The Challenge of Inference in Interinstitutional Research on Mass Communication

Interinstitutional research in mass communication carries with it a chain of complex, interrelated problems regarding tactics, sampling, data reliability, and notions of causality. This article confronts a number of these difficulties and suggests ways to deal with them. In addition, it draws on notions of storytelling and cognitive aesthetics to broaden the criteria for judging research. The aim is to encourage scholarship that is ambitious in thought and act and at the same time self-reflective and open about the most daunting dilemmas that confront researchers in this important research area.