Routledge Handbook of Applied Communication Research

711 Pages·2009·6.25 MB·English

Routledge Handbook of Applied
Communication Research
The Routledge Handbook of Applied Communication Research provides a state-of-the-art review
of communication scholarship that addresses real-world concerns, issues, and problems. This com-
prehensive examination of applied communication research—including its foundations, research
methods employed, signifi cant issues confronted, important contexts in which such research has
been conducted, and overviews of some exemplary programs of applied communication research—
shows how such research has and can make a difference in the world and in people’s lives.
The sections and chapters in this handbook:
• explain what constitutes applied communication scholarship, encompassing a wide range
of approaches and clarifying relationships among theoretical perspectives, methodological
procedures, and applied practices;
• demonstrate the breadth and depth of applied communication scholarship;
• review and synthesize literature about applied communication areas and topics in coherent,
innovative, and pedagogically sound ways; and
• set agendas for future applied communication scholarship.
Unique to this volume are chapters presenting exemplary programs of applied communication
research that demonstrate the principles and practices of such scholarship, written by the scholars
who conducted the programs.
As an impressive benchmark in the ongoing growth and development of communication scholar-
ship, editors Lawrence R. Frey and Kenneth N. Cissna provide an exceptional resource that will
help new and experienced scholars alike to understand, appreciate, and conduct high-quality com-
munication research that can positively affect people’s lives.
Lawrence R. Frey (PhD, University of Kansas, 1979) is a professor in the Department of Com-
munication at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he teaches undergraduate and gradu-
ate courses on applied communication, quantitative and qualitative research methods, and group
interaction. His applied communication scholarship focuses on communication activism, social
justice, community studies, and health communication. He is the author or editor of 15 books,
three special journal issues, and more than 65 journal articles and book chapters, and is the recipi-
ent of 14 awards for scholarship, including the 2000 Gerald M. Phillips Award for Distinguished
Applied Communication Scholarship from the National Communication Association.
Kenneth N. Cissna (PhD, University of Denver, 1975) is a professor and chair of the Department of
Communication at the University of South Florida, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate
courses in interpersonal communication, group communication, and dialogue theory and practice.
He has published scores of scholarly book chapters and journal articles, and fi ve books. He served
as editor of the Journal of Applied Communication Research and of the Southern Communication
Journal, and is past president of both the Florida Communication Association and the Southern
States Communication Association (SSCA). His awards include SSCA’s 2007 T. Earle Johnson—
Edwin Paget Distinguished Service Award and the National Communication Association’s 2008
Gerald M. Phillips Award for Distinguished Applied Communication Scholarship.
Editorial Board
Rob Anderson, Saint Louis University
J. Kevin Barge, Texas A&M University
Samuel L. Becker, The University of Iowa
Patrice M. Buzzanell, Purdue University
William F. Eadie, San Diego State University
Eric M. Eisenberg, University of South Florida
Katherine Hawkins, Clemson University
Gary L. Kreps, George Mason University
Katherine I. Miller, Texas A&M University
Jon F. Nussbaum, The Pennsylvania State University
H. Dan O’Hair, The University of Oklahoma
John Parrish-Sprowl, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
Linda L. Putnam, University of California, Santa Barbara
Jim L. Query, Jr., James Madison University
Eileen Berlin Ray, Cleveland State University
Lawrence B. Rosenfeld, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
David R. Seibold, University of California, Santa Barbara
SunWolf, Santa Clara University
Kim Witte, Michigan State University
Reviewers
Lee Artz, Purdue University-Calumet
William L. Benoit, University of Missouri
Dale E. Brashers, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Katherine Greene, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Stephen Hartnett, University of Colorado, Denver
Jake Harwood, The University of Arizona
Lynda Lee Kaid, University of Florida
D. Lawrence Kincaid, Johns Hopkins University
Stephen Littlejohn, The University of New Mexico
Mark Lawrence McPhail, Southern Methodist University
Michelle Miller-Day, The Pennsylvania State University
Anita Pomerantz, University at Albany, State University of New York
Craig R. Scott, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Glen H. Stamp, Ball State University
Routledge Handbook of Applied
Communication Research
Edited by
Lawrence R. Frey
Kenneth N. Cissna
First published 2009
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016
Simultaneously published in the UK
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Routledge handbook of applied communication research /
edited by Lawrence R. Frey & Kenneth N. Cissna.
p. cm.
1. Communication—Research. 2. Communication—Research--Methodology.
I. Frey, Lawrence R. II. Cissna, Kenneth N. III. Title: Handbook of applied
communication research. IV. Title: Applied communication research.
P91.3.R68 2009
302.207'2—dc22
2008047304
ISBN 0-203-87164-2 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10: 0-8058-4983-1 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0-8058-4984-X (pbk)
ISBN10: 0-203-87164-2 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978-0-8058-4983-7 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-8058-4984-4 (pbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-203-87164-5 (ebk)
Contents
List of Figures and Tables ix
Editors xi
Contributors xiii
Introduction xxix
KENNETH N. CISSNA AND LAWRENCE R. FREY
PART I
Foundations of Applied Communication Research 1
1 The Development of Applied Communication Research 3
KENNETH N. CISSNA, WILLIAM F. EADIE, AND MARK HICKSON, III
2 Across Applied Divides: Great Debates of Applied Communication
Scholarship 26
LAWRENCE R. FREY AND SUNWOLF
3 Practical Theory in Applied Communication Scholarship 55
J. KEVIN BARGE AND ROBERT T. CRAIG
PART II
Methods of Applied Communication Research 79
4 Using Quantitative Methods to Conduct Applied Communication Research 81
JIM L. QUERY, JR., KEVIN B. WRIGHT, PATRICIA AMASON, KRISTEN CAMPBELL EICHHORN,
MELINDA R. WEATHERS, MARTHA WOMACK HAUN, EILEEN S. GILCHRIST, LAURA
BOCHENEK KLEIN, AND VALERIE PEDRAMI
5 Rhetorical Methods of Applied Communication Scholarship 106
CELESTE M. CONDIT AND BENJAMIN R. BATES
v
vi Contents
6 Ethnography in Applied Communication Research 129
LAURA L. ELLINGSON
7 Discourse Analysis: The Practice and Practical Value of Taping, Transcribing,
and Analyzing Talk 153
KAREN TRACY AND JULIEN C. MIRIVEL
PART III
Issues in Applied Communication Research 179
8 Positioning Gender as Fundamental in Applied Communication Research:
Taking a Feminist Turn 181
PATRICE M. BUZZANELL, REBECCA J. MEISENBACH, ROBYN REMKE, HELEN STERK,
AND LYNN H. TURNER
9 Race as Political Identity: Problematic Issues for Applied Communication
Research 203
ANNE MAYDAN NICOTERA, MARCIA J. CLINKSCALES, LAURA K. DORSEY,
AND MARNEL N. NILES
10 Technology in/as Applied Communication Research 233
LEAH A. LIEVROUW
11 Managing a World of Problems: The Implications of Globalization for Applied
Communication Research 257
JOHN PARRISH-SPROWL
12 Applied Communication Ethics: A Summary and Critique of the Research
Literature 280
MATTHEW W. SEEGER, TIMOTHY L. SELLNOW, ROBERT R. ULMER, AND JULIE M. NOVAK
PART IV
Contexts of Applied Communication Research 307
13 Family as Agency of Potential: Toward a Positive Ontology of Applied Family
Communication Theory and Research 309
THOMAS J. SOCHA
14 Organizational Communication and Applied Communication Research:
Parallels, Intersections, Integration, and Engagement 331
DAVID R. SEIBOLD, DAISY R. LEMUS, DAWNA I. BALLARD, AND KAREN K. MYERS
Contents vii
15 In the Public Interest: Communication in Nonprofi t Organizations 355
ERIC M. EISENBERG AND BETH ESCHENFELDER
16 Health Communication as Applied Communication Inquiry 380
GARY L. KREPS AND ELLEN W. BONAGURO
17 Communication in the Helping Professions 405
KATHERINE I. MILLER AND JENNIFER R. CONSIDINE
18 Aging and Applied Communication Research 429
JON F. NUSSBAUM AND JENNIFER E. OHS
19 Applied Political Communication Research 453
LYNDA LEE KAID, MITCHELL S. MCKINNEY, AND JOHN C. TEDESCO
20 Applied Communication Research in Educational Contexts 481
ANN L. DARLING AND LIZ LECKIE
21 Communication for Participatory Development: Dialogue, Action, and
Change 506
D. LAWRENCE KINCAID AND MARÍA ELENA FIGUEROA
PART V
Exemplary Programs of Applied Communication Research 533
22 Drug Resistance Strategies Project: Using Narrative Theory to Enhance
Adolescents’ Communication Competence 535
MICHAEL L. HECHT AND MICHELLE MILLER-DAY
23 Applied Research on Group Decision Support Systems: The Minnesota GDSS
Project 558
MARSHALL SCOTT POOLE AND GERARDINE DESANCTIS
24 Fear Appeals and Public Health: Managing Fear and Creating Hope 584
KIM WITTE AND ANTHONY J. ROBERTO
25 The Multiple Faces of the Public Dialogue Consortium: Scholars,
Practitioners, and Dreamers of Better Social Worlds 611
KIMBERLY PEARCE, SHAWN SPANO, AND W. BARNETT PEARCE
Author Index 633
Subject Index 657

