oriented research is incapable of producing general knowledge. From a ‘radical ethnographic’ point of view it has been stated that such knowledge is more or less useless, while other qualitatively oriented researchers have approached the question of generality in a more balanced way, and argued for the necessity to interpret specific events within a framework of more general theories. But these solutions are not satisfactory. The aim of this article is to suggest an alternative conceptualisation of generality. From the meta-theoretical viewpoint of critical realism, this article states that generalisations have to take into consideration the domain of the deep structures of reality. Qualitative media audience research should aim at producing general knowledge about the constituent properties or transfactual conditions of the process of media consumption.

The Significance of Nordicom and the NordMedia Conference to Nordic Media and Communication Research

Patient-professional communication research in cancer: an integrative review of research methods in the context of a conceptual framework, ux research methods for media and communication studies, three types of communication research methods: quantitative, qualitative, and participatory, the social origins and uses of media and communication research, export citation format, share document.

IAMCR is the preeminent worldwide professional organisation in the field of media and communication research. Learn more

IAMCR 2024 WHIRIA TE TĀNGATA WEAVING PEOPLE TOGETHER

Communicative projects of decolonising, engaging, and listening, 30 june to 4 july in christchurch, new zealand.

IAMCR HISTORY

Many voices, one forum: reflections on the international association for media and communication research.

Global Handbooks in Media and Communication Research Series.

Offers definitive, state-of-the-art handbooks that bring a global perspective to their subjects..

Palgrave/IAMCR Book Series.

Global transformations in media and communication research.

IAMCR books

Edited by Minna Aslama Horowitz, Hannu Nieminen, Katja Lehtisaari and Alessandro D'Arma, Epistemic Rights in the Era of Digital Disruption is the 21st title in the Palgrave/IAMCR book series Global Transformations in Media and Communication Research .

This book engages contemporary debates on women’s rights, democracy, and neoliberalism through the lens of feminist communication scholarship.

Members' books

In 'The Digital Double Bind,' Mohamed Zayani and Joe F. Khalil extensively examine the digital changes occurring in the Middle East, specifically emphasising socio-cultural, economic, and political factors. They also propose a conceptual framework for analyzing technology and development in the Global South.

Edited by Jason Paolo Telles, "Indigenous Media and Popular Culture in the Philippines: Representations, Voices, and Resistance" examines indigenous media and popular culture in the Philippines. It discusses the roles, significance, and politics of these forms of expression, offering new insights into their production in Southeast Asia.

'The Palgrave Handbook of Everyday Digital Life', edited by Hopeton S. Dunn, Massimo Ragnedda, Maria Laura Ruiu, and Laura Robinson, comprehensively evaluates how digital technology influences our daily lives. This publication offers a theoretical and empirical framework, examining digital technologies from various disciplines and non-Western perspectives.

This distinctive publication, edited by Joan Pedro-Carañana, Rodrigo Gómez, Thomas F. Corrigan, and Francisco Sierra Caballer, is the first dedicated solely to research methods in political economy of media and communication. It offers a toolkit for analyzing media, technology, and cultural industries in various contexts.

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Communication and Media

Studying the news media.

• Getting Started
• News Articles
• Mass Media/Advertising/Pop Culture
• Public Opinion
• Background Info (Reference Materials)
• Finding Data and Statistics

Watchdog or fact-checking sites

Journalism/media ethics.

• News Content for Text Mining
• "Fake News" and Misinformation
• Comm Studies in the Catalog
• Citing Your Sources
• Columbia Journalism Review "CJR’s mission is to be the intellectual leader in the rapidly changing world of journalism. It is the most respected voice on press criticism, and it shapes the ideas that make media leaders and journalists smarter about their work. "
• Communication and Mass Media Complete (CMMC) Find articles from media industry publications, along with scholarly articles ABOUT journalism and the news media
• Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism Produces an annual "State of the Media" report. Includes statistics, analysis, and journalism resources.
• Pew Research Center for the People and the Press Studies attitudes toward politics, the press and public policy issues. "In this role it serves as a valuable information resource for political leaders, journalists, scholars and citizens."
• Nieman Foundation for Journalism (from Harvard University)
• Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy Harvard research center dedicated to the study of press and politics. Produce the Journalist's Resource, providing scholarly research on current events and news topics.
• Knight Foundation Supports excellence in journalism and media innovation. Use the Knight blog to discover organizations and institutions working towards these goals.
• Poynter Institute A "global leader in journalism." Provide resources, tools and instruction for journalists and other media professionals and students.
• Reynolds Journalism Institute From the University of Missouri; the institute "works with citizens, journalists and researchers to strengthen democracy through better journalism".
• Annenberg Public Policy Center Supporting researching in political and health communication, among other areas.
• Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas From University of Texas; provides free multilingual library of reports on journalism in the hemisphere. Also offers online training for journalists, as well as free e-books on digital tools, skills and resources for journalists.
• Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism Research institute at the University of Oxford. Core funding from Thomson Reuters Foundation.
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• BBC Monitoring This link opens in a new window In addition to global news alerts, reports, reference and analysis of current developments around the world, BBC Monitoring provides "media guides" for ~100 countries. Media guides include an overview of current media outlets along with the extent of internet and social media use in each country. Choose country or territory and scroll down page to "Latest Media Guides".
• Newseum In addition to museum info, includes daily feature of daily newspaper front pages from around the world ("Today's Front Pages"), online exhibits, resources, and Online Journalism Awards.

