Fourth Blog Entry

Research techniques one can employ when studying media institutions and media audiences and the different foci and purposes these techniques would entail when studying media institutions as opposed to studying media audiences

Introduction

Media institution alternatively referred to as culture industry in Stokes (2003:101), is defined as one which has its main function the production or distribution of art, entertainment or information. As the topic indicates, the writer shall break it into two parts. Firstly a discussion on the research techniques one can employ when studying media institutions shall be engaged with and subsequently, a discussion on the different foci and purposes these techniques would entail when studying media institutions as opposed to studying media audiences shall follow.

Research techniques one can employ when studying media institutions

Various approaches or types of research are provided in Stokes (2003) with which a researcher may study the media industries. According to Stokes (2003:109-125), the following four (4) research types may be employed to research the media institutions;

1. Archive research
Archive research involves accessing original documents and using these as the basis of your research or object of analysis, Stokes (2003:109) indicates. She further points out that archive research is one of the most frequently used methods of media research, including cultural and film history. With her explanation of what an archive is; one may conclude that this type of method is focused into obtaining much information about a specific researched institution. According to Stokes (2003) archive research is one of the main methods used in all forms of historical research, including those based on texts and audiences.

2. The interview
According to Stokes (2003:114) the interview are primary means by which people are used as sources of evidence in a research. She defines interview as a method in media and cultural research that enables us to find out about people’s ideas, opinions and attitudes. As she puts it; Stokes (2003) indicates that the interview might be one’s primary method or it may be used to gain background information. In simpler terms, the interview may be used to support the data derived from, for example, the archive, or used as the primary source of data if none has been obtained. Jane Stokes indicates that interviews have been used more recently to study British soap operas. Lesley Henderson (1999) work which elicits some interesting insights into how and why soap operas address serious social issues such as breast cancer or domestic violence is cited by Stokes (2003) as an example of the use of the interview. Stokes (2003) indicates that Henderson interviewed personnel who worked on the leading television soaps in Britain such as people at various levels of the production, including writers, producers and script editors. One may conclude that the interview method is mainly concerned with individuals rather than stored material.

3. Participation observation
Stokes (2003:120) maintains that the scepticism of people in the media industry towards media studies as one of the hurdles that has to be overcome in researching media studies suggested a need for the participation observation method. Stokes (2003:120) points out that; one of the methods of understanding the routines is through participating in these routines oneself. In other words, Stokes (2003) suggests that for one to understand how the media institutions operate is for one to participate in such media institutions daily operations. In regards of media studies as Stokes (2003) indicates; most participant observation is done in industries by people who already work there or who have very good contacts, and the fieldwork is conducted over several months. She further points out that scholars have used this method in the past to examine the decision-making process at work, the professional norms and values of media workers, and how ideology behind their work gets translated into media content. The latter may be equated to the daily operations of any media institution, one may indicate.

4. Oral history
Although the oral history method typical use in media studies field is in researching audience as Stokes (2003:124) admits, she indicates that; however, it is possible to conduct an oral history study of the culture industries if you have access to people who witnessed significant developments in the history of the media. Citing Mark Williams example, Stokes (2003) indicates that Williams, 1999) interviewed Monty Margetts, the presenter of an early television cookery programme, using the techniques of oral history. However Stokes (2003) warns of the difficulty that arises from getting access to people in the industry to interview about the past.

Research techniques one can employ when studying media institutions
In her book, Stokes (2003) identifies several methods that one may employ in studying media audiences and also indicates that the primary object of analysis in that regard is people. In simpler terms Stokes (2003) highlights the point that as opposed to studying media institutions, studying media audiences is entirely people-oriented. The following methods are detailed as the best methods when one is to study media audiences.

