INTRODUCTION
Interviewing is one of the many forms of gathering news and information that is
used by journalists. Information gathered during interviews adds motion, sound,
colour and life to a news item.
The myriad facts gathered enable readers to empathise, disagree, identify or
believe in the news item. Thus, it is unimaginable for journalists and writers in
general, to go about their daily routine without conducting some form of
interview.
Topic 5 Interviews
By the end of this topic, you should be able to:
1. Define what an interview is and outline what is needed for an
interview;
2. Explain the three types of interviews;
3. Describe two different stages of interviewing; and
4. Explain four types of interviewing terms.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
TOPIC 5 INTERVIEWS DEFINING AN INTERVIEW
What is an interview? Webster's New World Dictionary of Media and
Communications (1996: 311) defines an interview as;
Such a definition describes interviewing as a one-way process of communication
where one party (subject of an interview) does all the talking while the other
party (interviewer or reporter) asks questions and takes down notes.
For journalistic interviews to be successful, you should not allow this to happen. You
as the interviewer should steer the interview according to your needs. You should
not lapse in your thoughts during the entire interview. You should not be too
engrossed with taking notes that you forget what your purpose was and objectives
of interviewing the informant. You should at all times, evaluate all the responses
given to the questions posed. The questions posed will be the standard 5Ws and 1H.
The collated information is evaluated for accuracy, fairness, newsworthiness and
potentiality to make for a readable news story. With all the information gathered, a
reporter will subject all the given responses to two final questions as shown in Figure
5.1 below.
Figure 5.1: The two final questions for a reporter
„a colloquy or dialogue with the interviewer asking questions and the
interviewee providing responses.‰
SELF-CHECK 5.1
Are you conducting an interview when you ask a friend what he or
she is doing in his or her spare time? When a police officer questions
a detainee in a lock-up, can it be considered an interview? Is an
interview different from a conversation?
Is my story fair
and accurate
What will it mean
to my reader?
Successful interviews depend on the type of information you are able to elicit
from the respondent. You must be able to coax respondents to say what they
really think and feel.
You will be able to do this if you are able to incorporate what Metzler (1997) says
about interviews. Metzler (1997: 12) stressed that interviews are:
In other words, an interview consists of two parties, as in Figure 5.2.
Figure 5.2: The two parties involved in an interview
5.1.1 The Interviewee
Of the two parties in the interview, the interviewee is the most important party
and is the source of information. Sources of interviews can be divided into three
categories (Pitts et al., 1997), which are:
(a) Primary sources;
(b) Support sources; and
(c) Expert sources.
A two-person conversational exchange of information on behalf of an
unseen audience to produce a level of enlightenment neither participant
could produce alone.
Interviewer Interviewee
5.1.2 The Interviewer
The other important party in an interview is you·the interviewer. You should
come prepared. You too have to impart and share your knowledge and thoughts
to make the conversation a resounding success. You cannot leave everything to
the interviewee. If you come prepared, you will be able to control the outcome of
the interview.
Imagine a conversation where one party does all the talking while you as the
interviewer do nothing but listen. How long do you think the conversation can
last? Unless your intention is to irk the other party, do not use this approach.
Such an approach is only valuable if you are trying to brush off a smart and fasttalking
salesperson.
In order to contribute effectively in an interview, you should always come fully
prepared. You should treat every interview as important. You should be aware
that you are not the only one collecting information. The interviewee is doing the
same. He or she is judging you by what you say and do. The questions you pose
during interviews will show whether you are caring and sensitive towards their
needs. You will have to convince them that their best interest is always being
safeguarded. To convince them further, you could show them examples of your
previous writings; writings that are empathetic to the needs of the informant, so
that the interviewee will feel comfortable sharing information and opinions with
you.
„Primary sources are those directly involved with the information you (as a
reporter) are seeking.
Support sources are those with meaningful connections to your primary
sources.
Expert sources are people recognised as having superior knowledge or
skills relating to the subject matter you are investigating.‰
(Pitts et al. 1997: 53 64)
SELF-CHECK 5.2
How did Metzler define interview?
WHY THE NEED FOR INTERVIEWS?
Interviews offer an invaluable method of gathering information for journalists
and all writers alike. An analysis of all the reported news that appear in the
newspapers will indicate that more than 80 percent are written based on facts
gathered at interviews. We can identify four main uses for interviews as a fact
gathering tool as highlighted in Figure 5.3.
Figure 5.3: The four main uses of interviews
(a) Supporting quotes
A lively and original quote is like a precious gem. The value of a good
quotation from an expert in a particular field lies in its ability to lend
support to what you are writing. Attributing a quotation to an expert will
definitely lend credibility to a news item. If you want to find a good solid
quotation, you would have to listen and listen hard.
Below is a quote from the fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Dr
Mahathir Mohamad, condemning the US and British attack on Iraq, which
illustrates the point about looking out for exceptional quotations during
interviews:
(b) Research and background information
Not everyone you interview needs to be identified and used in your news
item. Some of the people are interviewed just for research and background
information purposes. They are interviewed because it helps you to better
understand the subject matter. For example, you could be researching on a
5.2
„This is an act by imperialists who still want to control the world.‰
(The Sun, March 25, 2003+
Supporting quotes
Opinions
USES OF
INTERVIEWS
Research and background
information
Responses to public
issues
nuclear power plant and since in all probability you may have little or no
knowledge on this subject, you will seek to learn more by interviewing
experts such as nuclear scientists.
Below is a quote from Dr Diane Levin, author of Teaching Young Children
in Violent Times, recommending that young children be protected from
news reports of war and violence whenever possible. The explanation
from Dr Diane Levin will help the reader to understand and learn the
effects of news reports of war and violence to young children.
(c) Opinions
Opinions are the life and blood of news writing. As a reporter, you would
seek opinions from subject specialists who would be able to discuss the
topic at length. You would have to identify who the subject specialists are
for a particular area. Because you would need to get opinions from subject
specialists in a short period of time, you would not have the time to call
upon the individual at his or her home or office. You would have to do the
interview over the telephone.
