Preliminary research question after STEP I: ‘How are mass shootings represented in newspapers?’<\/p>\n
Even ‘newspapers’ is a too broad category to enable a media analysis. Every country in the world produces newspapers, so we are to narrow down the sampling frame<\/em><\/a> to ensure the feasability of our research. In this selection, three elements matter the most:<\/p>\n ‘How are mass shootings represented in Anglophone<\/em>\u00a0newspapers?’<\/p>\n ‘How are mass shootings represented in UK\u00a0<\/em>newspapers?’ ‘How are US<\/em> mass shootings represented in UK\u00a0newspapers?’ Although these questions already seem to be much more specific, they are still much to general to generate any usefull search in Nexis.<\/p>\n From this point onwards your final research question will depend on your approach to the media analysis. To ensure that you perform an analysis, and not merely deliver a description, it might be a good idea to bring in a comparative perspective<\/strong>. This means that you intend to scrutinise the similarities and differences<\/em><\/strong> between two or more ‘things’ (such as sources, types of newspapers, events, different offender\/victim profile, …) As long as you compare two (or more things) and that there is a ratio behind the comparison.\u00a0Possible preliminary research questions to explore are for instance those that make a comparison between<\/p>\n ‘What are the similarities and differences in the representation of US mass shootings in UK tabloid and broadsheet<\/em> newspapers?’ What are the similarities and differences in the representation of US mass shootings in national and regional UK<\/em> newspapers? 2.3. Comparison between events What are the similarities and differences in the representation of the US two deadliest mass shootings<\/em> in US\/UK newspapers? While already much more specific, these questions may still generate to many hits in search engines.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The final research question will depend on what kind of data your preliminary research question will generate. If you focus more on the quantitative analysis, you will need more articles. If you want to perform foremost a qualitative analysis less articles may be acquired. Probably it will be a combination of the previous ways to narrow down a research question. Let’s take for instance:<\/p>\n What are the similarities and differences in the representation of the Las Vegas Shooting in UK tabloid and broadsheet newspapers?<\/p>\n WATCH THE VIDEO HERE<\/a><\/p>\n Sampling for qualitative analysis is not required to meet the statistically valid formulae<\/strong> of quantitative analysis. Nevertheless, sampling for in-depth qualitative study should not be Back to main menu<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Preliminary research question after STEP I: ‘How are mass shootings represented in newspapers?’ 1. Selection within ‘newspapers’ by Language\/range\/region Even… Read more STEP II. Source Selection and Introducing a Comparative Perspective.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54808,"featured_media":0,"parent":47,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/mediacrime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/32"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/mediacrime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/mediacrime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/mediacrime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54808"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/mediacrime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/mediacrime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/32\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":187,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/mediacrime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/32\/revisions\/187"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/mediacrime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/47"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/mediacrime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nThe University of Kent offers access to a wide variety of \u00a0newspapers and news sources<\/a>. \u00a0Just navigate to newspaper and newsreel archives to get an overview of all search and the range of news sources they have to offer.\u00a0Nexis<\/a> is probably the best search engine for the assignment of SO881, but UK Press Online<\/a> seems also interesting. So, in the case of the module SO881 Anglophone newspapers (US and UK) might be the easiest. However international exchange students may opt for the newspapers of their country of origin as well. It might be that you have access to a news search engine through your home university.\u00a0This selection process might end up in two possible \u00a0preliminary research questions<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n‘How are mass shootings represented in US<\/em>\u00a0newspapers?’<\/p>\n\n
\n‘How are US<\/em> mass shootings represented in US\u00a0newspapers?’<\/p>\n2. Moving beyond Description while Narrowing Down:<\/h3>\n
2.1. \u00a0Newspaper types (broadsheets and tabloids):<\/h4>\n
\n‘What are the similarities and differences in the representation of US mass shootings in US tabloid and broadsheet<\/em> newspapers?’<\/p>\n2.2. Newspapers (broadsheets OR tabloid) of two different countries\/ regions\/ cities\/ … :<\/h4>\n
\nWhat are the similarities and differences in the representation of US mass shootings in UK and US<\/em>\u00a0newspapers?
\nWhat are the similarities and differences in the representation of US mass shootings in London and New York<\/em> newspapers?
\n…<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Narrowing down your research question in this way might require you to read about mass shootings in the us to look for cases that might suit a comparative media analysis. Source like Wikipedia might be helpful\u00a0 in getting a first overview (however the selection must be endorsed by more primary sources – they are often referenced by wikipedia). Here a rapport of CNN<\/a> seems to be very useful.<\/p>\n
\nWhat are the similarities and differences in the representation of the Parkland Florida school shooting and the Las Vegas mass shooting<\/em> in US\/UK newspapers?
\nWhat are the similarities and differences in the representation of school shooting A and school shooting B<\/em> in US\/UK newspapers?
\nWhat are the similarities and differences in the representation of mass shooting A and mass shooting B<\/em> in US\/UK newspapers?
\nWhat are the similarities and differences in the representation of the offender with a different ethnic background in mass shootings A and mass shootings B in US\/UK newspapers?<\/p>\n3. Finalising your research question: Interaction with the Search Engine\/ Data<\/h3>\n
4. About Sampling<\/h3>\n
\nsimply drawn at the researcher\u2019s whim, and even random methods may not yield useful<\/em> data as the purpose of qualitative research is to investigate certain issues or themes in detail<\/strong>.
\nRandom or even representative methods of sampling may not capture the issues or themes which are the subject of qualitative analysis.<\/p>\n