Doing Media Policy Research

Abstract

This chapter takes you through the various steps of doing an analysis of media and communication policy and aims at helping readers to learn or improve the craft of doing media policy research. It distinguishes between three major steps in the research process: planning, executing and reporting, each of which are dealt with in further detail. With respect to planning a research project, scholars need to select a research topic, formulate research questions, and state a problem, develop (hypo-)theses, make decisions regarding research design, choose methods for empirical analysis, deal with sampling and write up a research plan. Next, while executing the plan, theoretical concepts require operationalization and data need to be collected, prepared and analyzed. Finally, reporting on research projects not only involves writing a research report and publications but also to reach out beyond the scientific community. The chapter also pays attention to the crucial issue of research ethics.