List of Figures and Tables
Figures
2.1 Prominent debates and divides in applied communication scholarship. 27
5.1 A continuum of more to less applied and most to least visible rhetorical
studies. 108
9.1 Ethnicity and class growing out of culture. 218
9.2 The social construction of race. 219
9.3 Problematic issues of race. 220
9.4 Organizing model for research of problematic issues of race. 222
21.1 Communication as a process of convergence and divergence. 511
21.2 A model of communication for participatory development. 514
22.1 Conceptual model for prevention curriculum. 546
22.2 Intervention outcomes by condition. 547
23.1 Summary of major constructs and propositions of adaptive structuration
theory. 561
23.2 An 11-seat group decision support room. 566
23.3 Features of SAMM (Software Aided Meeting Management) system. 567
24.1 The extended parallel process model. 586
24.2 The extended parallel process model—Low-threat example. 587
24.3 The extended parallel process model—High-threat/low-effi cacy example. 587
24.4 The extended parallel process model—High-threat/high-effi cacy example. 588
Tables
2.1 Interventions/Facilitations Employed by Applied Communication
Researchers 40
4.1 Frequency of Applied Quantitative Methods within the Sample of
Communication Journals 94
4.2 Frequency of Quantitative Methods by Applied Communication Topic 94
7.1 The Basic Conversation Analysis Transcription Symbols 156
10.1 Mass Communication and Mediation Perspectives on Communication
Technology 237
13.1 Problems Examined in a Sample of Applied Family Communication Studies 312
15.1 Comparison of For-profi t, Government, and Nonprofi t Sectors 358
ix