Journalists or other organizations who check for accuracy in political discourse. Use these sites to find discussions of specific campaign ads, or assess the validity of claims made in campaign advertisements. 

• FactCheck.Org From the Annenberg Center; check the accuracy of statements, including advertisements, from politicians, pundits and special interest groups.
• Michigan Truth Squad Evaluate the truth and accuracy of Michigan political advertisements. Click on "past calls" to view evaluations of specific advertisements.
• Politifact.com Run by the St. Petersburg Times, the site's "Truth-o-meter" helps separate "fact from fiction" in political statements, including advertisements, from races around the country.
• Project Vote Smart Check voting records, background, and public statements of candidates from around the country.
• ProPublica ProPublica is an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest.
• Fact Checker (Washington Post) From columnist Glenn Kessler, focusing on accuracy of statements of political figures "regarding issues of great importance, be they national, international or local."
• Snopes.com Fact-checking site for "for urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation."

What do you know about the journalist or organization that produces a news article? Are they following a code of ethics? 

• Subject Guide on Media Ethics List of reference materials, associations, interest groups and other resources related to media ethics
• Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law Located at the University of Minnesota
• Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics
• Journalism Ethics Case Studies From Indiana University School of Journalism
• Poynter Institute Tip Sheet: Ethics Articles from 1994-2010, related to media ethics
• Center for Journalism Ethics (Univ of Wisconsin)
• Ethics Codes Links to ethical codes of various media organizations. Includes Gannett, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, NPR, LA Times, BBC and New York Times. Compiled by iMediaEthics.
• ProPublica Code of Ethics Code of ethics from ProPublica, whose mission is to "practice and promote investigative journalism in the public interest."
• Accountable Journalism "A collaborative project that aims to be the world’s largest collection of ethical codes of conduct and press organisations. The site is meant to be a resource, which explains global press ethics and regulation systems, and provides advice on ethical reporting and dealing with hate speech." From the Reynolds Journalism Institute and Ethical Journalism Network.

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Media and communication research methods

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2.3 Methods of Researching Media Effects

Learning objectives.

• Identify the prominent media research methods.
• Explain the uses of media research methods in a research project.

Media theories provide the framework for approaching questions about media effects ranging from as simple as how 10-year-old boys react to cereal advertisements to as broad as how Internet use affects literacy. Once researchers visualize a project and determine a theoretical framework, they must choose actual research methods. Contemporary research methods are greatly varied and can range from analyzing old newspapers to performing controlled experiments.

Content Analysis

Content analysis is a research technique that involves analyzing the content of various forms of media. Through content analysis, researchers hope to understand both the people who created the content and the people who consumed it. A typical content analysis project does not require elaborate experiments. Instead, it simply requires access to the appropriate media to analyze, making this type of research an easier and inexpensive alternative to other forms of research involving complex surveys or human subjects.

Content analysis studies require researchers to define what types of media to study. For example, researchers studying violence in the media would need to decide which types of media to analyze, such as television, and the types of formats to examine, such as children’s cartoons. The researchers would then need to define the terms used in the study; media violence can be classified according to the characters involved in the violence (strangers, family members, or racial groups), the type of violence (self-inflicted, slapstick, or against others), or the context of the violence (revenge, random, or duty-related). These are just a few of the ways that media violence could be studied with content-analysis techniques (Berger, 1998).

Archival Research

Any study that analyzes older media must employ archival research, which is a type of research that focuses on reviewing historical documents such as old newspapers and past publications. Old local newspapers are often available on microfilm at local libraries or at the newspaper offices. University libraries generally provide access to archives of national publications such as The New York Times or Time ; publications can also increasingly be found in online databases or on websites.

Older radio programs are available for free or by paid download through a number of online sources. Many television programs and films have also been made available for free download, or for rent or sale through online distributors. Performing an online search for a particular title will reveal the options available.

Resources such as the Internet Archive ( www.archive.org ) work to archive a number of media sources. One important role of the Internet Archive is website archiving. Internet archives are invaluable for a study of online media because they store websites that have been deleted or changed. These archives have made it possible for Internet content analyses that would have otherwise been impossible.

Surveys are ubiquitous in modern life. Questionaires record data on anything from political preferences to personal hygiene habits. Media surveys generally take one of the following two forms.

A descriptive survey aims to find the current state of things, such as public opinion or consumer preferences. In media, descriptive surveys establish television and radio ratings by finding the number of people who watch or listen to particular programs. An analytical survey, however, does more than simply document a current situation. Instead, it attempts to find out why a particular situation exists. Researchers pose questions or hypotheses about media, and then conduct analytical surveys to answer these questions. Analytical surveys can determine the relationship between different forms of media consumption and the lifestyles and habits of media consumers.