When you are doing the interview over the telephone, you would have to
be brief. You would introduce yourself and go straight to your questions.
If the person says he or she will call you back, do make sure that the party
has your telephone number before you hang up.
Impress on them that you need their opinion urgently so that they will call
you back as soon as possible. If the other party does not reply your call,
you would have to gather the opinion from another source. Thus, it is
always good to have a list of subject specialists who are willing to entertain
your request for a brief interview over the telephone.
(d) Responses to public issues
Government officers, especially those holding office at federal, state and
district levels, are used to receiving telephone calls from mass media
representatives. These government officers are called upon to respond
swiftly to complaints made by the public on matters of public interest.
„. . . Even when parents do their best to shield younger children from
media reports, children may be exposed to some degree to these events.
So the question for us is not whether or not to talk with children, but how
to do so.‰
(The New Straits Times, March 25, 2003)
Because of this, most government offices have set up a public relations
section to respond to queries from the mass media.
The officers manning this section are trained to handle any query from the
media personnel swiftly. These officers know that it is their duty to ensure
that all questions from the media are answered in full and without delay.
If they do not know the answer to a question, they would usually ask for
some time to obtain the answer from the relevant section.
METHODS OF INTERVIEWS
Interviews can be conducted in many different ways. Some of the more common
forms of conducting interviews are illustrated in Figure 5.4.
Figure 5.4: The common forms of conducting interviews
ACTIVITY 5.1
For examples of question and answer news items, visit
http:/www.cnn.com. Try to search for Malaysian Prime Minister
Mahathir MohamadÊs interview transcripts.
Can you think of the purpose of the interviews?
Face-to-face Telephone Mail
5.3.1 Face-to-face
The first type of interview allows both the interviewer and interviewee to meet in
person at an agreed upon time and place. There are two types of face-to-face
interviews which are formal and informal.
(a) Formal interviews
Most of the time, the location of the interview is at the office of the
interviewee. Sometimes, both parties could agree to meet at a neutral place
such as at a restaurant or hotel lobby.
In a formal interview, you as the interviewer will inform the interviewee in
advance the topic of discussion. This is to enable the interviewee to prepare
for all eventualities during the interview. Sometimes, they will ask you to
submit a list of questions so that they can come prepared. You will also
have to come prepared for the interview. In a situation where both parties
are accessible to each other in a given setting and time, the formal interview
is definitely the best method of gathering information.
With formal in-person interviews, you can verify the identity of your
interviewee. The other party in the interview will definitely do the same
when both of you meet for the first time. You should make a positive
impression of yourself at this first meeting. You should strive to develop a
good working rapport with the other party by conducting the interview in
the most professional manner.
If the other party is happy with the first meeting, you can expect a fruitful
and long lasting business relationship. This is necessary because you may
never know when you will need to interview the person again. If you are in
a hurry, you may even be allowed to interview the person by telephone.
This is possible only when you have gained the trust of the other party.
SELF-CHECK 5.3
What are the different types of information gathered from these
three forms of interviews?
When both parties make a prior arrangement to meet at a specific place
and time to discuss a specific topic, the interview is said to be formal.
TOPIC 5 INTERVIEWS
(b) Informal Interviews
A reporter could carry out the interview at any time and place, and
sometimes even without the knowledge of the interviewee. For example,
the reporter could just be waiting at a bus stop when he or she suddenly
strikes up a conversation with another person who happened to be there.
The interviewee may be unaware that he or she is being interviewed
because the reporter did not reveal his or her true identity. The topic of the
conversation could be on the reliability of the bus company service plying a
route.
From the informal interview at the bus stop, you could have gathered that
the bus service has been very unreliable. The buses never ply the route
according to the publicised schedule. The drivers of the buses could be
driving recklessly. On further checks with the local police station, you
ascertain that there have been numerous accidents involving buses from
that company. What started out as an ordinary conversation has turned out
to be a tremendous lead. With the gathered information from the informal
interview, you would probe further on the issue by seeking an explanation
from officials of the bus company.
An interview is said to be informal if the conversation is carried
out without any prior arrangement.
ACTIVITY 5.2
Adapted from an interview published in PropertyTimes, below is an
insert of New Straits Times published on June 21, 2003. Read the
interview between PropertyTimes and Encik Johan Ariffin, an
executive director of TTDI Development Sdn Bhd.
How has Danaharta managed to synergise with TTDI?
We realised that the best way to be effective was to integrate
DanahartaÊs property outfit with TTDI. For better synergy,
Danaharta relocated its property operations to TTDIÊs premises (in
Shah Alam).
I came on board in July 2003 with an „advance party.‰ Then in
August, the rest of DanahartaÊs property division came in.
Does this mean DanahartaÊs propety division staff has now moved
to TTDI?
Well, we wear two hats. The Danaharta people have been
seconded to TTDI until 2005.
And what happens after that?
After DanahartaÊs closure (in 2005), its staff seconded to TTDI will
be retrenched like the rest. We are aware of this.
How has the integration worked out? What strengths have the
Danaharta team bought to TTDI and vice versa?
It has gone pretty well. Whatever we have done, we have done
with the realisation that TTDI is an ongoing concern and we are
not going to detract from the common objectives of the company
as a development outfit.
The first thing we did was re-organise the existing departmental
structure to create eight sections.
For example, planning was taken out of the property
development division and made into a department of its own.
Land was also taken out of property development and put under
planning and land administration, because the two go together.
This enables the property development division to focus entirely
on producing quality products on time, within budget and
specifications.
Of the eight divisions, four are headed by Danaharta people and four
by TTDI. The TTDI teamÊs contribution has been in the areas of quantity
surveying, property maintenance and management of investment
properties, security, land administration, quality assurance and so on.
How has this helped in operations?
