Principales tendencias metodológicas en la investigación de la comunicación

Abstract

Althoug to try to comprise in this meeting the whole methodologycal trends on the communication research is pretencious, I¿ll try to show the most important aspects adopted in the last years, which are in harmony with some of the trends in this field. The lines indicates don¿t try to pick up exhaustively each others, they are hardly points of reference that could help in the work of systematize the research work to make easy a balance about the state of the question. 35 I think that at present, the communication, as same as the rest of the Social Sciences, is in a junction which is forcing to review its theories, methods and methodologies and to look for new research ways. As a general rule, it seems to dominate in the Sciences view, a pragmatic focus, which regards to the Social Sciences in general and to the communication in particular and which has driven to call in question the theoretic paradigms which explained the communication and information processes, and, in consequence, the methodologycal steps that it could follow. The theories impose or require their own methodologies; in consequence I go to show the most important methodologycal trends on the communication research, in the basic research (or theorist) as well as applied (or empiricist) research of the last years.