$$$Money, Money, Money for Research$$$

If you are a graduate student looking for money to fund a research project, a good place to look might be the National Association of Broadcaster's Research Grants. For more information, click here: http://www.nab.org/Research/grants/grants.asp
You will have to find a way to make your political communication or public opinion project relevant to the goals of the NAB, but for many project ideas that shouldn't be a problem.