Network Analysis in Communication Research: A Review of Methods, Theories, and Research Practices
Pengjia Cui
Network analysis has become a standard way of representing consultation, sourcing, media use, attention, and influence in communication research. This review examines 31 applications across communication subfields and asks of each what communication problem it addresses, which explanatory resource it invokes, and what its research practice makes observable. The three dimensions form a comparison framework and yield three propositions with stated scope and refutation conditions: resource relevance is task- and criterion-dependent; commonality at one level of aggregation does not imply commonality at another; and influence estimates are conditional on relationship type, group stage, and time. A short bibliometric section describes how the literature's cited references are organised: method references are paired with one another more often than year-specific margins predict (ratio 1.36) and with theoretical references less often (0.82), a pattern consistent with a methodological toolkit that circulates apart from the commitments that license its use. The review closes with designs that would test each proposition.
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