Research Methods in Media and Communications - Essay Example

? Methods of Research in Media and Communications Number Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 Background Information 2 Research question 4 Rationale for the method used 4 Sampling, Selection of informants and Question of Access 7 Designing interview Schedule and the Contents of an Archive Outline 8 The Coding Frame 8 Ethics and Consent 9 Analysis and findings 9 Conclusion 12 Reference List 12 Appendices 15 Appendix I. Interview Questions on the Perception of News-Reports during the Greek’s Economic Crisis 15 1.Coding 16 Abstract The media have a significant role in the society to inform on the happenings occurring in every day’s life. This is realised via communications like television and newspapers. This paper aims at evaluating the perception that the Greek had during the economic crisis, which threatened to paralyse their economy due to its incapacity to pay its debts. The study utilises an interview form of research to get the views from various individuals with respect to the information they got from the media during the crisis. The information obtained from the interview was then analysed, and findings used to ascertain the perception of the people. Background Information People all over the world have different reactions in relation to the news and reports relayed unto them (Corner et al., 1997). According to European Journalism Centre (2010), the press is the second-most imperative source of information after the television. The news and reports are relied on heavily by the public for any eventual news either in the country or abroad. Therefore, with respect to the economic crisis, the media channels and information sources did their best to bring out the situation experienced economically both at home and at the international level (Mullen and Klaehn, 2010). The manner in which news and reports are relayed to the public has a considerable impact to individuals and the implications are dependent on the perception taken by the public (Priest, 2010). Undertaking a research study in the field of media, has positive implications in the sense that it will help in ascertaining the constructive measures to be undertaken by the media bodies, in the kind of news or reports they air, and the manner of delivering the same (Fernandez, 2008). The upsurge and demonstrations portrayed by the public during the Greek crisis can be ascribed to the discernment of the debt crisis as prescribed by the media. This is through the public concept of encoding and decoding what they heard or watched as discussed by Stuart Hall. Various mass media concepts and theories are very crucial in understanding the study undertaken. With respect to the propaganda concept, it helps understand and expound on the development, stratification and functioning of communities and how the members interact via communication. The classical Marxist thinking on ideology paved the idea for developing new concepts to understand and explain the role of the media in the contemporary democratic world. According to Herman and Chomsky (2000), the mass media serve as a means for communicating information and symbols to the public. Further, in a world of intense wealth and major conflicts of classes of interest to realise set roles entails the systematic propaganda (Herman and Chomsky, 2002). Political economy entails a fundamental theoretical framework employed in the media studies research. This entails the attempts to understand the power relations that determine distribution, consumption, and production of communication resources (McQuail, 1994, p. 82). This is very relevant to this study as the Greek crisis was national and constituted the authorities. Media has been transformed by technology to be the most crucial a rapid influence on opinions and indulgent in the current world (Wimmer and Dominic, 2011). Chandler (2000) argues that media possess a powerful tool and capacity to encourage global awareness thus, promoting economic trends, cross-cultural understanding, political aspects and other social aspects in life. As noted by McQuail (1994, p. 28-29), the international media industry has devised a culture with similar standards worldwide with respect to content forms, genres and actual substance of communication. However, the media’s potential to bring enlightenment in the society can turn negative in the event of disseminating messages that can create and reinforce negative concepts and perpetuate misconceptions (Gunter, 2000; Sparks , 2007, Winter, 2007). Further, McQuail illustrates the objectivity and neutrality that is evidenced by the media practice. Media news-reports in Greek have transformed since mid 80s with the deregulation of the broadcasting system followed by the proliferation of both the local and national privately owned television channels. This was followed by the upsurge of print publication of newspapers and magazines (European Journalism Centre, 2010). With a dozen of national TV markets and thousands television channels, the Greeks have access to the news from all corners of their nation and the whole world. The reports concerning their financial crisis did not just pas by. This reflects