1st Edition

Evolving Journalism Research Methods Applications, Trends, Analyses

Edited By Michael P. Boyle, Adam M. Rainear Copyright 2026
416 Pages 13 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

416 Pages 13 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

Evolving Journalism Research Methods offers the first comprehensive survey of research methods and their applications in Journalism Studies. Divided into five sections, this volume begins by contextualizing key theories and industry debates, from newsroom automation to ethics in research. It addresses sampling and sourcing techniques as well as the broad distinctions between qualitative and... Read more

List of Contributors

Section I: Theory in a Changing World

Introduction to theory in a changing world

   Michael P. Boyle and Adam M. Rainear

Chapter 1: Digital journalism: Theory, practice, and critics

   Masduki, Iwan Awaluddin Yusuf, Narayana Mahendra Prastya, Id NDK Ningsih, and Dian Dwi Anisa

Chapter 2: Heuristics and digital horizons: Navigating media effects in journalism

   Xialing Lin and Patric R. Spence

Chapter 3: Community structure shapes journalism: From modest model to robust theory

   John C. Pollock

Chapter 4: Understanding user and designer perspectives on newsroom automation: Exploring a clash in newsworker and technologist perspectives through comparative analysis

   Shangyuan Wu, Pei Qi Chua, and Edson C. Tandoc Jr.

Chapter 5: An exploratory experiment to understand perceptions of medical experts and scientists presented in news media regarding the COVID-19 vaccine

   Brett W. Robertson and Adam M. Rainear

Chapter 6: Ethics in research

   Kimberly Meltzer

Section II: Sampling and Measurement

Section introduction

   Michael P. Boyle and Adam M. Rainear

Chapter 7: Rapport and journalist to subject relationships

   Kimberly Meltzer

Chapter 8: Measuring media's ecological effects: Spatial analyses of local media’s role in non-institutional political engagement

   Abby Y. Qin

Chapter 9: Qualitative listening in data gathering

   Michele Kimball

Chapter 10: Universal Design (UD) practices and accessibility disclosure statements: Best practices in the web-based research

   Alicia Mason, Elizabeth A. Spencer, Pan Liu, Kristen M. Livingston, Angela Ashmore, Lauren Shepard,  and Tristan A. Spencer

Chapter 11: Gender, caste, language, and terrain in India's Maoist conflict journalism fieldwork

   Ashmi Desai

Chapter 12: Exploring question order-effects: Implications for questionnaire design

   Mike Schmierbach and Michael P. Boyle

Section III: Qualitative Research Methods

Section introduction

   Michael P. Boyle and Adam M. Rainear

Chapter 13: Four research methods for studying journalists' knowledge and expertise

   Zvi Reich, Irit Neumann, Oded Jackman, Liri Bloom and Tal Mishaly

Chapter 14: Qualitative analysis in fact-checking methodology research: Semi-structured, in-depth interviews

   Victoria Moreno-Gil

Chapter 15: Journalism and autoethnography: An explication and application

   James A. Ford and Richard D. Besel

Chapter 16: Focus groups in journalism research: A reappraisal

   Martin J. Riedl, Gina M. Masullo, and Tamar Wilner

Chapter 17: Discourses of a shortage: News sharing on social media during the 2022 infant formula crisis

   Alison N. Novak

Chapter 18: Interviews and focus groups within journalists in Pakistan's conflict zone: Methodological and ethical challenges

   Sayyed Fawad Ali Shah & Shabir Hussain

Chapter 19: Gender sensitive journalism education in Kashmir: An exploratory study

   Paromita Pain, Aaliya Ahmed, and Zara Malik Khaled

Section IV: Quantitative Research Methods

Section introduction

   Michael P. Boyle and Adam M. Rainear

Chapter 20: Cognitive barriers to select news from distrusted sources: An eye tracking examination of expectancy violation perceptions

   Robin Blom

Chapter 21: Effects of collectivism in perceptions of websites and discussion forums: A comparison between national vs. individual-level differences

   Maria D. Molina and Mike Schmierbach

Chapter 22: The necessity and sufficiency of intercoder reliability and other contemporary issues in content analyses

   Cory L. Armstrong and Fangfang Gao

Chapter 23: Stimulus creation for experiments: A case study using media literacy videos

   Anne Oeldorf-Hirsch, Alyssa Appelman, Mike Schmierbach, and Michael P. Boyle

Chapter 24: Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic modeling and journalism studies: A  case study of UK news coverage using Freedom of Information (FOI) requests

   Jingrong Tong

Chapter 25: Cancer information overload and message fatigue: The overload-fatigue model and dispositional origins

   Jakob D. Jensen, Rachel A. Katz, Helen M. Lillie, Manusheela Pokharel, Dallin R. Adams, and Sean Upshaw

Section V: Analyzing and Reporting Data

Section introduction

   Michael P. Boyle and Adam M. Rainear

Chapter 26: Planning, conducting, and presenting visual journalism research: Considerations for visual data collection, analysis, and publication

   T.J. Thomson

Chapter 27: Using newsroom reconstruction to understand metacognition in journalism

   Patrick R. Johnson

Chapter 28: Exploring news consumption as an independent and dependent variable

   L. Meghan Mahoney and Tang Tang

Chapter 29: Applying responsible research and innovation (RRI) as a method in journalism research

   Astrid Gynnild and Anja Salzman

Chapter 30: “Flow” as the new unit of analysis: Introducing snowball crawling and named-entity recognition as a methodological toolkit for media research

   Steve Guo and Dan Wang

Chapter 31: Who said what? Studying public opinions with big data methods and discourse perspectives

   Xianlin Jin and Xin Sheng

Index

Biography

Michael P. Boyle is a Professor in the Department of Communication and Media at West Chester University, USA. His research interests focus on news coverage of protest as well as the implications of media use on public opinion and perceptions of media effects.

Adam M. Rainear is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and Media at West Chester University, USA. His research utilizes technology—such as social media, robotics, and artificial intelligence—to understand how individuals access information and communicate about risks such as weather, climate, and environmental hazards.