1. Research
2. Chapter 15

This chapter of the Media Student’s Book works partly through further exploration of qualitative and quantitative methods (first broached in Chapter 1) as well as discussion of key research methods, including the often fear-inducing area of ‘theory’; how to approach small scale ‘audience’ work; and how to use the internet, including controversial resources such as Wikipedia.

In addition to the chapter there is a Glossary of key current terms, and a thorough Index.

There is a Case Study on Researching mobile phone technologies available on this website.

Chapter Links

http://www.sociosite.net/topics/texts/Geertz_Thick_Description.php

http://www.davidbordwell.net/

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/

http://www.britsoc.co.uk/equality/Statement+Ethical+Practice.htm

http://www.the-sra.org.uk/guidelines.htm#ethic

http://www.respectproject.org/ethics/412ethics.pdf

http://www.mrs.org.uk/standards/codeconduct.htm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/04/journalism-obituaries-shane-fitzgerald

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/may/30/british-library-digital-newspaper-archive

Links which extend the book, or which became available after it was published

You may find the following free (to FE/HE subscribers) resources useful:
  
Amber Films in Film & Sound Online,
http://www.filmandsound.ac.uk/collections/amber.shtml
Documentaries and feature films from a remarkable film-making collective established in the north-east of England in 1968. Of interest to students, teachers and researchers in the fields of media studies and of UK political and social history in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Educational and Television Films (ETV) in Film & Sound Online, 
http://www.filmandsound.ac.uk/collections/etv.shtml,
the largest collection of productions from the former Soviet Union, Communist China, the European Eastern block, Chile and Cuba, which survives in Western Europe. It is the legacy of the work of Stanley Forman, one of the leading figures in the Communist Party of Great Britain. The collection is useful in the disciplines of military, political and social history, the history of science, war studies, media studies, music and the performing arts, and the study of propaganda.
 
Films of Scotland in Film & Sound Online,
http://www.filmandsound.ac.uk/collections/scotfilms.shtml

One of the most coherent local and national film collections in the UK, Films of Scotland charts the changing face of Scotland from the 1930s to 1982. In collaboration with Scottish Screen Film Archive, most of the 157 titles are available, including all seven films made for the Empire Exhibition in 1938, as well as a selection of the films made between 1955 and 1982; topics covered range across industry, agriculture, fishing, the work of Scottish artists and writers, architecture, tourism, urban redevelopment and Scottish music and dancing.
 
Imperial War Museum in Film & Sound Online,
http://www.filmandsound.ac.uk/collections/imperial.shtml.
This selection from their holdings consists mainly of British official films, but there are also titles from the USSR and the USA. The material spans the First and Second World Wars, post-war reconstruction, Cold War and Civil Defence films, and, most recently, videotape from the United Nations Television Campaign in the former Yugoslavia from 1994 to 1996.
 
Royal Mail Film Classics in Film & Sound Online,  
http://www.filmandsound.ac.uk/collections/royalmail.shtml
The collection covers subjects ranging across transport and communications in Britain and abroad; the home front during the Second World War, British industries, from fishing to mining, the nation's health - and developments in the Post Office service itself.

Updates

Ben Goldacre makes a good case, via 3 recent examples, for citing primary sources not just in academic research but in formal reports and in parts of journalism such as quotations from interviews:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/19/bad-science-ben-goldacre?INTCMP=SRCH
March 19 2011

• Researching mobile phone technologies