Surveys can employ either open-ended or closed-ended questions. Open-ended questions require the participant to generate answers in their own words, while closed-ended questions force the participant to select an answer from a list. Although open-ended questions allow for a greater variety of answers, the results of closed-ended questions are easier to tabulate. Although surveys are useful in media studies, effective use requires keeping their limitations in mind.

Social Role Analysis

As part of child rearing, parents teach their children about social roles. When parents prepare children to attend school for example, they explain the basics of school rules and what is expected of a student to help the youngsters understand the role of students. Like the role of a character in a play, this role carries specific expectations that differentiate school from home. Adults often play a number of different roles as they navigate between their responsibilities as parents, employees, friends, and citizens. Any individual may play a number of roles depending on his or her specific life choices.

Social role analysis of the media involves examining various individuals in the media and analyzing the type of role that each plays. Role analysis research can consider the roles of men, women, children, members of a racial minority, or members of any other social group in specific types of media. For example, if the role children play in cartoons is consistently different from the role they play in sitcoms, then certain conclusions might be drawn about both of these formats. Analyzing roles used in media allows researchers to gain a better understanding of the messages that the mass media sends (Berger, 1998).

Depth Interviews

The depth interview is an anthropological research tool that is also useful in media studies. Depth interviews take surveys one step further by allowing researchers to directly ask a study participant specific questions to gain a fuller understanding of the participant’s perceptions and experiences. Depth interviews have been used in research projects that follow newspaper reporters to find out their reasons for reporting certain stories and in projects that attempt to understand the motivations for reading romance novels. Depth interviews can provide a deeper understanding of the media consumption habits of particular groups of people (Priest, 2010).

Rhetorical Analysis

Rhetorical analysis involves examining the styles used in media and attempting to understand the kinds of messages those styles convey. Media styles include form, presentation, composition, use of metaphors, and reasoning structure. Rhetorical analysis reveals the messages not apparent in a strict reading of content. Studies involving rhetorical analysis have focused on media such as advertising to better understand the roles of style and rhetorical devices in media messages (Gunter, 2000).

Focus Groups

Like depth interviews, focus groups allow researchers to better understand public responses to media. Unlike a depth interview, however, a focus group allows the participants to establish a group dynamic that more closely resembles that of normal media consumption. In media studies, researchers can employ focus groups to judge the reactions of a group to specific media styles and to content. This can be a valuable means of understanding the reasons for consuming specific types of media.

Focus groups are effective ways to obtain a group opinion on media.

Wikimedia Commons – CC BY-SA 3.0.

Experiments

Media research studies also sometimes use controlled experiments that expose a test group to an experience involving media and measure the effects of that experience. Researchers then compare these measurements to those of a control group that had key elements of the experience removed. For example, researchers may show one group of children a program with three incidents of cartoon violence and another control group of similar children the same program without the violent incidents. Researchers then ask the children from both groups the same sets of questions, and the results are compared.

Participant Observation

In participant observation , researchers try to become part of the group they are studying. Although this technique is typically associated with anthropological studies in which a researcher lives with members of a particular culture to gain a deeper understanding of their values and lives, it is also used in media research.

Media consumption often takes place in groups. Families or friends gather to watch favorite programs, children may watch Saturday morning cartoons with a group of their peers, and adults may host viewing parties for televised sporting events or awards shows. These groups reveal insights into the role of media in the lives of the public. A researcher might join a group that watches football together and stay with the group for an entire season. By becoming a part of the group, the researcher becomes part of the experiment and can reveal important influences of media on culture (Priest).

Researchers have studied online role-playing games, such as World of Warcraft , in this manner. These games reveal an interesting aspect of group dynamics: Although participants are not in physical proximity, they function as a group within the game. Researchers are able to study these games by playing them. In the book Digital Culture, Play, and Identity: A World of Warcraft Reader , a group of researchers discussed the results of their participant observation studies. The studies reveal the surprising depth of culture and unwritten rules that exist in the World of Warcraft universe and give important interpretations of why players pursue the game with such dedication (Corneliussen & Rettberg, 2008).

Key Takeaways

• Media research methods are the practical procedures for carrying out a research project. These methods include content analysis, surveys, focus groups, experiments, and participant observation.
• Research methods generally involve either test subjects or analysis of media. Methods involving test subjects include surveys, depth interviews, focus groups, and experiments. Analysis of media can include content, style, format, social roles, and archival analysis.

Media research methods offer a variety of procedures for performing a media study. Each of these methods varies in cost; thus, a project with a lower budget would be prohibited from using some of the more costly methods. Consider a project on teen violence and video game use. Then answer the following short-response questions. Each response should be a minimum of one paragraph.

• Which methods would a research organization with a low budget favor for this project? Why?
• How might the results of the project differ from those of one with a higher budget?

Berger, Arthur Asa. Media Research Techniques (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1998), 23–24.

Corneliussen, Hilde and Jill Walker Rettberg, “Introduction: ‘Orc ProfessorLFG,’ or Researching in Azeroth,” in Digital Culture, Play, and Identity: A World of Warcraft Reader , ed. Hilde Corneliussen and Jill Walker Rettberg (Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2008), 6–7.

Gunter, Barrie. Media Research Methods: Measuring Audiences, Reactions and Impact (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2000), 89.

