Researching Media and Communication (P5016). Essay

Media and Communication 
Name
Institution: University of Sussex
Course: Researching Media and Communication (P5016)
Date
 From Week 1: Write a short reflective piece, drawing on Silverstone and other relevant literature, responding to the following questions:
Media is a process that is eternally social and political, and in many cases ideological    where meaning is offered through communication (Silverstone, 1999:5).  There are two paradigms of research approaches in media and communication studies the quantitative and qualitative methods.  The quantitative methods were mainly used in natural sciences, but have been adapted into the social sciences, and they include survey research, content analysis and even archive research, and these approaches are based on numerical information mostly mathematical modelling, survey methods and network analysis (Stokes, 2012:3).  Qualitative research is mostly associated with meaning and interpretation and these methods are mostly common in the humanities including narrative and genre analysis that are most common in literature. The focus groups and interviews are some of the most common qualitative research methods useful to understand the media influence and the audience (Stokes, 2012:3). Nonetheless, the two approaches are not necessarily used separately n media studies, which focus on both number and meaning. 
Rigour in media studies focuses on credibility, reliability and conformability as there are both qualitative and quantitative research approaches.  When identifying the research participants and respondents in media studies research, there is emphasis on relying on professional research. The case for this, is that it ensures that the research is appropriate based on the target audience and aim of the study. For instance, in focus groups the set of subjects are carefully selected to better understand what influences the audience. Nonetheless, to ensure there is rigor there is a need to reflect on  the researchers beliefs to better understand the likely biases even as it is difficult to be exhaustive in a saturated media space. Silverstone (1999:1) pointed out that it is difficult to evade media presence and presentation where the media influences the economic social, cultural and political spheres of life. The media is now closely intertwined with the sense of identity and everyday experience more than ever before, where people have a wide variety of options to choose from including new media. 
To appraise the media and cultural studies research there is a need to look into how different voices are represented and how these impacts the way subjects are framed.   The case for determining the dominant views and issues addressed in traditional media is that this provides insights on whether there is presentation of all the facts (Bennett and Kidd, 2017:166). even when news media has all the information in certain subjects, the way the subjects are presented differs and it is easier to evaluate the objectivity of press coverage based on how facts are treated and whether there is a conflict of interests when reporting on certain news stories and even the opinion pieces that receive...