Qualitative Research Methods for Media Studies

Qualitative Research Methods for Media Studies provides students and researchers with the tools they need to perform critically engaged, theoretically informed research using methods including interviewing, focus groups, historical research, oral histories, ethnography and participant observation, textual analysis, and online research. Each chapter features step-by-step instructions that integrate theory with practice, as well as a case study drawn from published research demonstrating best practices for media scholars. Readers will also find in-depth discussions of the challenges and ethical issues that may confront researchers using a qualitative approach. Qualitative research does not offer easy answers, simple truths, or precise measurements, but this book provides a comprehensive and accessible guide for those hoping to explore this rich vein of research methodology.

With new case studies throughout, this new edition includes updated material on digital technologies, including discussion of doing online research and using data to give students the tools they need to work in today's convergent media environment.

Bonnie S. Brennen is the Nieman Professor of Journalism in the Diederich College of Communication at Marquette University. Her research focuses on the intersection between labor and journalism history as well as on relationships between media, culture, and society. She is the author of Qualitative Methods for Media Studies, For the Record: An Oral History of Rochester, New York Newsworkers and a novel Contradictions. She is editor of Assessing Evidence in a Postmodern World and co-editor, with Hanno Hardt, of the American Journalism History Reader, Picturing the Past: Media, History & Photography and Newsworkers: Toward a History of the Rank and File. In October 2015 she was inducted into the Hall of Fame at the University of Iowa School of Journalism and Mass Communication.