Priest, Susanna Hornig Doing Media Research: An Introduction (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2010), 16–22.

Priest, Susanna Hornig Doing Media Research , 96–98.

Understanding Media and Culture Copyright © 2016 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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• A Research Guide
• Research Paper Topics

40 Media and Communications Research Paper Topics

• What is communication? The birth of the media as we know it
• Media, Censorship and Propaganda
• The freedom of speech and its impact on the media
• The main aspects of communication
• The triggering topics. What do you need to start an instant “holywar” in media?
• The phenomenon of hype and its usage of the media
• Single bloggers versus media companies
• Communication and media psychology
• The history of advertising and its important in the modern business
• The popular culture in the media
• Video games. Can they be considered a media now?
• Violence and controversial topics. Shall the media censor it out?
• The peculiarities of children media
• Are the videoblogs the new diaries?
• Mainstream media versus arthouse
• What is the age of post-truth in the media?
• Social networks as the main way of communication in the modern world
• Why exclusive material is so important in the media?
• Fandom and fanfiction in the media
• Mass Communication Laws in different countries
• Media and disasters: enhancing panic or preventing it?
• Terrorism in the media
• Changes in the media during the wartime
• Journalism ethics: what is it?
• International journalism
• Journalists on the battlefield
• Media policy and regulation in different countries
• How did the Internet influence media development?
• Media: reacting to the events or creating them?
• Virtual reality: may it be the future of the media?
• Media downshifting: why do people revert to newspapers again?
• Social media marketing campaigns
• Media, politics and public relations
• The styles and types of media. How they differ depending on the audience they are aiming for?
• The phenomenon of Disney. Media or the new mythology?
• Scientific journalism: shall science be popular?
• Media for educational purpose
• Radio media: why radio is still popular?
• Hidden messages in the media made for entertainment
• Media images of the representatives of different countries

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Creator resource: Social media and well-being

The Center for Health Communication works to create  toolkits and briefings  that help content creators spread evidence-based health information on social media.  The information provided is meant to be educational and is not a substitute for medical advice.  This page was last updated on 6/24/24.

Key statistics

Understand the research, social media use can have positive or negative effects on well-being.

• Scientific research mainly focuses on the negative effects of social media use on well-being. Far fewer studies look at the positive effects of social media use.
• In a recent review of 233 studies, regular use of social media was positively associated with well-being in only 10% of the studies, whereas the majority (60%) found a negative association, 21% found mixed results, and 9% found no association.
• The quality of online social experiences is crucial to well-being. Positive social experiences include having avenues for social connection, having people to talk to when feeling lonely, and receiving support and appreciation.
• Negative effects of social media use are mainly driven by social comparison or feeling left out or ignored.
• Positive effects related to enhanced social connections are particularly relevant for minorities and people experiencing health disparities.

Content resources:

• Bekalu, M. A., Sato, T., & Viswanath, K. (2023). Conceptualizing and Measuring Social Media Use in Health and Well-being Studies: Systematic Review. Journal of Medical Internet Research
• Marciano, L., Albanese, E., Viswanath, K., & Camerini, A.-L. (2023). The Protective Role of SocialOriented Digital Media Use in Children’s and Adolescents’ Life Satisfaction During the Covid-19 Pandemic . European Journal of Health Communication
• Marciano, L., & Viswanath, K. (2023). Social media use and adolescents’ well-being: A note on flourishing . Frontiers in Psychology

Audience Call to Action:

• Maintain your mental health while using social media
• Be aware of social media use effects in adolescence
• Look at social media usage rates
• Social media and teens
• Keep social media “social”
• #WellBeing, #MediaEffects, #HSPHCreatorsSummit

There are no effects of social media use that apply to everyone

• Effects of social media use vary across individuals, and according to gender, age, socioeconomic status, education, race, and culture. These disparities and digital divides should be considered when looking at social media effects on well-being.
• Translating results of social media effect studies into practical information for interventions (e.g., digital detox) is not a straightforward process.
• Published data are often limited to WEIRD (White, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) populations.
• The lack of data from populations in the Global South and minority groups, also known as data absenteeism, limits data quality.
• Marciano, L., Driver, C. C., Schulz, P. J., & Camerini, A.-L. (2022). Dynamics of adolescents’ smartphone use and well-being are positive but ephemeral. Scientific Reports, 12(1), Article 1
• Viswanath, K., McCloud, R. F., Lee, E. W. J., & Bekalu, M. A. (2022). Measuring What Matters: Data Absenteeism, Science Communication, and the Perpetuation of Inequities . The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 700(1), 208–219
• #DigitalDetox, #HealthEquity, #DigitalDivide, #HSPHCreatorsSummit

