Examining the Student Newspaper: An Opportunity to Teach Research Methods

Abstract

This article provides a case study of an innovative approach to teaching quantitative methods to journalism students. By posing questions that inspire curiosity, this method suggests that we can motivate students who might be apprehensive about statistics to embrace them in pursuit of answers. It was employed in a media analysis course taught by Knight Chair in Journalism Philip Meyer. In the course, Meyer's 2004 book, The Vanishing Newspaper: Saving Journalism in the Information Age, provided the blueprint for the students' examination of their campus newspaper and an entree into quantitative methods for the social sciences and/or investigative reporting.