It has streamlined operations and ensured clear delineation of
duties for optimum efficiency.
One of the most significant results is the creation of the
contracts and quality assurance department, which was taken out from
the property development division.
This will ensure TTDIÊs high quality standards and pedigree will be
maintained. We must remember that while the TTDI name gives the
edge, weÊre only as good as our last success or failure. Our laurels will
only get us so far.
After the integration and organisational restructuring, what did you do
next?
We looked at TTDIÊs policies. We needed to bring the IT, credit, safety
and other policies and the authoritiesÊ standards in line with Danaharta
governance standards.
Why were they found to be wanting in any way?
No. You need to recognise that TTDI was part of PNB and thus adhered
to stringent standards. What we wanted to do was improve further
in line with our agenda to become customer-responsive in every
way. Success today means being responsive to customer needs.
First, we needed to eliminate any unnecessary levels of bureaucracy.
This means positive and timely responses in every area. For example, if
residents report that a light has blown out in the corridor of their condo
on Monday morning, it must be fixed by Monday night. All sales and
marketing inquiries and customer complaints must also be attended to
immediately.
Another area we improved upon was payment for our contractors.
Once a site evaluation is done and we are satisfied the standards have
been met, they are paid within nine days. This helps eliminate
uncertainties - the contractors do not have to factor in holding costs for
their materials and we get a lower price from them.
1 06 TOPIC 5 INTERVIEWS
5.3.2 Telephone Interviews
You would employ the same basic techniques as in the face-to-face interview.
This method of interviewing is used when time and distance do not allow you to
make a personal visit. The telephone interview is best conducted if you know
and have met the interviewee prior to this telephone call.
The telephone interview is used when you want to do the following (refer to
Figure 5.5 below):
Figure 5.5: Purposes of telephone interviews
Some public figures who are used to being interviewed by telephone are often
asked for their comments on certain issues via this method of interviewing. They
would say that they are too busy now but would call back later if you would
leave your office telephone number. Do not be surprised if the caller telephones
back within a few minutes. These people do this just to check on the identity and
verify the authenticity of the caller.
If you give them your mobile phone/handphone number, they will insist that
you give your office number. If you say that you are out at the moment, they will
insist on calling when you are back at the office. With the given media
organisation telephone number, they can cross check it with the telephone or
media directory.
It can be very discomforting to be on the telephone for long periods of time. The
telephone interview therefore, does not allow you to discuss too many topics.
You should limit the conversation to a single topic. Do not try to extend the
conversation for more than 15 minutes. Unless the interviewee is a very good
friend of yours, the conversation should stop when the 15 minute period is over.
1. check on certain facts;
2. Obtain a brief quotation; and
3. Submit follow-up questions to those addressed
during an initial face-to-face interview
5.3.3 Mail
The face-to-face interview is best when you can meet with your interviewee.
Sometimes, your respondent may live in another country and it is costly to travel
just to meet one person. Under such circumstances, you can still conduct the
interview by mailing your questions to him or her. Hopefully, he or she will
reply to your mail promptly. You would also hope that the respondent will
answer all your questions. Generally, there are two types of interviews, which
are Ordinary Postal Service and E-mail.
(a) Ordinary Postal Service (Snail Mail)
One of the ways to conduct an interview is by mailing your questions to
him or her. However, mail-in interviews are very slow and sometimes you
do not get a reply from your respondent. A no-reply can mean two things:
the party is not interested in answering your questions or the letter could
have been lost in the mail. Even if the party answered your questions, the
mail could have arrived very late that it defeats the purpose of conducting a
mail-in interview in the first place.
(b) E-mail
The advent of the Internet and the pervasiveness of e-mails make mail
interviews now a viable and cheaper alternative to all the other types of
interviews. Questions sent through e-mail can be directed to one or more
respondents at the same time with the fraction of the cost of snail mail
(ordinary postal services).
E-mails are fast and there are even e-mailing programmes that can inform
the sender if the intended receiver has retrieved and read the mail. E-mails
are easy and user friendly because it automatically keeps a copy of all your
outgoing mails. You can resend any mail should the need arise. If the
answer given is vague, you can always reword the response and submit it
back for further clarification. Interviewing by e-mail is only possible if both
parties have both an Internet and email account and are provided with the
appropriate computer software.
It is assumed that you know the e-mail address of your respondent and that
the personÊs account is active. The trouble with e-mailing is that some
people have more than one account. This is made possible with free e-mail
accounts provided by numerous service providers. It becomes more
complicated when people start using pseudonyms and you are unable to
determine the identity of the owner of a particular e-mail address.
1 08 TOPIC 5 INTERVIEWS
Unless you know personally the owner of a particular e-mail account, you
are duty bound to check and cross check the identity before communicating
with the concerned party. You could verify a personÊs identity by accessing
an organisationÊs web page to see if it is listed.
Alternatively, you would have to verify by making a personal appointment
to meet the owner of an e-mailing address. This is burdensome but the
extra steps taken will protect you , should you want to use the content
originated from an e-mail interview. You should be cautious when using
information originating from any interview, especially by e-mail and make
sure it is not slanderous, subversive or prejudicial to public safety.
PROCESS OF INTERVIEWING
As an information gathering tool, the interview should be viewed as a process.
The process starts even before the reporter conducts the interview.
The interview process can be divided into two stages as can be seen in Figure 5.6.
Figure 5.6: The two stages of an interview
5.4
SELF-CHECK 5.3
„Any reporter who hopes to do a good job should be able to talk to
an interviewee, quickly making them feel comfortable and willing to
talk.‰ Frost, Chris (Author). Reporting for Journalists. Florence, KY,
USA: Routledge, 2001. p 96.
Planning the
interview
Conducting the
Interview
Of the two stages, the actual process of conducting an interview may not take a
long time. The time taken to conduct the interview may last between half of an
hour or as long as three hours. This time is comparatively shorter than the time
you would allocate to plan for the actual interview. It is rare that you will
interview a respondent for several days.
