"Surveys enjoy great ubiquity among data collection methods in social research: they are flexible in questioning techniques, in the amount of questions asked, in the topics covered, and in the various ways of interactions with respondents. Surveys are also the preferred method by many researchers in
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the social sciences due to their ability to provide quick profiles and results. Because they are so commonly used and fairly easy to administer, surveys are often thought to be easily thrown together. But designing an effective survey that yields reliable and valid results takes more than merely asking questions and waiting for the answers to arrive. Geared to the non-statistician, the Handbook of Survey Methodology in Social Sciences addresses issues throughout all phases of survey design and implementation. Chapters examine the major survey methods of data collection, providing expert guidelines for asking targeted questions, improving accuracy and quality of responses, while reducing sampling and non-sampling bias. Relying on the Total Survey Error theory, various issues of both sampling and non-sampling sources of error are explored and discussed." (Publisher description)
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"Das Buch führt anhand konkreter Vorgehensweisen in die Diskussion und Praxis der Triangulation ein. Es zeichnet Ursprung und Geschichte des Konzepts sowie kritische Diskussionen nach. Triangulation sollte sich nicht in der reinen Verbindung von Methoden erschöpfen. Erst in der Verknüpfung deren
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theoretischer Hintergründe entfaltet sie ihr Potential. An praktischen Beispielen wird die Triangulation verschiedener qualitativer und von qualitativen mit quantitativen Methoden dargestellt. Ausgewählte Studien mit diesen Formen werden vorgestellt, um die Beurteilung des Nutzens und des Aufwandes von Triangulation zu erleichtern. Praktische Durchführungsprobleme von Triangulationsstudien werden als Leitfaden für Studierende behandelt. Die Bedeutung von Triangulation als Kriterium qualitativer Forschung, in der Verallgemeinerung und als Mittel der Erkenntnis wird an ihrer Verwendung in den unterschiedlichen Schritten des Forschungsprozesses verdeutlicht." (Publisher description)
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"How could Western broadcasters during the Cold War learn about their audiences in the USSR when they were denied the possibility of conducting surveys within the country? In response to this quandary, second-best approaches were developed at Radio Liberty employing interviews with travellers outsid
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e the country and a sophisticated computer simulation program to draw estimates on audience size, composition and behaviour. In time, it became possible to validate the success of this approach through comparisons with internal survey work, both before and after the breakup of the Soviet Union. This paper overviews the methodology used and a sample of the findings." (Summary)
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"This essay analyses the role of audience research as a change agent in media development interventions in Afghanistan. It analyses how audience research in transnational contexts involves a complex set of intercultural negotiations and translations that contribute to the enduring relevance and sust
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ainability of the highly popular Afghan radio soap opera New Home, New Life. This is a ‘development drama’ that has been broadcast across Afghanistan since 1993. It is based on BBC Radio 4’s The Archers and produced by BBC Afghan Education Projects (BBC AEP). Audience research has been vital to forging a dynamic relationship between the creative teams who make the drama, the donors who pay for it, and the audiences who consume it. The article addresses three broad themes. First, we outline how data gathered in formative audience research, prior to the creation of the drama, provides the creative team with the dramatic raw material for the radio serial. The extensive qualitative data gathered by Afghan researchers in local milieux is translated so as to enable culturally diverse teams of writers and producers to ground the serial narratives in the lived experiences of its audiences, and to introduce multiple local perspectives on development issues. Second, we show how evaluative audience research, data gathered in the postproduction phase, plays a key role in providing critical audience interpretations of New Home, New Life’s dramatic themes. In so doing, it creates feedback loops that allow audiences to become active participants in the ongoing creation of the drama. The research designs and devices, developed over the last two decades to document the changing life-worlds of Afghan citizens-cum-audiences, are part of an ongoing set of transcultural encounters that contribute to strengthening the social realist appeal of the drama and to calibrating how far any given storyline can be pushed in terms of cultural propriety. Third, we examine how during periods of military conflict, when routine audience research becomes dangerous or impossible and audience feedback loops are disrupted, the writers and producers have to rely on their own personal and political experiences, often with unpredictable ideological consequences. We draw attention to the limitations and challenges of making dramas for development in highly charged politicised and postcolonial contexts. While, development dramas may be a cheap and effective way of dealing with certain informational needs, such as landmine awareness, they cannot redress social and structural inequalities or, as Western donors wish, eradicate opium cultivation." (Abstract)
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"Rating the Audience is the first book to show why and how audience ratings research became a convention, an agreement, and the first to interrogate the ways that agreement is now under threat. Taking a historical approach, the book looks at the evolution of audience ratings and the survey industry.
