Researching the Mass Media
- Created by: Elysia
- Created on: 29-01-14 10:09
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- Researching the Mass Media
- Content Analysis
- Used to analyse the content of media products such as newspapers or magazines
- Often used to quantify a particular aspect of media content by counting or measuring it
- Lobban (1974) and Best (1993) used content analysis to examine gender representations in childrens reading by counting the numbers appearing in particular categories, e.g. heroines and heroes
- The meaning of the content to the audience is not explored (so it doesn't tell us how the audience was effected by the content)
- Semiology
- Analysing the meaning of signs and codes within their cultrural context
- These signs can be found in written texts and visual representations in the media
- Some sociologists use semiotic analysis to uncover what they believe to be ideological messages
- The analysis relies greatly on the researchers interpretation of the content
- Therefore it lacks reliability
- Analysing the meaning of signs and codes within their cultrural context
- Experiments
- Sociologists tend to favour field experiments
- These occur in a more natural environment where natural behaviour is observed
- Field experiments are more likely to be found in studies on media influence where variables might be manipulated to examine their influence
- There are ethical concernt about possible effects on participants
- Artifical environments means the validity of results are questioned
- The Hawthorne Effect
- Sociologists tend to favour field experiments
- Content Analysis
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