Module Information

to ground students in a range of methods used in the researching of audiences and reception, with particular emphasis on qualitative traditions to enable them to evaluate the strengths and limits of each of these methods, to appreciate the practical tasks they impose, to consider critically both their implied definitions of the `object of research' and the ethical and political issues they raise to lay the foundations necessary for the kinds of research that students may wish to undertake for their dissertations

The module will explore issues of formulation of research questions, the grounding of these within traditions of research and theory, and effective modes of presentation of research findings. Students will encounter and evaluate a wide range of methods of research which have been utilised in the study of audiences and reception, most notably: observation; interviews; focus groups; content analysis; discourse analysis. A case study of a major research issue, for instance of the Disney Corporation, will be developed in order to highlight issues of sources of information, and applicable modes of research. Teaching and learning will be by a mixture of closely-investigated case-studies of published research, the consideration of cases of possible research (considering possible methods of investigation, associated issues of relations between investigators and research subjects, and ethical questions arising therefrom), and the carrying out of small research exercises subsequently discussed and evaluated.