the essence of encoding and decoding concept as discussed by Stuart Hall. This revolves on how the media messages are processed, circulated and consumed. This brings about various issues emanating from the process of understanding the news and reports. Majority of the Greeks followed the whole episode from their television and confirmed the same in the newspapers. Therefore, the news-reports had an impact in determining the perspective of the Greeks towards the economic crisis, and this study tries to determine the same. Research question The study under consideration finds its relevance by trying to answer the following research question: What is the Greek’s Perception of the Media (news-reports) in a Period of a Crisis, Especially during the Greek Economic Crisis? In deeper context, the study will try to ascertain whether the news-reports denigrate or reassure the Greek public? Rationale for the method used The research method to account for the research question devised incorporates the interview form of research. Interviews are highly crucial to acquire information that cannot be outsourced via observation (Berger, 2011). The study being undertaken entails the realisation of the Greeks’ perspective towards the information on their nation’s economic crisis. Therefore, to get the exact opinions, the researcher interacts with the interviewee and enquires on the manner they perceived the news and reports pertaining the economic crisis in their country. An interview is a conversation between someone wishing to get information (interviewer) and one possessing the information required (informant) (Berger, 2011). With this regard, the conducting of a structured form of interview as ascertained by Berger (1998) would be highly crucial. This is aimed at analysing specific scenarios of the crisis with respect to how the media analysis portrayed it, and the eventual impact it made on the public with respect to getting how they reacted to the news and reports. The importance of using the interview research method is in that it gives out qualitative data. Qualitative form of data research is an extremely crucial method and its usefulness is enhanced with the establishment of the limitations of the method (Ladner, 2008). This gives accurate responses on sensitive issues in comparison to other survey methods. The building of a rapport between the interviewer and the informant makes it possible to drive in certain topics and get information that other methods could not have managed (Jensen, 2002). Further, with respect to getting the perspective of the public regarding the news and reports concerning the economic crisis can best be described and observed through the discussion of the interviewer and the informant. This course of research study has been prior devised as a pilot study to test, what people’s response are with respect to the Greek economic crisis, as in the news reports relayed by the media. The informant finds the freedom to answer the queries as per their will, and the situation ought to be provided by the interviewer. This method has disadvantages with respect to the time taken for data collection and analysis. Consequently, interviews are highly sensitive to the interviewer’s bias; this may be prompted with respect to how the interviewer chooses the cohort study. The study will clearly outline the reactions of the public after getting the news reports and how they related them with their financial situation. Further, the study will try to ascertain if the news contributed to the negative reactions experienced from the public through demonstrations and other acts of expressing dissatisfaction. This is in trying to prove whether the news and reports from the media played a role in degrading or offering reassurance to the Greek public during the economic crisis. This can be traced back from the encoding and decoding concept with regard to the news they got from the media. This is because as Hall argues, the meaning of the news is not fixed or determined by the sender or never transparent and the recipient is not a passive recipient of the meaning. To realise the objective of this study, the following aspects have been looked into: the interviewer will ascertain all the probable limitations to be encountered with respect to this study; the informants will be notified earlier of the impending interview and finally, the interviewer will conduct a face to face interview and use own traits to get the exact situation by analysing the informant s answers. The mode of acquiring relevant information will be dependent on the interviewer’s contribution towards the study undertaken. The data obtained will be interpreted to make it sensible by use of themes and code (Creswell, 2003; 2007). Method Since the research aims at understanding the impact made by the media during the Greek crisis. The research question in the study has been formulated with regard to the situation experienced; with respect to the economic crisis that affected the whole world but, severely affecting many of the leading world economies unexpectedly. With respect to getting the perspective of the public, the study devices an interview method of study whereby various questions have been