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Media Monitor Archive - S&T in Britain
Dear STAMAsters,
As you can see I am forwarding a forwarded message - looks interesting. Do
any of you Brits know about this?
Cheers ... Gavan
>>Science Museum
>>Public Understanding of Science Research Unit
>>
>>Science and Technology in the British Press 1946-1990.
>>
>>We have the pleasure to make publicly available a major and unique resource
>>for research in Public Understanding of Science; The Science Museum Media
>>Monitor Archive. The archive, the offshoot of a content analysis project,
>>will benefit anyone who is interested in studying comparatively science and
>>technology in the post-war period.
>>
>>The objectives of the project are as follows: (a) to explore the pattern of
>>science and technology coverage in British national newspapers after 1946;
>>(b) to collect historical data from 1946 to the present, as the basis for
>>the "Science in the Media Archive" to be used as a research and teaching
>>resource; (c) to develop an instrument that assesses both the quantity and
>>the quality of press coverage in form of a cultural indicator of the popular
>>representations of science and technology; (d) to provide a basis to explore
>>systematically the relationship between press coverage and the changing
>>political context of science in Britain; (e) to test specific hypotheses
>>about trends in media coverage of science and technology in the post-war
>>period.
>>
>>The archives contains hard-copies of 6000 articles from a stratified random
>>cluster sample of science and technology coverage in the British national
>>daily press from 1946 to 1990. The stratification of the sample takes into
>>account the changing segmentation of the British press into quality and
>>popular press, political left and right, opinion leadership function, and
>>total readership. The articles were selected from randomly sampled issues:
>>- every second year from the `Daily Telegraph' and the `Daily Mirror'.
>>- twice each decade from `The Guardian', `The Times' and the `Daily Express'.
>>`The Sun' since 1986 and `The Independent' since 1990.
>>
>>Our own analysis used an elaborate coding frame of around 100 codes developed
>>around the notion of a 'news narrative'. This analysis is computerized,
and can
>>among other things be used as an index system to trace particular material of
>>interest. Each article has been photocopied, archive by year and newspaper,
>>coded and entered into a SPSS database. Both the photocopies of the
>>articles and the data base are accessible in the archive for comparative
>>research purposes. It is envisaged that the archive will be ultimately kept
>>up to date on a regular basis.
>>
>>For further details on the sampling procedure and the coding frame technical
>>reports (Methodology, Vol II and Coding Frame, Vol IV) are available upon
>>request.
>>The Science Museum Library stores the complete set of 4 volumes technical
>>reports 'Science and Technology in the British Press, 1946-1990' for
>>consultation including, basic results (vol I), methodology (vol II),
>>codebook (vol III) and coding frame (vol IV).
>>The Science Page on internet:
>>http://www.nmsi.ac.uk/researchers/mediamn.html, gives an idea of the kinds
>>of variables we used for the analysis of science coverage.
>>
>>We are inviting researchers all over the world to make use of this archival
>>material for their own quantitative or qualitative analysis and in
>>particular for comparative purposes.
>>
>>For further information contact:
>>
>>Asdis G. Ragnarsdottir,
>>Media Monitor Archive,
>>Science Museum Library,
>>Exhibition Road, London SW7 5NH
>>tel +171 938 8237 fax +171 938 8213
>>e-mail: a.ragnarsdottir@nmsi.ac.uk
>>
>>Dr. Martin Bauer,
>>London School of Economics,
>>Department of Social Psychology,
>>Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE
>>tel +171 955 6864 fax +171 955 7005
>>e-mail: bauer@lse.ac.uk
>>
>
>******************************************************************************
>
>Toss Gascoigne
>Executive Director
>Federation of Scientific and Technological Societies (FASTS)
>PO Box 218, Deakin West, ACT 2601
>
>Phone: 06-282 2026
>Fax: 06-282 2953
>Email: fasts@anu.edu.au
>
>****************************************************************************
>**
>
>
>
>
**********************************************
* Gavan McCarthy - Chief Archivist
* Australian Science Archives Project
* University of Melbourne
* 203 Bouverie Street
* Carlton, Vic. 3053 Australia
* gavan@asap.unimelb.edu.au
* Phone: +61 3 9344 9287 Fax: +61 3 9349 4630
* ASAPWeb! on http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/
* ------->Recovering Science and Technology in Australia
***********************************************