Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction to Qualitative Communication Research
Introduction: Working With (and Studying) Cops
Four Paradigms and (Maybe) a Funeral: A Brief History of Qualitative Communication Research
Feeling Corporate, Going Global: Two Trends in Qualitative Communication Research
Looking Closer: The Conduct of Qualitative Research in Communication
Conclusion
2. Theoretical Traditions and Qualitative Communication Research
Qualitative Research and Communication Theory
The Phenomenological Tradition
The Sociocultural Tradition
The Critical Tradition
Conclusion
3. Design I: Planning Research Projects
Introduction
“My City, My Society, and My Life”: Renee’s Story
Sources of Research Ideas
Moving Toward a Commitment
Evaluating the Scene
Conclusion
4. Design II: Implementing Research Projects
Introduction
Negotiating Access
Exploratory Methods
Sampling
Human Subject Protections
The Research Proposal
Conclusion
Exercises
5. Producing Data I: Participating, Observing, and Recording Social Action
Introduction: Fieldwork, Ethnography, and Participant Observation
Successful Participant Observation
Adapting Roles
Tactical Observing
Writing Fieldnotes
New Media and Participant Observation
Conclusion
Exercises
6. Producing Data II: Qualitative Interviewing
Introduction
Purposes of the Qualitative Interview
Types of Interviews in Communication Research
The Practices of Interviewing
Question Design and Use
Transcribing Interviews
Conclusion
Exercises
7. Producing Data III: Analyzing Material Culture and Documents
Introduction
Material Culture
Documents
Conclusion
Exercises
8. Sensemaking: Qualitative Data Analysis and Interpretation
Introduction
Qualitative Data Analysis
Tools for Analysis
Interpretation
Evaluating Interpretations
Conclusion
Exercises
9. Writing, Authoring, and Publishing
Introduction: Going Public
The Crisis of Representation
After the Fall: Reading and Writing Qualitative Research
Institutional Contexts of Qualitative Writing
The Craft of Qualitative Writing: Three Types of Format and Their Related Strategies
Some Final Thoughts on Writing
Exercises
Epilogue
References
Author Index
Subject Index
About the Authors

About the Author

Thomas R. Lindlof is a Professor in the School of Journalism and Telecommunications at the University of Kentucky. He received his B.A. from the University of Florida, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to joining the University of Kentucky faculty, he served on the faculty at the Pennsylvania State University. His research and graduate teaching are focused on the cultural analysis of mediated communication, media audience theory and research, social uses of communication technology, and interpretive research methods. His research has appeared in numerous scholarly outlets, including Communication Research, the Journal of Communication, the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Journalism Quarterly, Journalism Studies, the Journal of Media and Religion, the Social Science Computer Review, and Communication Yearbook. He has served as the editor of the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, and currently serves on the editorial boards of four journals. He has written or edited five books. His latest book, Hollywood under Siege: Martin Scorsese, the Religious Right, and the Culture Wars, was published by the University Press of Kentucky in 2008. Bryan C. Taylor, Associate Professor, specializes in interpretive research methods, organizational communication, and cultural studies. His principal research program involves studies of nuclear and (post-) Cold War communication. This research explores ideological articulations of gender, ethnicity, technology, and (ir)rationality in organizational and cultural discourse. He is also interested in cultural studies of identity, technology, gender, organization, and media. His research has been published in Journal of Applied Communication Research, Communication Research, Critical Studies in Mass Communication, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Quarterly Journal of Speech, Rhetoric and Public Affairs, Studies in Cultures, Organizations, and Societies, and elsewhere. Current projects include a book about the impact of the Cold War on the speech communication discipline. He received his B.A. (1983) from the University of Massachusetts, his M.A.(1987) and Ph.D. (1991) from the University of Utah. Prior to joining the CU-Boulder faculty in 1995 he served on the faculty at Texas A&M University. He was the 1998 recipient of the Young Investigator Award from the Rhetorical and Communication Theory Division of NCA.

Reviews

“There are not many textbooks available (if any) that can match [this book’s] intelligence.”
*Elizabeth M. Lozano*

“The use of examples from media and communication exhibit a very wide reading of the discipline. The writers do a great job keeping up with current technologies that assist in qualitative inquiry!”
*John R. Baldwin*