Master 1 — METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES ARISING IN MEDIA RESEARCH (WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE INTERNET)

SUSAN BALL
Semestre 1, Lundi 12H-15H>

Over a very short space of time, studies of ‘popular cyber culture’ undertaken by ‘geeks’ have developed into internet studies (or should that be Internet, web, or Web studies ?) undertaken by a wide range of researchers from linguistics, rhetoric, cultural studies, management studies, sociology, anthropology, communication studies, geography, psychology, etc. ; along with those researchers claiming to adopt an ‘interdisciplinary approach’. After having provided some background on research on ‘traditional media’, we will go on to ask if – beyond the level of technology - there is anything distinctive about researching the internet ? The answer to this question will be shown to pose a range of new methodological questions, for example : Do respondents to online questionnaires have the same behaviours as hardcopy respondents ? Of which public are online respondents representative ? How do advertising and commercial values condition what is retrieved after a word search ? The course will aim to show that although these problems are ‘new’ they are part of the crucial questions of good social science enquiry : research design, selection of participants, choice of fieldwork site, ethical practice, and the influence of theoretical frameworks.

Bibliographie

• GAUNTLETT, D. AND HORSLEY, R. EDS. WEB STUDIES, 2004.

• JONES, S. ED. DOING INTERNET RESEARCH, 1999.

• O’SULLIVAN, T. AND JEWKES, Y. EDS. THE MEDIA STUDIES READER, 1997.

…..