Media Research Techniques

184 Pages·1998·6.545 MB·English

by  Arthur Asa Berger

MEDIA
RESEARCH
TECHNIQUES
Second Edition

MEDIA
RESEARCH
TECHNIQUES
Second Edition
Arthur Asa Berger
SAGE Publications
International Educational and Professional Publisher
Thousand Oaks London New Delhi
Copyright © 1998 by Sage Publications, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by
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publisher.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Berger, Arthur Asa, 1933-
Media research techniques/by Arthur Asa Berger.—2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-7619-1536-2 (acid-free paper).—ISBN 0-7619-1537-0
(pbk.: acid-free paper)
1. Mass media—Research—Methodology. I. Title.
P91.3.B386 1998
302.23Ό72—dc21 97-45406
06 07 08 09 10 10 9 8 7 6
Acquiring Editor: Margaret H. Seawell
Editorial Assistant: Renee Piernot
Production Editor: Astrid Virding
Production Assistant: Denise Santoyo
Typesetter/Designer: Marion Warren
Cover Designer: Candice Harman
Print Buyer: Anna Chin
Contents
Preface vii
Part I. Research Projects
1. Guided Research Projects 3
2. Research Logs 15
3. Content Analysis: Newspaper Comics Pages 23
4. Survey Interviews: Media Utilization 35
5. Social Roles: Television Soap Opera Characters 45
6. Depth Interviews: Favorite Singers and Recordings 55
7. Rhetorical Analysis: Magazine Advertisements 65
8. Library Research: Audiences of Radio Talk Shows 79
9. Focus Groups: Reasons for Attending Films 89
10. Experiments: Humor 97
11. Participant Observation: Video Game Players 105
12. Historical Research: Images of Shopping Malls
in the Popular Press 111
13. Comparative Analysis: Images of Disneyland
(and Disney World) in the American Popular
and Scholarly Press 117
Part II. Writing and Thinking
14. Writing With Style 123
15. Avoiding Common Writing Errors 137
16. Avoiding Common Reasoning Errors 149
17. Writing a Research Report 159
References 167
Name Index 169
Subject Index 171
About the Author 175
Preface
I wrote the first edition of Media Research Techniques because I thought
it would be a good idea to enable students to try their hands at doing
research themselves. I didn't want students to be limited only to
studying what other researchers had done. It is valuable and important
to learn about the history of media research, but I felt that was not
enough. And most of the textbooks I looked at struck me as too
theoretical; they didn't put much emphasis on having students actu-
ally do research.
So I designed a book that had a number of research projects that I
thought students would find interesting and that they could do with
minimum experience in a limited amount of time. In the years since
the book was published, a number of colleagues and other scholars I've
met at conferences have suggested that I add new chapters to the book.
They have said things like, "If you had a chapter on experimentation
I'd really be pleased" and "Why don't you add a chapter on historical
research?" As a result of these comments, I have revised Media Research
Techniques. My editor at Sage Publications, Margaret Seawell, asked a
number of people who teach media research for their suggestions, and
I've adopted a number of them in this second edition. I am grateful for
the helpful comments of these scholars, and for their ideas for enhanc-
ing the book.
I have added chapters on experimentation, historical research,
comparative research, and participant observation to provide addi-
tional techniques for students to employ. The subjects and projects I
offer for each of these methodologies are only suggestions; I know that
many instructors ask their students to investigate different topics
when they employ the various techniques described in this little book.
For those who might be interested, I've written other books that
explore different research techniques—semiotics, psychoanalytic the-
ory, Marxist theory, and sociological theory—for analyzing popular
culture and the mass media. In these books (which include Media
vii
viii MEDIA RESEARCH TECHNIQUES
Analysis Techniques, Cultural Criticism: A Primer of Key Concepts, and
Seeing Is Believing: An Introduction to Semiotics), I explain these tech-
niques and methodologies and apply them to everything from the
television series The Prisoner and perfume advertisements to football
and detective novels. I tend to use whichever technique, or combina-
tion of techniques, I think will be most useful in any given research
effort (if you want to call what I do research, that is).
In one of my books, written a number of years ago, I was being
frivolous and ironic when I wrote, "I don't do research; I just make
everything up as I go along and throw in charts to make social scientists
happy." Unfortunately, a number of people took me at my word, or
pretended to, because I've gotten a lot of ribbing from my colleagues
about not doing research. My point in mentioning this is to illustrate
that research is a very broad and vague term. As I explain to colleagues
in other departments, "When you watch television, you're wasting
time; when I watch television, I'm doing research!" The fact of the
matter is, a good deal of the time when I watch television, I actually
am doing research.
I am grateful for Margaret Seawell's encouragement, and for all
the comments and suggestions made by various scholars (some known
to me, others anonymous) that have helped me write this second
edition of Media Research Techniques. I hope it will do an even better job
than the first edition of assisting students and others who wish to
experience the fascination, and sometimes even the excitement, of
research.
Let me close with a quote from Steven J. Rosenstone, dean of the
College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota, on the excite-
ment involved in research. In the spring 1997 issue of the college's
publication CLA Today, he writes:
For me research involves the delicious (though sometimes painful)
process of learning and discovery, and the indescribable exhilaration
that comes from new insight and fresh ideas. . . . my research pro-
ceeds out of the conviction that there is always a more robust and
compelling way to make sense of the human condition.
If you are interested in finding new ways of making sense of the human
condition, I'd say you have the makings of a researcher, whatever your
field.
Parti
Research Projects