formulated to give information with respect to the media and the news reports With respects to the cohort study to ascertain the viability of the whole research study, three informants have been singled out and interviewed. This is not only crucial to ascertain the research study, but also to assess the limitations of the study and help in devising tactics to overcome them in the main research study. The sample will determine the mode of news and report transmittance and the impact it had to the public. With this regard, the point of interest is the television and news paper. The intensity of each mode is different regarding the manner of its news or report. The television is widely viewed in comparison to the number of people watching the television. Thereby, its impact is considerable and widespread. Mullen and Klaehn (2010) highlight the analysis of mass media behaviour as discussed by Herman and Chomsky. Interviews have been used in qualitative methodology in the collection of data. A semi-structured mode of research interview has devised to get data. Thematic analysis comes handy in the analysis of the informants, answers about the experience. This process will employ the technique of researching through data to identify any recurrent patterns. With respect to this study, the theme is the reaction of the Greeks to their economic crisis. The following section highlights on the actual methods in the research study to acquire the qualitative data for analysis. Sampling, Selection of informants and Question of Access The research study cannot manage to interview every citizen to get their opinion. Further, this would longer time and massive resources. Sampling was conducted with respect to cover viewers across all divides; gender, age, and background setting (whether rural urban). The manner of perceiving information varies from one individual to another. The sample takes into consideration the extent of resources if diversity was to be achieved in the trying to meet all the deliverables of the research (Ladner, 2008). Thus, a rural and urban setting close to the researcher was formulated to get the required data. The selection will be randomly done in housing units, work places and commuting stations. This will try to catch all targeted parties to the research study. The questions formulated are very direct and conclusive. The questions are as in the questionnaire, in the appendix. Designing interview Schedule and the Contents of an Archive Outline Content examination has been used to analytically document the amount of the content found in the media. The research interview has been formulated so as to devise the general reaction of the Greeks during the economic crisis with respect to news and reports obtained from the various media channels. The information obtained will be vital in assessing and evaluating the Greeks perception in the economic crisis period. The Coding Frame The coding frame constitutes the coding of responses by the informants for easier analysis. The codes obtained were devised from the consistent responses made by the participants. These were ideas that were common among the informants as ascertained by Kyale (2007). This was formulated by using numbers 1, 2, and 3 whose illustrations are as in the table below. Code Designation 1 Positive perspective 2 Negative perspective 3 Perspective influenced by the public opinion Ethics and Consent The section looks into consideration and means of addressing matters touching on the media personalities and individual channels in the course of the discussion. Prior to conducting the research, the researcher obtains consent from the media council representatives and upholds to safeguard the decency in the carrying out of the research not to tarnish the names of news reporters, anchors and/or editors. This prevents any conflicting situations with media personnel and the channels. Analysis and findings The research came up with findings after the interview. The research findings were collected and recorded as in the data table in the appendices. For easier and effective analysis, the data were coded from numbers 1 to 3. With respect to Creswell (2007) data code review, a third party was incorporated to effectively code and analyse the data obtained from the participants. This was critical in alleviating the researcher bias. On the same note, the research devised the method of analysing the news reports media with respect to ascertain the manner they relayed their news and reports. The codes reflect the general responses of the interview, though the discussion section will ascertain the various deliberations of the discussion of and analysis of the interviewer from the informants’ reactions of the question. The interview tried to balance gender, age and background setting. The question regarding the conclusive coverage of the situation was very positive. Predominant responses from the participants portrayed the media channels and media prints as having relayed the news in a conclusive manner. The queries regarding personal opinion towards the public view of the news, reaction and the eventuality of biasness of the news varied with respect to age and gender. The younger generation seem