Mass Communication Research Methods

Anders Hansen is a lecturer in mass communications at the University of Leicester and is the Deputy Director of the Centre for Mass Communication Research at this institution. . He has over twenty years of experience in media and communications research with his main research interests include science and health communication, media and the environment, news management and journalistic practices, media/new media activism, media roles in relation to education policy and professional status, and the roles of news and other media (including advertising) in representing and influencing political and social issues. He has published widely in journals and books and regularly referees articles for academic journals such as Cambridge Journal of Education; The European Journal of Communication; Public Understanding of Science; New Genetics and Society; Environment and History; Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism; The Communication Review; Political Studies; Health Education Research; Addiction Research and Theory; The British Medical Journal.

• PART ONE: ASKING ALL THE RIGHT QUESTIONS Theory in Media Research - O. Boyd-Barrett The Complementarity of Qualitative and Quantitative Methodologies in Media and Communication Research - K.B. Jensen Media, Culture and Modern Times - G. Murdock Remarks on Administrative and Critical Communications Research - P.F. Lazarsfeld Media Sociology: The dominant paradigm - T. GitlinCommunication-Research - One Paradigm, or 4 - K.E. Rosengren The Three Paradigms of Mass Media Research in Mainstream Comunication Journals - W.J. Potter, R. Cooper and M. Dupagne The New Revisionism in Mass Communication Research: A reappraisal - J. CurranAsking the Right Questions - J.D. Halloran Cultural Compliance and Critical Media Studies - G. Philo and D. Miller PART TWO: RESEARCHING MEDIA INSTITUTIONS, ORGANIZATIONS, PROFESSIONALS AND PRODUCTIONThe History of Media InstitutionsFinding Data, Reading Patterns, Telling Stories: Issues in the historiography of television - J. Corner Problems and Possibilities in the Writing of Broadcasting History - A. Briggs Media Professionals and Media ProductionParticipant Observation: Researching news production - S. Cottle The Research Method - P. Elliott News as Purposive Behaviour - H. Molotch and M. Lester The Sociology of News Production - M. Schudson Media Gate-keeping - P.J. Shoemaker Research Approaches: Research questions and methodological requirements - R.V. Ericson, P.M. Baranek and J.B.L. Chan New(s) Times: Towards a ′second wave′ of news ethnography - S. Cottle Holism, Communion and Conversion: Integrating media consumption and production research - D. Deacon Political economy The Political Economy of Communications - J. Wasko Communications policy researchFacing In: Researchers and academia - S. Braman Media Policy Paradigm Shifts: Towards a new communications policy paradigm - J.van Cuilenburg and D. McQuail PART THREE: RESEARCHING MEDIA CONTENT AND REPRESENTATIONContent AnalysisContent Analysis - B. Gunter Ethnographic Content Analysis - D.L. Altheide Two Approaches to the Study of Advertisements - W. Leiss, S. Kline and S. Jhally Reading the News - R.V. Ericson, P.M. Baranek and J.B.L. Chan Semiotics and Discourse AnalysisSemiotic Analysis - A.A. Berger ′Suit, tie and a touch of juju′ - the Ideological Construction of Africa: A critical discourse analysis of news on Africa in the British press - H.J. Brookes How to View Commercials - P. Rutherford Discourse Analysis - R. Gill Structural and Narrative AnalysisNarrative and Genre - H. Newcomb Structural Analysis and Mass communication - O. Burgelin Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narratives - R. Barthes Narrative Strategies in Television Science - R. Silverstone Re(de)fining Narrative Events: Examining television narrative structure - M.J. Porter, D.L. Larson, A. Harthcock and K.B. Nellis Framing analysisThe