Documents

Question 1

What are documents usually?

Answer 1

Qualitative
Can be quantitative

Question 2

What is a document?

Answer 2

Documents are usually secondary qualitative sources as the information already exists in written or audio/visual format

Question 3

Examples of documents?

Answer 3

Government reports
Newspaper
Novels
Letters
Diaries
Pictures
Television and radio output
Police records
Parish registers
Minutes if meetings
Art
Previous sociological studies
Social work files
School records

Question 4

What are the 4 types of document?

Answer 4

Official Documents
Personal Documents
Historical Documents
Media Documents

Question 5

What are official documents?

Answer 5

Document produced by organisations like the govt departments and their agencies, buisness and charity’s
Schools like Ofsted reports and other official givt enquiries
These reports are a matter of public records and should be available for anyone who wants to see them

Question 6

Official documents- are government reports public or private documents?

Answer 6

Public

Question 7

Official documents- are company reports and accounts public or private documents?

Answer 7

private

Question 8

What are personal documents?

Answer 8

First hand account of social events and personal experiences taht include the writers feelings and attitudes
Can be referred as life documents

Question 9

Examples of personal documents?

Answer 9

Letters
Diaries
Photo album
Paintings
Drawings
Autobiographies

Question 10

How did Aries’ study using personal document in his childhood study?

Answer 10

He used paintings sculptures poems and other pieces of art
Thsi is hood as he could get feelings of poems and pictures about how people feel about a certain topic during time
However only wealthy represented as they where the only ones who got portraits

Question 11

How can documents be used in primary reaserch?

Answer 11

Sociologists can right own diary (Barker)
Willis asked the boys studied to keep a diary
Asking child to draw a picture of something

Question 12

What was Valerie Heys study about personal documents?

Answer 12

She wants to study girls friendships through notes exchanged in lessons between girls in london comprehensive schools
Found that notes where mainly about relationships with eachother
Teacher disregarded notes as unimportant where as Hey beloved otherwise
Hey was worried about ethics as it invaded girls personal and private informations and no concent

Question 13

What is historical documents?

Answer 13

Documents from the last that help give sociologists a picture if social change or important events that happened long ago that hey may not be able to find out about any other way

Question 14

What are media documents?

Answer 14

These could include a range of media scourges including newspaper reports, TV, audience and website

Question 15

Strengths of documents in social reaserch?

Answer 15

-Verstehen
-Only way of reaserching the past
-Interpretavist prefer life documents
-Practicle
-Ethical

Question 16

Limitations from John Scott of documents in reasearch?

Answer 16

1) lack of authenticity due to parts being missing and forging
2) credibility as we don’t know why or someone’s motive for writing the document. Could be for distorting for political reasons
3) Meaning, can be difficult to interpret especially if there old
4) Representativeness- may not be representative especially in old documents. Many documents may dethrone with age and documents can be withheald from the public

Question 17

What are media sources/ mass media?

Answer 17

Sources produced for entertainment purposes

Question 18

Why do sociologists like media sources?

Answer 18

Because they tell us what media produces think people want and stereotyping
e.g. we find that violent crime is disproportionately featured in crime dramas whereas 75% of crime is less serious property crime

Question 19

Do sociologists like news sources?

Answer 19

No because they are believed to be social construction
may reflect reality to an extent but also reflects the selection biases and personal prejudice of journalists and new editors
NB in UK
Journalists mainly coke from private schools so even though they say their not bias they can be

Question 20

What are the two different approaches to studying media sources?

Answer 20

Formal (quantitative) content analysis
Quantitative content analysis: thematic and textual analysis

Question 21

What is Formal (quantitative) content analysis?

Answer 21

Sociologists will look at qualitative media documents like newspaper tv and audio etc and attempt to turn it into quantitative data
This is ultimately is a quantitative approach to mass media and simply counting how many time a certain feature occurs in a given source
Most common way would be
-Word count or phrase count
-Counting the types of crimes in the media in a given period
-Analysis images in the media

Question 22

Strengths of Formal (quantitative) content analysis?

Answer 22

-Minimises reasercher bias as it’s only a count
-Reliable and can be repeated
-Practical

Question 23

Weaknesses of Formal (quantitative) content analysis?

Answer 23

-Can have different interpretations
-Tells you nothing about the message that is giving or how the audience interprets the message

Question 24

What is Quantitative content analysis: thematic analysis?

Answer 24

Trying to understand intentions behind mass production of documents by subjecting a particular area of reportage to detailed investigation

Question 25

Formal (quantitative) content analysis
Quantitative content analysis: thematic analysis example?

Answer 25

Soothill and Walby’s (1991) did a study of newspaper reporting of sex crime
They often found that the reporting tended to emphasise the danger of being raped in public places tended to ignore rape by partners and friends of victims
Sue sharpe and women’s magazines

Question 26

Formal (quantitative) content analysis
Quantitative content analysis: textual analysis?

Answer 26

Involves examining how different words are linked together in order to encourage readers to adopt a particular view of what is being reported

Question 27

Formal (quantitative) content analysis
Quantitative content analysis: textual analysis example?

Answer 27

A classic example of this is the Glasgow university media group who reported miners strike
found that minders demanded better working conditions
Managers offered better working conditions

Question 28

Quantitative content analysis: thematic and textual analysis- strengths?

Answer 28

Detail of qualitative allows the reaserch to get full contexts in which media reporting takes places so it’s high in validyy

Question 29

Quantitative content analysis: thematic and textual analysis- weekness?

Answer 29

Lack of objectivity and are reliant on reasercher down interpretation of the meanings of media texts

Question 30

What sociologists prefer Formal (quantitative) content analysis?

Answer 30

Positivists

Question 31

What sociologists prefer quantitative content analysis: thematic and textual analysis

Answer 31

Interpretivists