Changes Of American Journalism And Communication Research Methods Under The New Environment

As the center of Journalism and Communication Study, the American Journalism and Communication Study has largely affected the development of the world's entire subject, of course, including China mainland. As the birthplace of Empirical of communication, research methods is one of the United States' prominent features. In these years, it has changed a lot in the Journalism and Communication Study, then what about the methods of American Journalism and Communication Study? What were the reasons? What were the impacts on the Journalism and Communication Research? And what can we learn from it? These are what this article attempts to explore. In order to know these questions, this paper will use content-analysis-method as the main method, and the present four core academic journals of International Journalism and Communication Study as the main source of material contained to explore the usage and changes of American Journalism and Communication research methods from 2004 to 2015. This study finds that Empirical Research is still the main study in America, and in Empirical Studies, quantitative research methods still occupy the mainstream position. In addition, the use of social survey method has increased significantly. The study also finds that the use of research methods is related to the research topics, researchers, and the media it studies. In comparison,Journalism and Communication Study of China should change the tradition of using a single method, use a variety of research methods synthetically, and pay attention to the standard of research methods. We should develop diversified funding system to promote the Study of Journalism and Communication.