Most results come from self-reported data 

• Studies assessing the effects of social media use are largely based on measures of time spent on social media, which do not provide insight into what people do or see on social media.
• Social media features/elements constantly change, thus making it difficult to develop enduring interventions and understand what users are doing. S
• ince social media platforms are not willing to share data transparently with the research community, objective and reproducible results are rarely obtainable.
• Today, research on social media is going through a replication crisis. Therefore, when communicating information, influencers should consider what the evidence they are sharing is based on.
• To overcome these limitations, researchers can ask participants to donate their social media data to scientific research, in order to provide further insight on how well-being is related to specific activities and content shared.
• Marciano, L., & Camerini, A.-L. (2022). Duration, frequency, and time distortion: Which is the best predictor of problematic smartphone use in adolescents? A trace data study. PloS One
• Parry, D. A., Davidson, B. I., Sewall, C. J. R., Fisher, J. T., Mieczkowski, H., & Quintana, D. S. (2021). A systematic review and meta-analysis of discrepancies between logged and self-reported digital media use. Nature Human Behaviour
• #DataDonation, #CallForResearch, #HSPHCreatorsSummit

Additional resources

• Learn about the Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness
• Find resources to improve your mental wellbeing at Project Healthy Minds

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SoCJ mass communication faculty publishes research on social media and e-cigarette use

“It is increasingly apparent that social media has enormous impacts on our health and behavior,” said Laura Lindenfeld, dean of the SoCJ and executive director of the Alda Center for Communicating Science. “The messages and content we consume on these digital platforms can also impact what we believe, and how we act, with regards to our health. 

“I applaud these faculty for their ongoing work in understanding how these relationships develop, and in exploring how we can mitigate adverse effects.”

The researchers published the piece, about the impact of social-media on e-cigarette use among youth, in Addictive Behaviors. Assistant professors of mass communication Xia Zheng, Wenbo Li and Ruobing Li, along with two colleagues from Indiana University, published “ Exposure to user-generated e-cigarette content on social media associated with greater vulnerability to e-cigarette use among youth non-users .” 

Their study found that when youth non-users saw people they knew, whether friends or celebrities, posting about using e-cigarettes on social media, those youths were more likely to perceive a reduced risk and more positive norms in using those products themselves. The researchers suggest that encouraging individuals, influencers and celebrities to post interventional messages about the risks of e-cigarettes might help mitigate non-users’ e-cigarette vulnerabilities and, perhaps, reduce e-cigarette use in young people.

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SCOTUS ruling on government communication with social media companies

☀️ Happy Thursday!   The Briefing is your guide to the world of news and information . Sign up here!

In today ’ s email:

• Featured story: SCOTUS rules that Biden administration did not unlawfully coerce social media companies into removing content
• In other news: AP launches nonprofit to support local news
• Looking ahead: The New York Times plans to move podcasts behind paywall
• Chart of the week: Americans’ fatigue over election coverage

🔥  Featured story

The Supreme Court yesterday rejected a lawsuit alleging the Biden administration unlawfully coerced social media companies into removing content. Writing for the majority, Justice Amy Coney Barrett concluded that past restrictions on content could not be directly tied to the White House’s communications with the social media platforms, and that the platforms were already moderating content themselves. The ruling means there will not be new limits on how the government can communicate with tech companies.

According to a 2023 Pew Research Center analysis , support for both technology companies and the U.S. government taking steps to restrict false information online has grown in recent years. For example, the share of U.S. adults who say the federal government should do this has risen from 39% in 2018 to 55% in 2023. Most Americans are also supportive of tech companies and the government taking steps to restrict extremely violent content online.

📌  In other news

• The Associated Press launches nonprofit to support local news
• TikTok creators host virtual town halls with third-party candidates
• The Russian trial of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich began yesterday 
• What does Julian Assange’s release mean for the future of press freedoms ? 
• U.S. bankruptcy trustee plans to shut down Alex Jones’ Infowars 
• California news publishers and Big Tech companies considering compromise on payment for news articles as legislation advances
• Indonesia’s new broadcast bill to block LGBTQIA content from the internet
• A  closer look  at the turmoil inside  The Washington Post

📅  Looking ahead

The New York Times plans to move its top podcasts behind a paywall, according to people familiar with the matter . This first push would include all but the three latest episodes of The Daily and all new episodes of its Serial show. The Times is expected to eventually adopt a subscription service for most or all of its podcasts.

In a 2022 Center survey about podcasts , just 13% of all podcast listeners (i.e., those who reported listening to a podcast in the past 12 months) said that they have paid for a subscription to a podcast.

Another Center survey conducted in 2023 found that three-in-ten U.S. adults say they at least sometimes get news from podcasts.

📊  Chart of the week

As President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump prepare to debate tonight, our chart of the week comes from our recent analysis of Americans’ attention to election news .

Although many Americans are following news about the 2024 presidential candidates, they are also experiencing fatigue over election coverage. About six-in-ten U.S. adults (62%) already say they are worn out by so much coverage of the campaign and candidates, according to an April survey. Another 35% say they like seeing a lot of this coverage. People who follow election news very closely are far less likely to say they are worn out.

👋 That’s all for this week. 

The Briefing is compiled by Pew Research Center staff, including Naomi Forman-Katz, Jacob Liedke, Sarah Naseer, Christopher St. Aubin, Luxuan Wang and Emily Tomasik. It is edited by Katerina Eva Matsa, Michael Lipka and Mark Jurkowitz, and copy edited by Rebecca Leppert.

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ABOUT PEW RESEARCH CENTER  Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of  The Pew Charitable Trusts .

