مجلة الرسالة للدراسات والبحوث الإنسانية
Volume 11, Numéro 3, Pages 272-283
2026-09-17

Research Approaches In Media And Communication Sciences Within The Digital Communication Environment A Theoretical And Analytical Study Of The Most Significant Methodological Challenges And Problematics

Authors : Djeffal Imene .

Abstract

Research and methodological challenges in Media and Communication Sciences have intensified and diversified within today’s digital communication environment. This has amplified the concerns of researchers and academics beyond mere disagreement over which research approaches should be employed, toward challenges related to understanding the characteristics of this new communication environment and devising mechanisms that enable the adaptation and alignment of methodological procedures and research steps to it, comparable to those applied within the traditional communication environment. This adaptation is expected to encompass all research approaches and their diverse methods, as well as theoretical frameworks that are difficult to project onto a new environment characterized by constant change and non patterned structures, which have fundamentally reshaped the communication and media process in all its elements and contents. Additional methodological challenges include defining the study population and determining the sample, which have become among the most significant methodological dilemmas confronting contemporary researchers in Media and Communication Sciences, particularly given the nature of digital content and media materials. This also raises questions regarding the extent to which research findings can be generalized to the vast number of users inhabiting this digital communication environment, alongside other methodological issues and challenges addressed in this research paper.

Keywords

Research approaches; methodological problematics; communication environment; digital space; methodologie