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Exploring Media Research
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Exploring Media Research
Theories, Practice, and Purpose

First Edition


October 2017 | 320 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
Donald Trump’s use of Twitter, the "Angelina Effect," social media mourning, cyber-bullying: in today’s media environment, evidence of media influence is all around us. As such, good media research is more important than ever, and crucially, is something all students can and should do.

In Exploring Media Research, author Andy Ruddock explains that the only way to learn or teach about media research is to do it. Carefully balancing theory and practice, he demystifies the process, showing you don’t need huge amounts of time or money to do meaningful media analysis. This book:
  • Explains how principles of motivation, causation, generalizability, and ethics apply to media research.
  • Outlines different forms of ‘reality’ created by media stories, media users, and the blending of media and interpersonal communication.
  • Identifies key areas of research, from media industries, content and events to regulation, policy and audiences.
  • Demonstrates how key concepts translate into actual research methods, from archival and field research to the analysis of ‘big data’.
  • Brings theory to life throughout with a range of contemporary case studies.
Exploring Media Research is a thoughtful, pragmatic approach to both gathering and analyzing media data, and so making sense of the chaotic, complex, compelling world of media influence in the 21st century. It is essential reading for students and researchers across media, communication, and cultural studies.

 
PART 1: RESEARCH PRINCIPLES: MOTIVATION, CAUSATION, ETHICS AND GENERALIZABILITY
 
Introduction: Communicating Media Research
 
Chapter 1: Making Media Matter
 
Chapter 2: Making Media Matter to You
 
Chapter 3: On Causation: How do media 'do' things?
 
Chapter 4: Practising Ethics in Media Research
 
Chapter 5: What is 'Generalisability' in Media Research?
 
PART 2: UNDERSTANDING MEDIA RESEARCH: FRAMING GENERAL QUESTIONS
 
Chapter 6: Researching Media Reality
 
Chapter 7: Researching Media's Role in Social Life
 
Chapter 8: Researching the Synthesis of Media and Interpersonal Communication
 
PART 3: DOING MEDIA RESEARCH: PEOPLE, MARKETS, TEXTS, EVENTS, USERS, AUDIENCES, POLICY
 
Chapter 9: Researching Media People: Journalism, Oral History and Archives
 
Chapter 10: Researching Media Markets: A Cultural Industries View on Pornography
 
Chapter 11: Researching Media Content: Games, Texts and Discourse
 
Chapter 12: Researching Media Events
 
Chapter 13: Big Data: How Can We Use It?
 
Chapter 14: Researching Media Policy
 
Chapter 15: Researching Audiences
 
Conclusion: Historicising Media Research - and the People who Do It

In Exploring Media Research, Andy Ruddock provides the theoretical, methodological, and ethical tools that enable scholars, students, and citizens to dissect the cultural power of media, and to apply this understanding to the creation of a more just society. Written in a direct and accessible style, this timely and provocative book firmly establishes Ruddock as one of the premier media scholars of his generation.

Elizabeth Bird
University of South Florida

There can be no more pressing topic in current affairs today than the role of the media. From questions of warfare to public health, we get our information as citizens from these massively powerful institutions. But how do we interrogate those very entities whom we trust to interrogate others? Andy Ruddock explains all in a patient but crisp, historically-informed but very contemporary book. We are in his debt.

Toby Miller
Loughborough University London

This is a book that is sorely needed: an introduction to media research that is both comprehensive and thorough in its theoretical reach, and absolutely contemporary in its examples, in its applications, and in its conceptualisation of the key targets for media research today.

Graeme Turner
University of Queensland

This book simplify complex media research concepts

Dr Memory Mabika
Communication and Applied Language Studies, University of Venda
May 17, 2018

It helps researchers to gain a sense of direction when collecting pieces of information from the media.

Dr Philip Arthur
Sunderland Business School, Sunderland University
October 11, 2017

Sample Materials & Chapters

Chapter 13 - Big data: How can we use it?


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