Published today - a simple guide to quantitative research methods for
particular use with those students (and staff)who have problems with
numbers: called 'Practical Research Methods for Media and Cultural
Studies: Making People Count', it's by Máire Messenger Davies, University
of Ulster, and Nick Mosdell, Cardiff University. A brief blurb is below:
"‘Making people count’: help for number-phobes
A new book designed to help students and researchers take a practical and
painless approach to quantitative research methods, has just been
published by Professor Máire Messenger Davies, Director of the Centre for
Media Research, University of Ulster, and Nick Mosdell of Cardiff
University. The book, Practical Research Methods for Media and Cultural
Studies, (Edinburgh University Press), is based on several years’
experience of teaching research methods to both undergraduate and
postgraduate students in Humanities and Media Studies programmes.
Subtitled ‘making people count’, it particularly aims to be reassuring for
the large numbers of students (and teachers) who have difficulty dealing
with numbers, graphs and methodological jargon.
The book uses case studies from the authors’ own experience and from
student projects including:
• Research with theatre and TV audiences about Star Trek and theatre-
going at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds
• Research on the use of children in adult television
programmes, ‘Consenting Children?’, funded by the Broadcasting Standards
Commission
• Research carried out by students on advertising, press bias and
attitudes to alcohol consumption, among other topics
There are chapters on research with children; on the practicalities of
doing fieldwork; on content analysis of both press material and moving
images; and a simple, step-by-step guide to using SPSS (Statistical
Package for the Social Scientists). The book is published by Edinburgh
University Press , price £14.99 paperback, and in the US, by the
University of Georgia Press."
Máire M. Davies
University of Ulster
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