Media Studies
How media shapes and is shaped by the people who use it.
What counts as evidence: Content analysis, audience data, or platform data, read against a specific claim about effect or meaning.
- Define your sample precisely — which platform, which time period, which content type.
- Distinguish what media contains from what effect it has; the second is much harder to show.
- Coding content for themes needs a clear, consistent rubric applied the same way throughout.
- Platform-provided analytics are a legitimate data source if you're transparent about their limits.