1. Observing audiences
According to Stokes (2003:137), scientific method is based on observation, thus many methods of observing audience behaviour. She specifically singles out the experimental (laboratory) research and ethnography as some of the methods that may be useful when studying media audience. In regards to experimental research; Stokes (2003:137) indicates that this method is directly derived from science.  As Jane Stokes (2003) points out; “in the early days of mass communication research (the 1920s and 1930s), some experiments were made within the laboratory setting. Citing the Payne Fund Studies, conducted in the USA between 1928 and 1932, Stokes indicates that such studies included laboratory experiments among the many methods employed to investigate the impact of the cinema on children and young people. It may be put that, this method is concerned with observing physical responses of participants in the study rather than asking the participants questions in order to obtain answers. In one of the Payne Fund Studies as Stokes (2003) indicates; it was found that the youngsters displayed physical responses while watching films, leading the researcher to conclude that the movies did have an effect on young viewers. One of their findings, Stokes (2003) explains, was that adolescents of sixteen years of age got more excited than children of nine during scenes involving themes of a romantic or sexual nature.
Regarding ethnography, Stokes (2003) explains that this method is the most direct way of finding out how audiences behave by observing in the field. In contrast to the former method, ethnography might involve observing how people behave when they are actually watching television, shopping, dancing and so on, as Stokes (2003:138) puts it. One may maintain that, ethnography draws its focus more from the real-time behaviour of the subject of analysis rather than the effects displayed. Interestingly, Stokes (2003:140) indicates that ethnographic methods are often used in combination with other methods, commonly the interview.

2. Asking questions
“While ethnography and methods of observation can be useful in finding out about audience behaviour, if you want to find out about people’s ideas, opinions and attitudes, there is no substitute for asking them”, Stokes (2003:141). Well put and straightforward, Jane Stokes indicates that this method is focused with asking the audience questions in order for a researcher to understand some of their hidden aspects, one may maintain. According to Stokes (2003), whether they use questionnaires, interviews or focus groups, researchers are not directly observing respondents to get information, but are relying on reports of participants in the study. Stokes (2003) warns that; it is important to remember that the subjects are relaying information to the researcher about their world and are thus observing on the researcher’s behalf. In other words, what is meant is that; the subjects are the primary source of information which is unknown to the researcher, one may put it. But Stokes (2003:141) highlights that; a key to making sure that respondents give accurate reports lies in the design of the questions. Stokes (2003: 141-148) explains in-depth the technical aspects of employing this method such as, the questionnaire design, types of questions, reliability and validity techniques and so on. 

3. Focus groups
Stokes (2003:148) indicates that; the focus group is a good way of researching the responses, ideas and opinions of people in greater depth than survey. She further explains that a focus is an organized discussion of a small group of people on a given topic. One may put it that; a focus group is all about a discussion by pre-selected people (participants) about the topic researched. While regarding focus groups as best approach if one want to find out why people believe what they do, understand more of nuanced reasons behind their answers or question them about their opinions of particular media texts, Stokes (2003:148) admits that it is a more textured method of analysis and one plagued with problems of reliability and validity as a consequence.

In organizing one’s focus group, Stokes (2003:150) indicates that professionals pay people to attend focus groups. She therefore encourages one to consider their access to potential subjects and try to design a study which allows them to use their friends and fellow students (if one is a student) as subjects as much as possible. Stokes (2003:151) indicates that as to the number of subjects, there is no definitive answer as to how many people you should interview or survey in one’s audience research.

4. Oral history
Finally, another method used to research media audience is the oral history, as Stokes (2003) indicates. According to Stokes (2003:151) “interviewing is a very good way of finding out about people’s behaviour and their attitudes to the past as well as the present”. One may put it that this method is concerned with the knowledge that particular people posses about the media audience in different media epochs. According to Stokes (2003) O’Sullivan found that very little work had been done on how audiences experienced television viewing, hence this method can be used to good effect to investigate audience in the past. Stokes (2003) cites one example as being a research question such as “How influential was punk music on people growing up in the 1970s?” Given the period which this question tries to investigate, it may be put that most of the data collection will rely on the oral interviews with people who had grew up during that period of time, one may maintain.

Conclusion
This blog has addressed the methods or techniques that one may employ when researching media institutions and media audiences. It has emerged that some methods used overlaps between the audience research and the media institution research. Although the methods used are at some stages similar, such as the oral history method, the audience research methods seem to mostly rely on people while the institutions rely on the media artefacts as the subjects of the study. The different foci and purposes of each research methods were also indicated in the discussions under each media component (audience or institutions) respectively.

List of Sources

Stokes, J. 2003. How to do media and cultural studies research. London: Sage. [O] Available:  http://www.scribd.com/doc/53980534/Stokes-How-Todo-Cultural-Studies (Accessed 21 August 2014)