to be much dependent on the news and reports for updates, while the older generation questions the viability of news and reports. This brings a negative perspective towards the manner of arousing public reaction with the older generation. Predominant views from the participants show that they mainly relied on the television for updates. Thus, they got the whole scenario of the crisis and its analytical perspective from their comfort of their houses. The research study though interested in getting the public opinion also utilised the idea of analysing the news and reports covered in the crisis period. This was to get the clear scenario of the media in time from an expert’s point of view. This was realised by sampling some of the key news and reports media mentioned by informants in the course of the interview. Discussion The media coverage of the news regarding the Greek economic crisis was dominated by dramatic coverage of demonstrations instead of the complicated dimensions of the Greek financial situation. Media analysis by the public finds its critical perspective with respect to the kind of news update they bring, how relevant they are, the manner and level of expertise employed in the handling and reliance of news and their projections or predictions for the future occurrences (Gambier and Gottleib, 2001; Hallin, and Mancini, 2004). Many media channels were involved with the analysis of the situation in trying to shed light to the onset, the severity and the future of the crisis with respect to ways of quelling it. The overgeneralization of the crisis was particularly critical with respect to International and domestic reporting made by examples of CNN, BBC, TV Macedonia, GBC (Greek Business Channel) among others. The intense Greek economic environment, emanated from the media coverage that had a significant effect on the state of the country. The media coverage’s failure to conclusively analyse the Greek debt crisis and its implications played a crucial role in undermining the confidence of the financial markets. It is critical to note that, from the research study, the highest majority of the citizens relied on the media to perceive the happenings of the economic crisis. Thereby, any inconclusive news coverage, or bias in the reports locally contributed to the negative perspective of the public rather than highlighting the root causes of the crisis and devising probable and strategic solutions (Winter, 2007). Further, from the survey of news media, it is clear that journalists have a tendency of focussing on the negative stories which can be confirmed prior to reporting. The essence of the media focussing on what seems hot to the public intensely beats logic with respect to matters touching the national interests (Carroll, 2011; Mullen, A. and Klaehn, 2010). The media coverage in Greek was beyond the economic dimension, and focussed on other hot press topics like corruption, unemployment, bureaucracy and riots negating the real perspective of the economic crisis. This evidently outlines the magnitude of negative influence the crisis news could be associated with rather than the exact cause of the crisis. According to Ben-Ami (2010), amid the massive media coverage, there was a remarkable omission of failure to probe on the underlying causes of Greek’s troubles with the blame game being devised with the intent of pinning any individual or institution responsible. To overcome the challenges in the analysis of the research study, the interviewer conducted a face to face interview to ascertain the confidence of the results obtained. With the inclusion, of an analysis of the individual news channels formulated a way to ascertain the relevance and certainty of the publics’ perspective to the exact situation on the economic point of view (Aronson, 1994; Sparks, 2007; Winter and Klaehn, 2005). Failure by the media to look into the functionality and magnanimity of news and reports presented may generate inauspicious reactions from the recipients of the news. Conclusion The study of the media coverage in the Greek economic crises, and the perspective of the people in the nation clearly outline the extent of influence it has on the public opinions regarding what they read and view. The formulation of an interview mode research study clearly ascertains the level of incorporation with regard to qualitative research. The propaganda mode of media analysis as discussed by Chomsky and Herman clearly brings out the contextual thematic analysis of the study. Amid the considerable step made in ascertaining the influence of the media concerning the Greeks’ perception; it is clear that though the public seem to be getting the news and get enlightened; the media fail to conclusively highlight the root cause of the crisis at hand. This call for research study on the media and its impacts to the public, as well as how well they conducted their research, prior to giving out the news and reports on the Greek economic crisis. Further, the process of data collection should be enhanced to get wider research studies to analyse representative samples of all citizens. Finally, the media have the obligation of collaborating in such research studies analysis to comprehend their tasks, failures and recommendations towards making the media industry a success in the quest to informing the public. Reference List Aronson, J., 1994. ‘A Pragmatic View of Thematic Analysis.’ The Qualitative Report. Vol. (1). Spring. Ben-Ami, D., 2010. The Greek Crisis and the Blame game. [Accessed April 13, 2012] Berger, A., 1998. Media Research Techniques. 2nd ed. California: Sage Publications, Inc. Berger, A., 2011. Media and Communication Research methods: An Introduction to Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. 2nd ed. California: Sage Publishers, Inc. Carroll, C., 2011. Corporate reputation and the News Media: Agenda-Setting Within Business News Coverage in Developed, Emerging, and Frontier Markets. New York: Routledge. Chandler, D., 2000. ‘Marxist Media Theory. Base and Superstructure’. [Accessed on April 13, 2012]. European Journalism Centre, 2010. ‘Media Landscape: Greece.’ [Accessed on April 12, 2012]. Fernandez, M., 2008. ‘David Morley’s-Reception Theory.’ [Accessed on April 13, 2012]. Gambier, Y. and Gottleib, H., 2001. (Multi) Media Translation: Concepts, Practices, and Research. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Co. Gunter, B., 2000. Media Research Methods: Measuring Audiences, Reactions and Impact. London: Sage Publications Ltd. Hall, S., 1980. “Cultural Studies: Two Paradigms. “ Media, Culture and Society, Vol. 2, p. 57-72. Hallin, D. and Mancini, P., 2004. ‘Comparison Media Systems:’ Three Models of Media and Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press. Herman, S. And Chomsky, N., 2000. “The Propaganda Model: A Retrospective.” Journalism Studies, Vol. 1(1), p. 1001-112. Herman, S. And Chomsky, N., 2002. Manufacturing Concept: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. 2nd ed. New York: Pantheon. Jensen, K., 2002. A Handbook of Media and Communication Research: qualitative and Quantitative Methodologies. London; New York: Routledge. Ladner, S. 2008. ‘Qualitative Vs Quantitative Research.’ Sampling Methods. Copernicus Consulting. October 29, 2008. [Accessed on April 13, 2012]. Madianou, M., 2005. Mediating the Nation: News, Audiences and the Politics of Identity. London: UCL Press. McQuail, D., 1994. Mass Communication Theory, An Introduction. London: Sage. Mullen, A. and Klaehn, J., 2010. ‘The Herman-Chomsky Propaganda Model:’ A Critical Approach to Analysing Mass Media Behaviour. Sociology Compass. Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Priest, S., 2010. Doing Media Research: An Introduction. 2nd ed. California: Sage Publications, Inc. Sparks, C., 2007. ‘Extending and Refining the Propaganda Model.’ Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture. Vol. 4(2) Wimmer, R. and Dominick, J., 2011. Mass Media Research: An Introduction. 9th ed. Boston: WADSWORTH CENGAGE Learning. Winter, J., 2007. Lies the Media Tell Us. Montreal: Black Rose Books. Creswell, J. W. (2003). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods Approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publishers. Creswell, J. W. (2007). Qualitative In quiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publishers. Kyale, S., (2007).Doing Interviews. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publishers. Appendices Appendix I. Interview Questions on the Perception of News-Reports during the Greek’s Economic Crisis The interviewer to write down significant points regarding the following questions 1. How often do you watch news and read news reports? Which mode of news-report relayed the issues of crisis like the recent economic crisis information in an elaborate manner? 2. How would you rate the news coverage during the economic crisis? What was the reaction of after the news? 3. How did you contribute towards the news debates on the economic crisis? 4. How did you relate the news and reports to what was happening on the ground? 5. Do the media always reflect arising crisis to your level of expectation? 6. Were the news reflective for the exact situation or was it biased towards a certain side? Elaborate. Appendix II: Responses from interview Participant 1 1. Whenever am free I watch news on TV and when I have access to newsprints I read them. 2. The news were very concrete and conclusive, they outlined the economic problems we were going through. The news made me realise the failure of the authorities in making the right decisions. 3. With the rest of my colleagues, I tried to ascertain how the government had failed to foresee the crisis and take measures to prevent the economic woes affecting our nation. 4. The news clearly explained the situation that was a mystery to me for clear understanding. 5. From my view of the media, they are always giving news from their perspective and what is right for the public. 6. The news reflected the crisis and clearly described the cause and implications of the economic crisis which is what was felt on the ground. Note: Responses for participant 2 and 3 have recorded as coded results. 1. Coding Code Designation 1 Positive response towards the media 2 Negative response towards the media 3 Perspective influenced by the public opinion Question P1 P 2 P3 Code Code Code 1 1 1 1 2 1 2 1 3 1 2 1 4 1 1 1 5 1 1 2 6 1 3 2 Read More