1. Media og kommunikation The Media Book – chapter 2 Tools for studying the media

2. Mass Communication Mass Communication is the term used to describe the academic study of various means by which individuals and entities relay information to large segments of the population all at once through mass media.

3. Mass communication studies Main tools for media research Sientific –Sience as the explanation of human experience – description of: Caracteristics (ontology) Methods and practices (praxiology) Causes and consequenses (epistemology) Different “schools” – different methods and perspectives

4. Empirical evidence What questions to ask? What data to seek? How to gather data? How to use data?

5. Paradigm A worldview or conceptual model of a scholary community that determines how enquiry within the community should be conducted –what is to be observed and scrutinized, –the kind of questions that are supposed to be asked and probed for answers in relation to this subject, –how these questions are to be put, –how the results of scientific investigations should be interpreted.

6. Paradigm – other uses Paradigm = Weltanschauung. In social science, the term is used to describe the set of experiences, beliefs and values that affect the way an individual perceives reality and responds to that perception. "paradigm shift"

7. Quantitative survey research Questionnares the main tool Overview of a population through systematic observation, description and analysis of a part of a population Sampling: –Random –Stratified random –Quota –Purposive Types of survey –Written – mail / web survey –Telephone – interview –Face to face - interview

8. Questionnarie design Sequence /order Phrasing / lenghtof questions Types Form of questions –Open / closed Content of questions –Factual / opinion Wording and order Pilot: research / questionaire Data gatherings Data analysis

9. Qualitative methods Qualitative objects: –Interpretation –Flexible –Socially contexted –Detailed –Holistic –Descriptive

10. Qualitative survey research Main tool: –Informal interviews: Thematic Topic centred Biographical Narrative Singles: individual in depth interviews Groups: focus group interviewing

11. Methods Using more than one method to supplement each other Researchers own opinions and holdings can always color the research. He/she therefore has to be aware of own meanings and dispositions