Research Methods in Mass Communication Research: A Census of Eight Journals 1990–2000

This article replicates previous studies on methods used in mass communication research, A total of 2,649 articles from eight communication journals are analyzed for their use of quantitative versus qualitative methods, research focus, data-gathering procedures, and data sources. Additional attention is given to the concept of triangulation, especially the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. The results show scholarship in this set of journals presents a roughly 60/40 quantitative/qualitative split and rarely combines quantitative and qualitative approaches. Triangulation is not formally represented. More than half (58%) of both qualitative and quantitative work is atheoretical.