5.4.1 Planning the Interview
Planning is pivotal to ensure success in everything and this includes conducting
an interview. In fact, planning is central to every journalistic endeavour. You
determine all possible outcomes and outline all possible approaches to
accomplish what you have set out to achieve. In other words, an effective
interview includes clear and achievable objectives.
(a) Determining the purpose of the interview
In determining clear and achievable objectives, four questions to guide you
in the process are shown in Figure 5.7.
Figure 5.7: The four questions for guidance in the interview process
The first two questions are related to the uses of interviews as they have
been discussed in the previous section. You should review the above
section if you are not sure what the uses of interviews are.
The latter two questions depend on the type of news writing that you are
planning for. If the information needed is for a breaking news item, you do
not have much time to research and plan the interview. You would rush to
the scene immediately and start interviewing any available sources. You
would also call up several sources who know about it.
What kind of information is needed for the news item?
Who is the best person to provide the much needed information?
What type of news item will be written?
How long will the news item be written (the length of the story)?
If the news item is an investigative piece that is not tied to a deadline you
will have more time to prepare and plan your interview. In such
circumstances, you would be interviewing more than one person. This can
take days and even months as the case of reporting of the Watergate
Scandal. Woodward and Bernstein interviewed and reinterviewed many
officials including senior members of the Nixon administration. The
purpose is to check and crosscheck the information given. While
investigating the scandal, Woodward and Bernstein would write stories
about the subject of their investigation. The story was dragged on for
months culminating with the resignation of Nixon from the United States
Presidency.
(b) Research a selected topic
After determining the purpose of an interview, the next step will be to
research a selected topic. A reporter will always start with the media
library.
Why is research necessary before going for an interview? Refer to
Figure 5.8.
Figure 5.8: Reasons for research
Research should not stop after a visit to the media library. It is a common mistake
to be satisfied with information that may be stored in the library. The next step
would be to go to the public libraries and archives. These places may keep public
records that are related to your research topic. After the public library, it would
be wise if you could talk to well-informed people about the topic. They may
enlighten you on aspects of the topic that you are unsure of.
Updating knowledge about an issue
Knowing what has been written
Identifying potential sources of information
Framing questions
Do not only research on the topic of the interview, you should research the
person to be interviewed. This will allow you to ask the right questions and
understand the answers. This will enable you to demonstrate unobtrusively to
the respondent that you cannot be easily deceived.
While doing the research, you will know when it is time to fix an appointment
for an interview. You would normally contact the person by telephone to seek for
a suitable date and time. Since you are working with a deadline, you would ask
for an opportunity to meet the person as soon as possible. In all probability, you
would want to meet the person within a week.
The person may be too busy to fit in your request. You will have to explain to the
person why it is to his or her best interest that the interview be granted as soon as
possible.
Metzler (1997: 60) outlines 10 reasons why a source will
grant you the interview:
An opportunity to obtain recognition and publicity.
An opportunity to tell your side of an issue or controversy.
An opportunity to educate the public on some issue about which you feel
strongly: There is a little educator (or propagandist) in all of us.
An opportunity to promote, such as an actress pushing her latest movie.
An opportunity to clarify a position or eliminate misunderstanding.
An opportunity to influence or impress others.
A novel experience, ego inflating.
A touch of immortality, words frozen into print to be seen by future historians.
Sympathy with a purpose or cause·enough to override the pain. The 1990s
brought examples of rape survivors willing to go public with painful stories of
their attacks and the often greater pain of coping with the legal systemÊs
wayward machinations.
Sympathy with a new or novel topic or approach·the promise by the
interviewer to cover new ground, not just a rehash.
You could use any of the above reasons to impress the person on the urgency and
importance of the interview. Sometimes if you are just plain out of luck or the
person is extremely busy, he or she may refuse to be interviewed. In this case,
you should try to conduct the interview while you are actually talking to the
person on the telephone. This is where good and thorough planning is pivotal.
This is also where an excellent research will pay good dividend.
You should ask your most important questions straight away. You should not
dilly-dally by asking unnecessary questions. You have nothing to lose. Ask
questions that will yield the most crucial information. If you are good, you would
be able to get enough information without having to meet the person. The next
subtopic will be discussed further on how to conduct an interview.
5.4.2 Conducting the Interview
As has been discussed, planning is essential for a successful interview. The
planning is just the initial stage of the interview. When you meet the interviewee,
you are already in the second stage of conducting the interview. Figure 5.9
highlights tips for conducting interviews:
ACTIVITY 5.3
Imagine that you are given a task to write an article about the
strategies adopted by Open University Malaysia (OUM) in
penetrating the global education market. You are required to conduct
an interview with one of the top management of OUM. How would
you go about planning the interview? The hints below might help you
plan the process:
1. Who is the best person to provide the much needed information?
2. What is the kind of research that needs to be done?
3. What is the approach that you would take for the interview?
Figure 5.9: Tips for conducting interviews
(a) Arrive early
When the day of the interview comes, you should arrive early. If you are
not sure of the place, you will have checked out the address a day earlier.
This is to make sure that you are not late for the interview. Check and
familiarise yourself with the surroundings. You should take note of the
flow of traffic. Will you be caught in traffic congestion? If so, you should
allow more time for travelling purposes.
You should not be late for the interview. However, you may not want to be
too early for the interview. You should strive to arrive at least 15 minutes
before the interview. You should not be more than half an hour early. Your
1 14 TOPIC 5 INTERVIEWS
respondent may feel uncomfortable going on working, knowing that you
are literally at the door waiting.
(b) Dress appropriately
Dress appropriately for an interview. You can wear a track suit if you are
interviewing a sportsman who is training on the field. Wearing tattered
and faded jeans is suitable for meeting a friend but this is inappropriate
attire if you are going to interview someone in his or her office. Your attire
will reflect on your personality and determine the impression you give.
