Research in any field including mass communication, is a collective human endeavor to discover the truth. Research is a never ending attempt to make the world a better place to live in. Mass communication research helps in understanding basic human relationship through sharing of ideas, opinion and experience. Media professionals have to take instant decisions which should be informed ones and therefore, they need to be involved in research. The mass media research may seek answer to such question as to what are the advertisements that readers read most often in newspapers? What are the elements of a successful magazine cover page? What type of format a radio news and current affairs should adopt? Why a current TV serial is is not performing as well as expected? And so on. In other words, the mass media researcher has to find out among other things what the people would like to read, listen or view. Research finding and recommendations are used to make credible media products for the audience. Media decision makers too use the finding of the mass media researchers to verify or refute gut feelings or intuition. Especially when they make decisions that involves large sum of money. An important thing for a mass media researcher, however, is to find out the best way to investigate the never ending questions and problems in this field. Graduates of a recognized Indian or foreign university interested in learning mass media research methods in a systematic manner, may enroll themselves in this course of study. The courseware for the media research and planning has been designed to equip the students to handle the applied aspects of media research on various issues.

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