Attitudes twards the media

[marct]

Hi Folks,

In a recent post in the What is our message thread, I asked

Do you know if anyone has actually studied this [anti-media bias amongst serving troops] (i.e. interviews, focus groups, etc.)? If someone has, I would really like to look at their data. If they haven't, I would like to set up a research project to do so.

Well, so far nobody has posted, PM'd or emailed me about such studies.

What I would be interested in knowing is this: If I put such a study together, do people here think that a) it is worth looking at and b) would you be willing to take part in it (anonymously)? Obviously, the study would have to be conducted online.

Marc

[Jimbo]

Marc,

What do you see the end purpose of such a study being?

[marct]

Hi Jimbo,

What do you see the end purpose of such a study being?

Good question, and I should have put it in the original post. Basically, I think that the study can be used to

1. discover what problems serving soldiers may have with "the media", broadly construed.
2. why they have these problems
3. how can these problems be mitigated both inside the forces and inside the media;
4. what could using "alternate media" ('net based media) do to either mitigate or sidestep problems with the mainstream media.

Basically, it's exploratory research: I don't know what the specific problems are, although I have certainly seen a number of posts here that express a lot of anger. I want to find out what the problems are and,if possible, see if people have suggestions and ideas on how to fix them.

BTW, I will also be trying to run a parallel study on problems that the Canadian Forces have with our media - same design but, possibly, different problems / answers.

Marc

[goesh]

Whew! You like to work, don't you? Certainly you should proceed but talk about methodolgy pitfalls and raging variables to grapple with. Sounds like a good joint project for Stat/Anthro/Sociology Grad students....

[Menning]

I'm currently involved in such a study as part of my master's thesis. I've been interviewing students at CGSC to ascertain how field grade officers feel about the media and what role the media should play within the nation and when covering the military. It will be several months before I've finished research and written my conclusions. You are more than welcome to my findings when I'm finished. Feel free to contact me at any time.

[selil]

Marct,

"IF" you want some help....

I think you'll have to do a couple of things to identify bias.

1) How much, what kind, and where do serving military members get their media information.

2) An interesting side lobe in the stats is likely going to be "other military members" as a source of media.

3) They should rate different media formats (to assign bias scores) to particular venues and types of media.

4) It might be interesting to look at particular reporters/celebrities and see if there is a consistent feeling toward a personality versus a medium.