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Melanoma messages: Social media a useful tool for skin cancer communication

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In a recent study published in JID Innovations , researchers assessed health communication messages that effectively educate the public and raise intentions to get skin exams.

Melanoma incidence in the United States is rising, with rates falling among younger individuals and increasing among older adults. Early diagnosis is critical for saving lives and improving outcomes since tumor thickness influences metastasis rates.

Skin self-examination is associated with early detection. Public health campaigns can help patients make more informed decisions and adopt healthier practices. Successful initiatives in Italy and the southwestern parts of England have increased thin (less than 1.0 mm) melanoma diagnoses and reduced medium-thick melanoma detection.

About the study

In the present study, researchers sought to uncover health communication techniques that improve correct visual identification of moles, understanding of melanoma cautioning indicators, dermatological self-check intentions, and positive attitudes regarding examining their skin.

Researchers utilized social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram to reach a large audience and evaluated public health communication messaging tailored to these platforms. They collected demographic information by self-reporting at the end of the survey to analyze any disparities in knowledge or behavior.

The researchers estimated the accuracy of visual mole identification by adding correct replies to 24 photographs of moles (previously ascertained as benign or malignant). They tested their understanding of melanoma cautionary indicators by adding correct verbal descriptions of melanoma in six pairs of descriptions. They calculated attitudes about skin self-checks by averaging the responses to four questions.

In four experimental settings, participants read six control-type messages or the ones that increase knowledge, self- efficacy , or both. Awareness messages aimed to enhance melanoma cautionary sign awareness and mole identification accuracy, and self-efficacy texts aimed to boost the viewer's confidence in skin monitoring to prevent melanoma. Self-efficacy messaging included parallel comparisons of the identical body shot but with one photo featuring an easily identifiable melanoma. The researchers created a melanoma-specific indicator to ensure self-efficacy manipulation.

The researchers assigned participants to conditions based on a random arrangement of messages within each kind. Each participant read six messages: six in the control condition, three in the self-efficacy condition, three in the knowledge condition, and all three in the knowledge + self-efficacy condition. On August 10 and 11, 2021, the researchers gathered online survey data from qualified individuals recruited via the CloudResearch interface for Amazon MTurk.

Further requirements were compliance with 99% to 100% Human Intelligence Tasks and completing at least 1,000 Human Intelligence Tasks to ensure data quality. The researchers excluded individuals who performed exceptionally poorly on the proper visual recognition test or the warning flags awareness task.

The study included 401 individuals with a mean age of 40 years, among whom 46% (n=183) were female. The reading of messages aimed to enhance melanoma knowledge led to participants correctly identifying a higher proportion (75% vs. 70%) of moles (average number = 18) with higher awareness of melanoma cautionary signs (average number = 5.8) than individuals with only self-efficacy-type or control message exposure, indicating their enhanced ability to distinguish between melanomas and benign moles.

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Exploratory investigations demonstrated that knowledge-improving messages reduced the false positive rates, lowering the count of benign moles categorized as melanomas. The researchers found no significant influence of gender in any analysis.

Participants who read messages meant to boost their self-confidence in appropriately examining their skin showed an increased likelihood of expressing stronger intentions to undertake a skin assessment on a 1–5 scale. The team found no interactions between self-efficacy and knowledge that influenced the results. Although the effects of knowledge and self-efficacy messages were independent, combining both was the most beneficial since participants experienced the benefits of both message types without unexpected consequences from mixing the messages.

The study indicated that self-efficacy messages significantly influenced melanoma-related self-efficacy, with women having more confidence in skin inspections than males. They were also more likely to do a skin check and had more favorable sentiments regarding skin inspections. When examining malignant moles, women accurately recognized more melanomas (mean = 10) than men, while self-efficacy messages resulted in more false positives (mean = 5.2) when considering benign moles.

Based on the study findings, online messaging boosts knowledge and self-efficacy and can enhance skin self-examination accuracy and intentions. These messages, created for sites like Instagram and Facebook, can be effective health communication tools for melanoma. Knowledge communications help with mole detection and melanoma warning indicators, whereas self-efficacy messages encourage skin self-evaluation.

However, integrating both message types did not improve the effectiveness of each other, indicating the need for more research. The findings might guide large-scale public health efforts, with future research incorporating pretest-post-test design, comprehensive health history gathering, and randomized trials.

Ariel Nadratowski et al., Evidence-Based Communication to Increase Melanoma Knowledge and Skin Checks, JID Innovations (2024), 4:100253, DOI: 10.1016/j.xjidi.2023.100253 . https://www.jidinnovations.org/article/S2667-0267(23)00079-6/fulltext  

Posted in: Medical Research News | Medical Condition News | Disease/Infection News

Tags: Cancer , Efficacy , Malignant , Melanoma , Metastasis , Mole , Public Health , Research , Skin , Skin Cancer , Tumor

Pooja Toshniwal Paharia

Pooja Toshniwal Paharia is an oral and maxillofacial physician and radiologist based in Pune, India. Her academic background is in Oral Medicine and Radiology. She has extensive experience in research and evidence-based clinical-radiological diagnosis and management of oral lesions and conditions and associated maxillofacial disorders.

Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report:

Toshniwal Paharia, Pooja Toshniwal Paharia. (2024, June 26). Melanoma messages: Social media a useful tool for skin cancer communication. News-Medical. Retrieved on June 28, 2024 from https://www.news-medical.net/news/20240626/Melanoma-messages-Social-media-a-useful-tool-for-skin-cancer-communication.aspx.

Toshniwal Paharia, Pooja Toshniwal Paharia. "Melanoma messages: Social media a useful tool for skin cancer communication". News-Medical . 28 June 2024. <https://www.news-medical.net/news/20240626/Melanoma-messages-Social-media-a-useful-tool-for-skin-cancer-communication.aspx>.

Toshniwal Paharia, Pooja Toshniwal Paharia. "Melanoma messages: Social media a useful tool for skin cancer communication". News-Medical. https://www.news-medical.net/news/20240626/Melanoma-messages-Social-media-a-useful-tool-for-skin-cancer-communication.aspx. (accessed June 28, 2024).

Toshniwal Paharia, Pooja Toshniwal Paharia. 2024. Melanoma messages: Social media a useful tool for skin cancer communication . News-Medical, viewed 28 June 2024, https://www.news-medical.net/news/20240626/Melanoma-messages-Social-media-a-useful-tool-for-skin-cancer-communication.aspx.

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Research in Cognition and Metacognition Aims to Improve Mathematical Communication

Graduate students' research is poised to push boundaries by examining metacognitive processes specifically during mathematical proof writing tasks.

June 24, 2024 | By Brenda Gillen

Sarah Sparks ' fascination with mental processing has led her to research math students' metacognition during proof writing — a vital mathematical process to convince others that their deductive arguments are accurate. Sparks is in her final year of studies in the Educational Mathematics (now Mathematics Education ) Ph.D. program at the University of Northern Colorado.

Sparks said her dissertation research boils down to communications.

"This is a broader conversation about how to communicate. It's applicable to a wide range of logical reasoning situations that aren't just computational. For example, going into a test, a student may feel confident on one type of question because they know that's something they understand. Metacognition encapsulates that ability to reflect on one's own understanding," Sparks said.

In higher-level mathematics, students transition from solving problems with specific approaches to developing proofs that show truth of mathematical statements.

"That can be a challenging shift for a lot of students. Students aren't always prepared for it," she said.

She explained it's especially important for students to meet the challenge of proof writing because mathematics is an intellectual gateway into a variety of fields. While much of the metacognitive research in mathematics focuses on problem-solving strategies, Sparks' research is poised to push boundaries by examining metacognitive processes specifically during proof writing tasks.

"I had two pairs of students work on two proof tasks together while I recorded them on audio and video. Then, I did two sets of follow-up interviews, where I showed them video clips and talked with them about things that happened during the tasks," she said.

Sparks anticipates the research contributing to conversations about the skills students need to communicate logical reasoning and ideas. Besides helping support mathematics students during their transition to proof writing, she believes it could impact curriculum development from grade school to undergraduate levels.

As a graduate part-time instructor, Sparks has taught or co-taught over 600 students at UNC, including math majors and liberal arts students.

"Students are creative, and they challenge me in my own understanding of mathematics. They all learn differently, so I learn new things about being a teacher every day," she said.

She garnered a department teaching award early in her Ph.D. program. Gulden Karakok , a professor in Mathematical Sciences in the College of Natural and Health Sciences and Ph.D. program co-coordinator, said this award speaks to Sparks' dedication to teaching.

"She's putting our students first. She's using newer teaching techniques and supporting students so that they can best learn mathematics," Karakok said. "The award committee also was impressed by her student-friendly syllabus. As a teacher, she's always trying to understand students and make connections with them."

As Sparks’ research advisor, Karakok mentioned the importance of aligning expectations. When both noticed their expectations weren't aligning, Sparks suggested a simple check-in at the end of their meetings.

"Sarah proposed this idea, which I'm going to do with my other graduate students. We tell each other what went well from our expectations and what are the things we should improve on," she said.

Sparks recalled struggling with her writing skills and navigating graduate school with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

"Dr. Karakok went out of her way to support me in strengthening my writing skills and taking the skills that I did have and helping me grow them. She also helped me learn time management skills and how to set myself up for success," she said. "I look forward to continuing to work with her post-graduation."

Karakok said Sparks' research will extend beyond mathematical proofs to other written communication in mathematics courses that involve understanding how people process what they think and write.

"Once we understand how this writing process works with metacognition, we can think about how we can bring those skills into other forms of writing in other classes," Karakok said.

Sparks plans to keep teaching after she graduates in May 2025. She loves teaching undergraduate and higher-level math courses as well as pre-service elementary and secondary teaching courses.

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Coordinator for Digital Content/Marketing - Institute of Behavioral Research

• College of Science & Engineering
• Professional Staff
• Opening at: Jun 26 2024 at 14:00 CDT

Job Summary:

The IBR Coordinator for Digital Content/Marketing is responsible for developing communication and marketing plans for the Institute of Behavioral Research research projects. This position also identifies appropriate communication tools to publicize grant-funded projects, student labs and events, and training opportunities. The Coordinator Digital Content/Marketing also manages grant-specific newsletters (“The TCU IBR Spotlight” and “Research & News Worth Repeating”), IBR website (www.ibr.tcu.edu), and use of social media; designing and maintaining print and digital materials, web and social media presence. This position is grant funded.