Your interviewee will have a lasting impression of you and you would
want it to be a positive one, especially if it is for the first time.
(c) Remind your interviewee on the purpose of the interview
After the normal pleasantries, you should take the opportunity to remind
your interviewee on the purpose of the interview. He or she may have
forgotten the reasons for granting you the interview. While doing this, you
should never forget to thank the person for granting the interview.
(d) Go straight into the interview
You should go straight into the interview after some pleasantries. Do not
waste time because the person may allocate only a half hour slot before he
or she sees somebody else. You should go through all the basic questions
first: who, what, where, when, why and how. If you need to ask sensitive
questions, you should do it tactfully. The questions must be asked in a nonthreatening
manner.
The type of questions posed during an interview is basically made up of
open-ended questions and close-ended questions as in Table 5.1:
Table 5.1: Open- and Close-Ended Questions
Open-ended questions
Do not require specific answers or allow the respondent
to digress.
Close-ended questions Require brief and pointed replies.
(e) Pose one question after another
While interviewing, you should pose one question after another. However,
you should allow the respondent time to deliberate before giving a response.
Pausing for a moment is important sometimes. The person may be thinking
of how best to phrase the answer. Do not rush your respondent into giving a
quick response. You should give the respondent some breathing space.
(f) Ask the respondent to clarify
If the answer given is vague, you should ask the respondent to clarify. If
necessary, you could read back the response given by the person. This is to
allow the person to think and state his or her thoughts clearly. If the answer
given is on some technical aspect, do ask the person to clearly outline the
major components and to give any supporting documents to help you
understand better.
(g) Listen attentively
While the other person is talking, listen attentively. Listening is imperative.
Listening is different from hearing. Hearing is done passively. You hear
water running or the cool stream from an air-conditioning system, but you
do not listen to them. Listening requires active participation. Listening
needs you to focus on the things that are being said by the other person.
Sometimes you will need to respond empathetically.
During interviews, listening is receiving information through your ears and
eyes. On receiving each bit of information, you decide what you think and
feel about it. By doing so, you are engaging the other party in the
conversation and giving meaning to the topic of discussion.
(h) Use a tape recorder
You cannot listen properly if you are too busy taking down notes. This is
where a good tape recorder becomes an essential item to be taken for an
interview. If you are going to use it, you should ask for permission first.
The interviewee may not feel comfortable talking knowing that the
conversation is being recorded. He or she may freeze and may have second
thoughts about what to say.
They may hide vital information to protect themselves. You would not
want this to happen. You will have to convince the interviewee that the
tape will not be given to a third party. You are using it so that nothing of
importance is being left out. If the other party says no, you have no choice
but to concede.
You will not face this situation if you had done a thorough research on the
person who is the subject of your interview. Another reporter could have
told you of the personÊs quirk about tape recording. You can hide your
micro tape recorder in your pocket or beg. If you are doing a clandestine
recording of an interview, you should be mindful of the recording length of
the tape. You would not be able to slot in a new tape during the interview.
If you are using a tape recorder for an interview, as with any other
electronic devices, you should also bring a fresh set of batteries. You would
not want the machine to die on you just at the most crucial moment of
interview.
(i) Ask for copies of any documents mentioned
Towards the end of the interview, you should ask the interviewee if you
could be given copies of any documents mentioned throughout the
conversation. The documents can be used as proof to substantiate claims
made by the interviewee. The documents can be used to defend yourself
should the need arise. Before using any of the documents in your story, it is
prudent to check for its authenticity and validity. The content may be
slanderous, subversive or even be official government secrets. You will
learn more about these three aspects in Topic 8 of this module.
(j) Do not drag the interview
When the time allotted for the interview is almost up, you should offer to
stop. Do not drag the interview beyond what was agreed initially. If the
respondent does not mind continuing, then you can continue with the
interview. Sometimes, the person may stand up and this is an indication
that your time is up.
(k) Summarise
To summarise, you should ask whether the person would like to add any
last words before you leave. Do thank the person again for the opportunity
given. Finally, ask whether you can call the person by telephone should the
need arise. A nod or a smile from the person will mean that you are
allowed to call him or her later. Make sure you do not leave any of your
personal belongings behind. On leaving, you should not forget to switch off
your tape recorder.
(l) Find a place to do a quick review of the interview
Once you are out of the personÊs office, you should find a place to do a quick
review of the interview. A review at this particular moment in time is crucial
because everything is still fresh in your memory. You should note down
things that may have slipped your mind previously. You should also take
note of things that will require you to do a follow-up with another source.
INTERVIEWING TERMS
There are some terms that are commonly used in journalistic interviews. These
terms may be familiar to reporters, journalists and writers alike but to the layman,
they may not know the subtle differences. In order to conduct an effective
interview, it would be prudent if you would explain the meaning of these terms to
your interviewee before using it. This is to prevent unnecessary confusion and
safeguard the interests of both parties of an interview.
ACTIVITY 5.4
You can practise by interviewing your family or friends. The range of
topics can be from their favourite sports, movies or music to their
views on the war in Iraq.
SELF-CHECK 5.5
You are assigned to interview the CEO of KLCC Projects after the
launching of their latest computer software I-Contact.
What are the things to consider for the interview?
1 18 TOPIC 5 INTERVIEWS
These terms are as in Figure 5.10.
Figure 5.10: Interviewing terms
(a) On the record. This means that you can use whatever is being said by a
source. You are allowed to attribute the information to the source by name.
(b) Off the record. This term means that you are not allowed to use the
information given by a source in your news item. You can verify the
content with another source. If the alternative source confirms the
information, you are allowed to use it. You can attribute the information to
the alternative source. During the verification process, you are not allowed
to inform the alternative party of who is the original source of information.
(c) Not for attribution. While conducting the interview, there will be time
when the source will request for anonymity. If you grant this request, you
will not be allowed to divulge your source name in your news item.
