Pt. I. Roots: Social Science Foundations -- Ch. 1. A Philosophy of Social "Science" -- Ch. 2. Foundational Disciplines -- Ch. 3. Mass Communication as a Research Field -- Pt. II. Asking Questions and Collecting Data: Creating a Research Plan -- Ch. 4. Developing a Research Question, Reviewing the Literature, Exploring Data Sources, and Defining Variables -- Ch. 5. Designing Quantitative Research: Surveys, Experiments, and Quantitative Content Analysis -- Ch. 6. Designing Qualitative Studies: Participant Observation, Interviews, Focus Groups, and Qualitative Content Analysis -- Pt. III. Approaches to Data Analysis: Basis Tools -- Ch. 7. Describing a Numerical Data Set and Making Inferences -- Ch. 8. Testing Hypotheses and Exploring Other Relationships -- Ch. 9. Qualitative Analysis: Identifying Themes and Writing Meaningful Summaries -- Pt. IV. Research in Broader Context: Contemporary Trends and the Dissemination of Research Results.

Ch. 10. Research Horizons: Opportunities and Challenges -- Ch. 11. Writing and Presenting the Research Report.