Duties & Essential Job Functions:

1. Works closely with the College of Science & Engineering Coordinator of Digital Content/Marketing to enhance the visibility of IBR by creating and implementing marketing plans for the IBR and the Institute’s grant-funded projects, creating and updating information in traditional and new media outlets for the IBR website. 2. Promotes IBR project events and programs by producing individual marketing, communication, and advertising pieces. 3. Serves as liaison with the College of Science & Engineering Coordinator of Digital Content/Marketing by writing, editing, and publishing for IBR print materials such as research project brochures, annual report, newsletters; attending events to insure IBR efforts are aligned with the University master marketing and communication plans. 4. Manages creative grant-related services; Designs digital and print publications by applying Adobe, InDesign, Photoshop and other publishing software; 5. Develops, implements, and maintains the College of Science & Engineering and university’s brand standards internally and externally; participating on relevant committees and groups as assigned;. 6. Tracks the success of marketing and promotional initiatives by developing surveys and analyze data; gathering input from various sources; applying statistics; recommending improvements. 7. Performs other related duties as assigned. 8. Manages media relations management for the IBR; respond to incoming media requests and arrange interviews with IBR staff experts and pitch newsworthy ideas to TCU marketing and communication staff. 9. Manages development of the IBR Annual Report summarizing grant funded activities, including project management, art direction, graphic design, content development, print production. 10. Manages digital strategy and websites for the IBR in alignment with the College of Science and Engineering, including copywriting, layout, technical assistance and client requests. 11. Works closely with IBR research support staff, collaborating with them on tasks such as the IBR Annual Report. 12. Advancement communications for the IBR with the College of Science & Engineering, including delivery of communication regarding IBR’s S.B. Sells endowed chair. 13. Directs and manages internal photoshoots and videography. 14. Performs other related duties as assigned.

Required Education & Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in communication, marketing, journalism or related field. • 2 plus years’ experience with video editing software, designing ads and marketing material in an advertising, media relations, journalism, public relations or related environment.

Preferred Education & Experience:

Required licensure/certification/specialized training:, preferred licensure, certification, and/or specialized training:, knowledge, skills & abilities:.

• Knowledge of design-related applications to perform the job. • Knowledge to troubleshoot software processes and data related issues. • Knowledge of creative thinking and interpersonal communication techniques. • Knowledge of customer service techniques. • Skill in Microsoft Office including Access. • Skill with Adobe, InDesign, Photoshop, Dreamweaver. • Skill in oral and written communications. • Skill in editing. • Ability to review and make recommendations to improve and streamline processes. • Ability to work independently as well as a member of a team. • Ability to apply organizational techniques. • Ability to manage multiple projects and meet deadlines.

TCU Core Competencies:

University Core Competencies definitions may be found on the Human Resources website and in the staff performance management system.

Physical Requirements (With or Without Accommodations):

• Visual acuity to read information from computer screens, forms and other printed materials and information. • Able to speak (enunciate) clearly in conversation and general communication. • Hearing ability for verbal communication/conversation/responses via telephone, telephone systems, and face-to-face interactions. • Manual dexterity for typing, writing, standing and reaching, flexibility, body movement for bending, crouching, walking, kneeling and prolonged sitting. • Lifting and moving objects and equipment up to 10 lbs.

Work Environment:

• Work is indoors and sedentary and is subject to schedule changes and/or variable work hours. • This role is an on campus, in-person position. • There are no harmful environmental conditions present for this job. • The noise level in this work environment is usually moderate.

AA/EEO Statement:

As an AA/EEO employer, TCU recruits, hires, and promotes qualified persons in all job classifications without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, ethnic origin, disability, genetic information, covered veteran status, or any other basis protected by law. 

TCU Annual Security Report & Fire Safety Report Notice of Availability

Texas Christian University is committed to assisting all members of the campus community in providing for their own safety and security. TCU’s Annual Security Report and Fire Safety Report is published in compliance with the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy & Campus Crime Statistics Act (Clery Act) and the Higher Education Opportunity Act. This report includes statistics for the previous three calendar years concerning reported crimes that occurred on campus, in certain off-campus buildings owned or controlled by the University, and on public property within, or immediately adjacent to and accessible from the campus. The statements of policy contained within this report address institutional policies, procedures, and programs concerning campus security, alcohol and drug use, crime prevention, the reporting of crimes, emergency notifications and timely warning of crimes, sexual and interpersonal violence, and personal safety at TCU. Additionally, this report outlines fire safety systems, policies and procedures for on-campus housing facilities, as well as residence hall fire statistics. 

The Annual Security Report and Fire Safety Report can be found on the TCU Police Department website at https://police.tcu.edu/annual-security-report , or a paper copy of the report may be obtained by contacting the TCU Police Department at 817-257-7930, or via email at [email protected] .

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