Without giving the name of the person, you will find that your news item
lacks credibility. What option do you have? This is where you would use
the term „not for attribution.‰ You would use the information but the
source will be indicated as „a senior government official‰ or „a wellinformed
source in an organisation.‰
(d) Background. The information given may not be attributed to the source. It
has the same meaning as not for attribution. You would use the information
given to offer a perspective of your news item so that your intended
audience understands its importance.
You have just learned how important interviewing is as a fact gathering tool
for every journalist.
Most of the news stories that you read in the newspapers originate from
formal and informal interviews.
Journalistic interviews are different from other types of interviews because
they are conducted for an unseen audience.
ACTIVITY 5.5
Read a crime related news in your local newspaper. Outline a list of
questions that you would consider asking the source in the news
item. What other sources would you have used to gather
information about the news?
SELF-CHECK 5.6
What would you do if you need to publish a story on something that
an informant says is „off the record‰?
INTRODUCTION
Surveys are a special type of interview conducted on a sample selected from a
population. All the respondents are asked the same set of questions using a
specially formulated questionnaire.
The data from the questionnaire is tabulated with the purpose of gauging the
opinion or perception of the population regarding a particular issue. In this topic
you will learn about surveys and how to plan and conduct a survey.
Topic 6 SURVEYS
By the end of this topic, you should be able to:
1. Define what a survey is;
2. Discuss four major concerns in planning a survey;
3. Apply four ways of conducting a survey; and
4. Explain the major components of a survey report.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
WHY WE DO SURVEYS
In the United States, surveys are conducted from time to time to gauge public
opinion on issues of public interest. The Gallup poll which is named after the
Gallup Organisation conducts numerous surveys especially during the
Presidential elections to gauge which candidate is leading in the Presidential
race. Because of the high profile nature of these surveys, the American mass
media announce the poll results with much rigour.
Below is a story that appeared in The Star about a poll that measures support
for Australian Prime Minister, John HowardÊs backing of a US-led war on Iraq.
SELF-CHECK 6.1
„Survey research is one of the most important areas of measurement
in applied social research. The broad area of survey research
encompasses any measurement procedures that involve asking
questions of respondents.‰
http://trochim.human.cornell.edu/kb/survey.htm
Have you ever been involved in any survey done by the Malaysian
Government?
SYDNEY: Public support for AustraliaÊs conservative government has
slumped sharply because of its unflinching backing of a US-led war on Iraq,
an opinion survey showed yesterday.
The Morgan poll found support for Prime Minister John HowardÊs
coalition slipped 45 percentage points to 39%.
That put the government behind the opposition centre-left Labour for the
first time in nearly seven months. Labour climbed 4.5 points to 40.5%.
Howard warned Australians yesterday to prepare for war sometime this
week.
He said there was no legal necessity to have a second UN Security Council
Resolutions as Resolution 1441, passed last November, warned Iraq of dire
consequences if it did not disarm.
The Roy Morgan Research Centre, which carried out the opinion survey,
said questionnaire of the pollÊs 2,118 respondents made it clear that the swing
from the Liberal-National coalition to Labour was „strongly related to the
impending war in Iraq.‰
(The Star, March 18, 2003)
The poll that appeared in The Star barely covers the minimum elements necessary
set by the National Committee on Published Polls (Meyer, 1979: 185 186) that are:
In Malaysia, surveys to gauge public opinion on any particular issue are seldom
conducted by the mass media. This is because a huge amount of money, time
and resources are involved in conducting a survey. Most Malaysian mass media
organisations do not have a research and development unit in their outfit. Some
of them that do have such units are mainly used to conduct market research.
This is understandable because such surveys can cost anywhere between
RM100,000 to RM1 million depending on the subject matter, number of
personnel involved, and size of the sample being studied.
Because of these factors, surveys are usually conducted by public and private
institutions of higher learning in Malaysia. Not much is made known to the
public because the findings of these surveys are rarely publicised by the
Malaysian mass media. This does not mean that the findings of these surveys are
irrelevant and useless. On the contrary, the findings of these surveys are usually
made known to policy makers to help them in formulating various policies
affecting the public.
The identity of the sponsor of the survey
The exact wordings of the questions asked
A definition of the population sampled
The sample size, where the survey design makes it relevant and the response
rate
Some indication of the allowance that should be made for sampling error
Which results are based on part of the sample, e.g. probable voters, those who
have heard of the candidates or other subdivisions
How the interviews were collected in person, in homes, by phone, by mail, on
street corners, or whatever
When the interviews were collected
DEFINING SURVEYS
As has been mentioned, surveys are a specific form of interview. An interview, in
general, allows both parties to explore the meaning of the questions and answers
involved. In a survey, the task of exploring meaning lies with the surveyor. The
surveyor makes various decisions before executing the survey and gives meaning
to the findings. This is in essence the meaning of survey as given by Kerlinger.
Kerlinger (1973: 410) has defined survey as a research method that:
According to Kerlinger (1973), sociological facts or variables are attributes of
individuals due to their membership in social groups such as income, political
and religious affiliation, socio-economic status, education, age, living expenses,
occupation, race and others. Psychological variables are opinions and attitudes
that influence a personÊs behaviour. Survey research as a scientific method of
study endeavours to discover the link between sociological and psychological
variables in human behaviour.
In social science, Wimmer and Dominick (1987) propose two types of surveys,
which are:
(a) Descriptive survey
Descriptive survey is defined as an attempt „to picture or document current
conditions or attitudes, that is, to describe what exists at the moment‰
(Wimmer & Dominick, 1987: 102). This is the general type of survey
conducted by numerous organisations to discover the general situation in a
given area. In other words, descriptive surveys are used to learn about the
status quo in a particular population.
For example, „A descriptive study of gender equity in rural secondary
classroom situations‰ examined gender equity in rural high school
classrooms. Results showed that teachers called on male students more
often and gave praise to female students more often in the same classroom.
