KaterinaTsetsura

The concluding chapter offers a discussion of major challenges to comparative communication research, as well as their conceptual, epistemological, methodological and practical implications. Among the conceptual challenges is the centrality of theory and danger of Western bias, while epistemological challenges are discussed with reference to the threat of theoretical universalism and transnational diffusion. Methodological challenges include the potential presence of autocorrelation, the multilevel structure of communication phenomena, problems of systematic case selection, functional equivalence, as well as the trade-off between qualitative and quantitative approaches. The chapter concludes with offering directions for future research.