Critical Media Research

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UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER PROGRAMME: MA COMMUNICATION, MEDIA AND PUBLIC RELATIONS STUDENT NO: 119O46846 ASSIGNMENT REF: 1 (4) OPTION. 2 TUTOR’S NAME: JONATHAN CABLE INTAKE : JULY 2012 NUMBER OF WORDS: 2985 ASSIGNMENT TITLE: What is ‘critical’ media research and to what extent can it be described as ‘scientific’? Answer with reference to three of the main traditions of media research as discussed in Module 1. TABLE OF CONTENT PAGES 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Scientific research must be based on evidence 1 1.2 Scientific research is objective 2 1.3 Science by its nature is skepticism 3 1.4 Scientific research is testable 4 1.5 Scientific research is part of public record 5 1.6 The results of a research study are replicable, or repeatable 6 1.7 Scientific research relies on measurement and observation 6 1.8 Scientific research is heuristic 7 2 CONCLUSION 8 BIBLIOGRAPHY 1 INTRODUCTION Critical media research can be defined as a research which covers a range of subjects in its investigation. This research has a potential to thoroughly investigate issues concerning psychology, sociology, anthropology and other subjects. In its questioning, it does not hesitate to expose even the negative aspects of the researched area. Hence critical research does not focus only on finding out about the negatives, but also asks questions which are aimed at finding out the positives. In order to define critical research clearly and to understand the reason for it to be described as ‘scientific’, the characteristics of science are discussed with reference to the three of the main traditions of media research in this assignment. The main three traditions which are used in this assignment are, ‘media effects, cultural
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