This study tries to describe the gender equity situation in rural secondary
classrooms. You can get the abstract of the research from the Open
University Digital Library (Proquest).
„Studies large and small populations (or universe) by selecting and
studying samples chosen from the population to discover the relative
incidence, distribution, and interrelations of sociological and psychological
variables.‰
(b) Analytical survey
Analytical survey is defined as an „attempt to describe and explain why
certain situations exist‰ (Wimmer and Dominick, 1987: 102). This type of
survey seeks to understand the relationship among the concepts studied.
With the understanding, researchers will be able to predict and control the
outcome of an action. Thus they are able to make an informed decision
before executing the action.
For example, „An analytical study: Engineering Education in Pakistan‰
focuses on analysing the main aspects that would clarify the reality of
engineering education during a specified period in Pakistan. These aspects
are the faculty members, curricula and syllabuses, students and admission
policies, etc. From the results of the study, it can help the government to
anticipate the changes and progress in the development of engineering
education. You can get the full article of the research from the Open
University Digital Library (Proquest).
Visit http://www.amstat.org/sections/srms/whatsurvey.html. Can you
get a clear picture of what Survey Research Method is all about?
PLANNING THE SURVEY
A lot of effort is involved in planning a survey. The planning starts with
determining the purpose of carrying out the study. You should be clear on what
you hope to achieve. The purpose should be clear and achievable within the
given deadline. You should also have enough funds to cover all the expenses of
executing the survey.
6.3
ACTIVITY 6.1
How is a survey different from a journalistic interview?
SELF-CHECK 6.2
Surveys are usually conducted using a set of questions called a
questionnaire. Why do you think that a questionnaire is important
in a survey research method?
Planning is essential to ensure that the data obtained from the survey is both
reliable and valid. With reliable and valid data, you would be able to make
certain generalisations about the population being studied.
Generalisation is an important component of any survey. The ability to generalise
is paramount because it would be too costly to interview every member in a
society. Thus, the only viable alternative is to conduct a survey by choosing a
random sample of the population so as to gauge the opinion of the whole public.
In planning a survey, some major concerns are as shown in figure 6.1.
Figure 6.1: Major Concerns in Planning a Survey
6.3.1 Length of the Survey Instrument
(Questionnaire)
The time to administer the survey instrument should always be taken into
consideration. If the questionnaire is too short, you are not maximising the
resources spent on conducting the survey. Using a lengthy questionnaire is not
advisable either as it would be too time consuming for respondents to answer.
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The questionnaire is a formal approach to measuring characteristics, attitudes,
motivations, opinions as well as past, current and possible future behaviours. The
information produced from a questionnaire can be used to describe, compare or
predict these facts.
http://www.ryerson.ca/~mjoppe/
ResearchProcessQuestionnaireDesignand Wording.htm
To determine the proper length of the survey instrument, you would have to
know how long it will take to execute it. It should take between 20 to 30 minutes
to administer it. Anything longer means you are risking the possibility of the
interviewee walking away before you get the chance to ask all the questions in
the instrument. You must be aware that you are actually asking your respondent
to give his or her time to answer all the questions. Due to this, enumerators (a
census taker) executing the survey are always advised to inform the amount of
time necessary to answer the questionnaire to the respondent before proceeding.
This is necessary in order to get full cooperation from all the respondents.
6.3.2 Types of Questions
The types of questions used will influence your findings. Most surveyors prefer
using close-ended questions over open-ended questions. It is much easier to
summarise the responses of close-ended questions. If there is a need for openended
questions, you should leave it towards the end of the questionnaire and
minimise the number of questions.
Examples of close-ended questions are:
How much time do you spend watching television?
1 hour or less
2 hours
3 hours
4 hours
More than 5 hours
What is your favourite free-to-air television station?
TV1
TV2
TV3
NTV7
What is your most favourite television programme?
Why do you like watching that particular television programme?
TOPIC 6 SURVEYS 127
In constructing the survey instrument, Wimmer and Dominick (1987: 106-109)
suggest several doÊs and don´ts about writing the questions. This can be seen in
Figure 6.2.
Figure 6.2: WimmerÊs and DominickÊs DoÊs and DonÊts in writing questions
ACTIVITY 6.2
To know more about questionnaires, visit
http://www.ryerson.ca/~mjoppe/ResearchProcess/Questionnaire
DesignandWording.htm.
Imagine that you are one of the respondents of a survey. Which type
of questions would you prefer to answer: closed-ended questions or
open-ended questions? Why?
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1 28 TOPIC 6 SURVEYS
(a) Make questions clear
To ensure proper responses from respondents, questions should be worded
clearly. Jargon or specialised terms that are only understood by experts
should be left out. If possible, questions should be worded in everyday
speech.
(b) Keep questions short
Long winded questions are unnecessary obstacles especially in
questionnaires. In such circumstances, there is a higher probability of
respondents requesting that you repeat the question. Respondents may
forget the whole question and cannot comprehend what you are trying to
ask.
(c) Include complete instructions
Questionnaires should also include complete instructions on how to
answer questions, especially in mail questionnaires. The respondents in a
mail questionnaire are unable to ask questions about the survey. Thus, you
as the researcher have to test the questions and make necessary
adjustments, including adding any instructions as required before mailing
the questionnaire.
(d) Remember the purpose of the research
Sometimes we may be carried away with designing the instrument that we
forget our purpose of doing the research in the first place. The purpose of
the research should always serve as a guide to determine what the relevant
questions are. If the purpose of the research is to gauge television usage,
you should not include questions about other types of mass media.
(e) Do not ask double-barrelled questions
Each question should always only ask one thing at a time. A doublebarrelled
question is one that asks two or more questions simultaneously.
For example, „Is your purpose for watching television to obtain information
and to be entertained during your free time?‰ The question should be made
into two separate items:
(i) Is your purpose for watching television to obtain information?
(ii) Is your purpose for watching television to be entertained during your
free time?
