In their contribution to the Palgrave Handbook of Methods for Media Policy Research, Prof. em. Dr. Uwe Hasebrink and Dr. Sascha Hölig write about one of the most important tools in communication science: the survey.
„Within the broad repertoire of communication research methods, ‘surveys‘ refer to all kinds of standardized interviews with larger samples of individuals in order to make inferences about a specific population (Elmelund-Præstekær, Hopmann, & Pedersen, 2017; Fowler, 2009). Thus, with regard to media policy research, surveys can help to assess how members of a social group – e.g. the general population or specific target groups, journalists, politicians, stakeholders – perceive the political objectives and instruments.”Hasebrink, U; Hölig, S (2019): Talking to People I: Surveys. In: H. Van den Bulck, M. Puppis, K. Donders, & L. Van Audenhove (eds.): The Palgrave Handbook of Methods for Media Policy Research. Palgrave Macmillan. pp.143-160.
The entire handbook as well as individual articles are available on the publisher’s website.