Introducing Communication Research Paths of Inquiry

"Welcome to communication research. Probably you are studying communication because you are attracted to its career or practice potential in some form-gamer, blogger, influencer, or public opinion researcher perhaps-or because some aspect of human communication such as interpersonal relationships, group performance, or virtual characters in virtual worlds has you intrigued and wanting to know more. This text introduces the "wanting to know more" side of communication with some emphasis on how research ties into the world of practice or applied communication. Ultimately, research is nothing more than a quest for answers but for both scholarly research and applied communication some answers are better or more dependable than others. In both cases, research must be able to stand up to criticism and questioning if it is to be useful. The generic questions that probe and test for well-planned and implemented research have much in common with the basic questions that journalists ask, and with the questions we should ask of any media content-especially in this era of misinformation and disinformation. Who did it? Why did they do it? When did they do it? Where did they do it? How did they do it? What happened? The answers to the first four questions will generally be self-apparent in research reports. Typically, you will find that scholars or practitioners (who) did the research for pragmatic or theoretical reasons (why). The date (when) and location of the study (where) will also be apparent"