a. What do I want to discover?
Through performing a survey in a passed out questionnaire form I want to find out what peoples general opinions are about the media. I want to know whether they feel the media has mislead them, whether they believe that the country as a whole listens to the media and takes it seriously and whether they believe everything the media tells them. By getting a general consensus I can better understand the audience I am writing to and how to use appeals in the best way to persuade them.
b. How do I plan on discovering it? (This is called your research methods or methodology)
I will use a survey to ask people the questions and get an informed idea of how people feel towards the media.
c. Who am I going to talk to/observe/survey? (These people are called your subjects or participants)
I will survey both college students and people from my home to get a better consensus. If I only survey college students, although they are my audience, I will only have one set of information. I would like to know more about what people think and see whether the distrust or trust extends outside of a college campus.
d. How am I going to be able gain access to these groups or individuals
For the college students I will simply hand out the surveys to my peers here at Syracuse. For my other half of my surveying I will survey friends and people in my community at home which is a more conservative area.
e. What are my biases about this topic?
My own biases are that I do distrust the media and I will be working to persuade my audience to believe and understand how the media has acted which has created a general distrust.
f. How can I make sure my biases are not reflected in my research methods?
I will use neutral questions instead of loaded and opinionated questions. Instead of asking things like “Why do you distrust the media?” I will ask “how do you feel about the media’s representation of the war?”
g. What do I expect to discover?
I expect to see a general consensus which shows that there is distrust for the media and their reports about the war. I also expect to see that people’s opinions and views were strongly shaped and influenced by the way the media speaks about Middle Eastern people.