Constructionist Approach to Framing: Bringing culture back in - B. Van Gorp The Framing Project: A bridging model for media research revisited - S.D. Reese Framing: Toward clarification of a fractured paradigm - R.M. Entman Cascading Activation: Contesting the White House′s frame after 9/11 - R.M. Entman Getting Framed: The media shape Reality - C. Ryan The Power of a Frame: An analysis of newspaper coverage of tobacco issues - United States, 1985-1996 - C.L. Menashe and M. Siegel The Empirical Approach to the Study of Media Framing - J.W. Tankard Linguistic and rhetorical analysisAn Integration of Corpus-based and genre-based Approaches to Text Analysis in EAP/ESP: Countering criticisms against corpus-based methodologies - L. Flowerdew Corpus Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis: Examining the ideology of sleaze - D. Orpin Figures of Rhetoric in Advertising Language - E.F. McQuarrie and D.G. Mick From ′Politically Correct Councillors′ to ′Blairite Nonsense′: Discourses of ′political correctness′ in three British newspapers - S. Johnson, J. Culperer and S. Suhr Tampering with Nature: ′Nature′ and the ′natural′ in media coverage of genetics and biotechnology - A. Hansen The Meanings of ′Risk′: A view from corpus linguistics - C. Hamilton, S. Adolphs and Nerlich Visual analysisAnalysing Visuals: Still and moving images - S. CottleRhetoric of the Image - R. Barthes The Determinations of News Photographs - S. Hall Building the World′s Visual Language: The increasing global importance of image banks in corporate media - D. Machin Taking television seriously: A sound and image bite analysis of presidential campaign coverage, 1992-2004 - E.P. Bucy and M.E. Grabe PART FOUR: RESEARCHING MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION IN SOCIETY, CONSUMPTION, AUDIENCES, POLITICS, PROBLEMS AND PLEASURESFive Traditions in Search of the Audience - K.B. Jensen and K.E. Rosengren The Challenge of Changing Audiences - Or, what is the Audience Researcher to do in the Age of the Internet? - S. Livingstone Audience and Readership Research - J. Kitzinger Survey ResearchSurvey Research - P.J. Shoemaker and M.E. McCombs The BBC Internet study: General methodology - S. ReimersFocus Group ResearchThe Focused Interview - R.K. Merton and P.L. Kendall The Methodology of Focus Groups: The importance of interaction between research participants - J. KitzingerFrom Focus Groups to Editing Groups - a New Method of Reception Analysis - B. Macgregor and D.E. Morrison Rethinking the Focus Group in Media and Communications Research - P. Lunt and S. LivingstoneSelected Key Models in Media Audience and Influence ResearchCultivation AnalysisGrowing up with Television: The cultivation perspective - G. Gerbner, L. Gross, M. Morgan and N. Signorielli Agenda-settingThe Agenda-setting Function of the Mass Media - M.E. McCombs and D.L. Shaw Reception AnalysisPatterns of Involvement in Television Fiction: A comparative analysis - T. Liebes and E. Katz Uses & GratificationsMedia Uses and Effects: A uses-and-gratifications perspective - A.M. Rubin Political and Public Opinion InfluenceThe Media, Public Opinion and Political Action - H. SemetkoTelevision, Public Opinion and the War in Iraq: The case of Britain - J. LewisEffects of News Coverage on Policy Attention and Actions - A Closer Look into the Media-Policy Connection - I. Yanovitzky ConstructionismThe Rise and Fall of Social Problems: A public arenas model - S. Hilgartner and C.L. Bosk Media Discourse and Public Opinion on Nuclear Power: A constructionist approach - W.A. Gamson and A. Modigliani PART FIVE: DOING COMMUNICATION RESEARCH: SOURCES AND RESOURCES, THE RESEARCH PROCESSUsing Data Archives for Secondary Analysis - C. Seale Dealing with Documentation - D. Deacon, M. Pickering, P. Golding and G. Murdock Mass Media Research and the Internet - R.D. Wimmer and J.R. Dominick Reaching Conclusions, Evaluating the Research, Writing the Report - I. Bertrand and P. Hughes.