Description
From Donald Trump’s use of Twitter, to social media mourning, to cyber-bullying: the evidence of media influence today is all around us. As such, good media research is more important than ever, and crucially, is something all students can and should do.
Exploring Media Research is an eye-opening exploration of what it means to understand and do media research today.
Carefully balancing theory and practice, Andy Ruddock demystifies the process, showing you don’t need huge amounts of time or money to do meaningful media analysis. The book:
- Introduces students to the scope and seriousness of media influence
- Shows them how to tie their own interests to academic concepts and research issues
- Explains how to use this understanding to develop proper research questions
- Translates key theoretical concepts into actual research methods students can use to explore the media texts, events, markets and professionals that interest them.
Bringing theory to life throughout with a range of contemporary case studies, Exploring Media Research is a thoughtful and practical guide to gathering and analysing media data. It is essential reading for students of media, communication and cultural studies.
Table of Contents
PART 1: RESEARCH PRINCIPLES: MOTIVATION, CAUSATION, ETHICS AND GENERALIZABILITY
Introduction: Communicating Media Research
Chapter 1: Making Media Matter
Chapter 2: Making Media Matter to You
Chapter 3: On Causation: How do media ′do′ things?
Chapter 4: Practising Ethics in Media Research
Chapter 5: What is ′Generalisability′ in Media Research?
PART 2: UNDERSTANDING MEDIA RESEARCH: FRAMING GENERAL QUESTIONS
Chapter 6: Researching Media Reality
Chapter 7: Researching Media′s Role in Social Life
Chapter 8: Researching the Synthesis of Media and Interpersonal Communication
PART 3: DOING MEDIA RESEARCH: PEOPLE, MARKETS, TEXTS, EVENTS, USERS, AUDIENCES, POLICY
Chapter 9: Researching Media People: Journalism, Oral History and Archives
Chapter 10: Researching Media Markets: A Cultural Industries View on Pornography
Chapter 11: Researching Media Content: Games, Texts and Discourse
Chapter 12: Researching Media Events
Chapter 13: Big Data: How Can We Use It?
Chapter 14: Researching Media Policy
Chapter 15: Researching Audiences
Conclusion: Historicising Media Research - and the People who Do It