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It goes on to analyse today's media environment, looking at the role of the internet and the increased difficulties it presents for measuring audiences. The book covers all the major players and controversies, such as Facebook's privacy rulings and Google's alliance with Nielsen." (Publisher description)
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"Dieses kompakte Lehrbuch, entstanden in Masterkursen, führt in Kategorien und Fragestellungen zur internationalen Kommunikation, zu Modellen gesellschaftlicher Entwicklung, zum Vergleich von Mediensystemen, zur globalen Medienkultur und zu Trends interkultureller Transformation und Integration ein
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. Neben der problemorientierter Beschäftigung mit grundlegenden theoretischen Ansätzen werden sowohl zentrale Trends der globalen Medienkommunikation an paradigmatischen Beispielen veranschaulicht als wiederholt methodologische Fragen ihrer Erforschung aufgeworfen." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"La idea de este libro pretende cumplir dos propósitos: por un lado desarrollar un aspecto didáctico para todos aquellos estudiantes de medios o productores de programas, que recién toman contacto con este indicador y hacerles saber, de manera simple, clara y básica, que es exactamente el rating
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de televisión, como se calcula, cuales son los diferentes aspectos de análisis, y cómo se utiliza, tanto desde el punto de vista de un medio televisivo emisor, como desde la perspectiva de un anunciante o agencia de publicidad. Por el otro lado, relatar todo lo que he aprendido en estos años: el mundo que gira en torno al rating, los mitos, prejuicios, verdades y mentiras sobre las diferentes metodologías de medición, muchas veces erroneamente idealizadas y otras injustamente criticadas. Así como también la calidad de las instituciones que realizan las mediciones. En otras palabras, explicar con propiedad lo estrictamente técnico y profesional, y alternarlo con la historia - tal como la he venido recopilando en mi memoria durante todos estos años - de como ha sido el camino recorrido por las empresas que se dedicaron a medir y comercializar el índice y el tortuoso mundo que rodea al rating." (Prólogo, página 9-10)
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"Empirische Forschung auf Basis standardisierter Verfahren greift häufig auf einen Satz von Konstrukten zurück, die immer wieder benötigt werden. Für deren Operationalisierung werden Skalen entwickelt, die regelmäßig eingesetzt und validiert werden. Dieses erste Skalenhandbuch für die deutsch
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sprachige Kommunikations- und Medienforschung enthält Angaben zu 76 Skalen unterschiedlichster Forschungsfelder. Zu jeder Skala sind - neben ihrem exakten Wortlaut - ausführliche Angaben zur theoretischen Einbettung des jeweiligen Instruments, seinen Einsatzmöglichkeiten in der Forschung und seiner Validierung enthalten." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"This 42 chapter volume represents the state of the art in visual research. It provides an introduction to the field for a variety of visual researchers: scholars and graduate students in art, sociology, anthropology, communication, education, cultural studies, women's studies, ethnic studies, globa
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l studies and related social science and humanities disciplines. The SAGE Handbook of Visual Research Methods encompasses the breadth and depth of the field, and points the way to future research possibilities. It illustrates “cutting edge” as well as long-standing and recognized practices. This text is not only “about” research, it is also an example of the way that the visual can be incorporated in data collection and the presentation of research findings." (Publisher description)
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"Audience research should be an essential part of every broadcasting venture. However, many non-Commercial radio stations hardly do audience research. Often this is due to a lack of human resources and to a large extent also a lack of understanding and awareness of the nature, benefit, and role of a
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udience research. By taking into consideration the special nature of non-Commercial Christian local radio stations in Norway, this research shows how these radio stations can simplify and adapt some of the available research methods to their needs and budget. After discussing, evaluating, and adapting surveys, panel studies, focus groups, and in-depth interviews, two of the methods are tested in two different radio stations. At the end of the discussion, a research toolbox is presented, which provides the stations with a plan for audience research over a three-year period." (Back cover)
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"In this chapter we outline the principles and techniques of audience research including qualitative and quantitative methods and techniques and how to understand and interpret Rajar (Radio Joint Audience Research Limited) surveys. We look at some critical perspectives on audience research methodolo
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gies and some of the problems of audience measurement for small-scale and community stations. Finally we discuss what radio managers might learn from media academics." (Summary)
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"Drawing together the new techniques available to the market researcher into a single reference, The Handbook of Online and Social Media Research explores how these innovations are being used by the leaders in the field. This groundbreaking reference examines why traditional research is broken, both
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in theory and practice, and includes chapters on online research communities, community panels, blog mining, social networks, mobile research, e-ethnography, predictive markets, and DIY research." (Publisher description)
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