This paper will elaborate on conventional and new methodological approaches to comparative communication analysis. Methods in empirical social science often face the dilemma of choosing between a more variable-oriented (or quantitative) and a more case-oriented (or qualitative) approach to data collection and analysis. Since both approaches have their limitations, new strategies of data analysis attempt to bridge the two. Prime examples are Mixed Method Designs and in particular Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). This paper will illustrate the methodological potential of QCA for comparative communication research by way of an 8-country comparison of television news on national elections. In total, 1828 stories were coded, constituting 60.5 net program hours of election coverage on public and commercial television channels between 2005 and 2009. Media-centered reporting style was operationalized as granting politicians only limited opportunities to present themselves in main evening newscasts during election times. This study uses the innovative method of QCA to explain cross-national differences in media centered reporting styles. Eventually QCA proves to be a highly useful method to push comparative communication research from description to explanation. It is an adequate method to deal with small-N to medium-N samples as they are common-place in comparative communication research. The paper will demonstrate this method step by step.
