Key features

NEW TO THIS EDITION:

• A new chapter on discourse analysis (Chapter 7) defines discourse analysis and offers multiples examples for its application.
• Expanded coverage of the research process offers students new search strategies and best practices for analyzing research articles. 
• A new discussion of binary oppositions and culture helps students to better understand semiotics.
• An expanded discussion of social media keeps students engaged with different perspectives of social media, including discussion of the ethics of Facebook experiments.
• A new discussion of Gangsta Rap encourages students to rhetorically analyze American popular culture.
• A new discussion of Foucault codes and cultural change helps students better understand the methods of textual analysis.
• Several new topics connect key concepts to current events, such as William Dutton on the Cambridge Analytica scandal and an Iranian scholar on mistakes made by pollsters for the 2016 election.
• New insights from experts in the field feature personal correspondence on the personality of the ethnomethodologist Harold Garfinkel and by a psychiatrist on addiction and the relationship between young people and their cell phones.

KEY FEATURES: 

• Comprehensiveness: From opening discussions on the nature of research to thorough treatment of the methods of textual analysis, qualitative and quantitative methods, and writing up research, breadth of coverage is the hallmark of this text.
• Humor: Chapter-opening conversations with the author’s “Grand Inquisitor” (who poses questions about the nature of research), numerous cartoons, and references to student life use lively humor to make the material approachable and accessible.
• Applications and exercises: In each methods chapter, applications and exercises allow students to practice and apply what they’ve learned.