(f) Avoid biased words or terms
Biased wording of questions should be avoided. Question such as „Do you
read or watch television during your free time?‰ may cause the respondents
to answer the question untruthfully. They may feel that by answering
TOPIC 6 SURVEYS 129
truthfully that they watch television during their free time, it undermines
their sense of esteem. Thus, they will choose to answer reading as their
pastime activity.
(g) Do not use questions that ask for highly detailed information
You should avoid asking questions that require highly detailed
information. An example, „During the past one month, how many hours
did you spend listening to the radio?‰ The respondent will have a hard
time trying to figure the amount of time spent listening to the radio for an
entire month. What would be proper is to ask your respondent: „How
many hours did you spend listening to the radio yesterday?‰
(h) Avoid potentially embarrassing questions unless necessary
Lastly, you should avoid asking unnecessarily detailed and embarrassing
questions. Respondents may refuse to answer questions such as age and
income. If you must, you should place these questions towards the end of
the questionnaire, due to the possibility that the respondent might get
distracted and refuse to answer, if those kinds of questions (e.g. age or
income) are being asked in the first part of the questionnaire.
ACTIVITY 6.3
Below are four samples of questions in a questionnaire. Evaluate each
of the questions based on Wimmer and Dominick DoÊs and DonÊts of
writing questions.
1. How many times do you watch television in a month?
(a) Very Often
(b) Often
(c) Sometimes
(d) Rarely
(e) Never
2. What do you think of the television programmes in
Malaysia?
(a) Superb
(b) Excellent
(c) Great
(d) Good
(e) Fair
(f) Not so Great
3. Weight: kg
4. If you were the Malaysian Prime Minister, what would
you do to stop crime and control inflation?
To find our more on questionnaires, visit Open University
Malaysia's Digital Library (ebrary) and search for a book titled The
ResearcherÊs Toolkit.
6.3.3 Sample and Population
The objective of any scientific endeavour is to describe the nature of a
population (Wimmer and Dominick, 1987). Most of the time, we are unable to
examine every member of a population because it is too costly.
Examining every member of the population is called a census. MalaysiaÊs
Department of Statistics conducts a census every ten years to collect information
about the population.
Since the probability of executing a census is small, the alternative is to select a
sample from the population.
To ensure the sample is representative, each member of the population must be
given a fair and equal chance of being selected which is called random sampling.
Studies indicate that a sample size of between 400 to 2000 respondents should be
sufficient (see Wimmer and Dominick, 1987; Kerlinger, 1973). Even though a
larger sample is better, it should be representative of the entire population. A
larger but unrepresentative sample is meaningless, so too is a small and
unrepresentative sample. Thus, the selection of sample should be done carefully
to ensure its representativeness to the population.
A population is a group of individuals, persons, objects, or items from which
samples are taken for measurement. For example, a population of presidents
or professors, books or students.
http://trochim.human.cornell.edu/tutorial/mugo/tutorial.htm
A sample is defined as „a subset of the population that is taken to be
representative of the entire population (Wimmer and Dominick, 1987: 69).‰
CONDUCTING THE SURVEY
Surveys can be conducted in numerous ways. Figure 6.4 shows the most
common ways of conducting surveys.
Figure 6.4: Common ways in conducting surveys
6.4
ACTIVITY 6.4
To know more about sampling in research, visit
http://trochim.human.cornell.edu/tutorial/mugo/tutorial.htm.
Imagine that you are trying to conduct a research on the job
satisfaction level among primary school teachers in Malaysia. Since it
would be impossible to ask every single primary school teacher in
Malaysia about their job satisfaction level, who should be your
sample? Do you think that the sampling method is sufficient in
representing the whole population?
SELF-CHECK 6.3
What is the difference between random sampling and purposive
sampling?
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(a) Personal interviews
The personal interview is executed with a team of trained enumerators
(census takers). Training of enumerators is necessary because the researcher
who plans the instrument does not go to the field. The success of the survey
depends highly on the ability of the enumerators to conduct the interview.
The content of the questionnaire is explained thoroughly to the enumerators to
weed out any ambiguity or any misunderstanding on how to answer the
questions in the instrument. This mode of survey is expensive because
enumerators are paid according to the number of completed questionnaires.
Even though it is costly, the personal interview offers the highest rate of
success.
(b) Mail questionnaires
A mail questionnaire is usually used if the respondents are sparsely located
geographically. Clear directives are written on the questionnaire in order
for the respondents to answer it properly. They cannot ask you about the
questionnaire should a need arise. Of the four ways of conducting surveys,
the mail questionnaire is very much dependent on the cooperation of
respondents to answer and mail back the completed instrument.
The rate of return of completed questionnaires is usually less than 25
percent. Because of this, a much higher sample is taken from the population
to compensate for the low return rate. This type of survey takes a longer
period of time to be conducted. You may have to send two or three
reminders to those respondents who have yet to mail back the
questionnaire.
(c) Panel Interviews
The panel interview involves eliciting responses from a group of
respondents. Members of the group are purposely selected to represent
specific segments of the population. For example, members of the panel
could be from the same income group or the same race.
In a panel interview, the interviewer acts as a moderator. The whole
interview session is usually tape recorded and transcribed verbatim later.
The session can take anywhere between one to three hours and members of
the group are usually compensated for agreeing to be part of the panel.
(d) Telephone
The telephone survey is easy to administer but is very costly. The bulk of
the cost is on long distance telephone charges. Thus, you would have to
design the survey instrument very carefully taking into consideration the
1 34 TOPIC 6 SURVEYS
length of time to administer it over the telephone. It is advisable that the
instrument takes no more than 10 to 15 minutes. If the telephone interview
is conducted over a longer period of time, there is a tendency for the
interviewee to hang up the telephone.
The enumeratorÊs voice also plays a crucial role in telephone surveys.
Because the respondents do not get a chance to see and can only hear the
enumerators, they will have to be trained on voice control so that they,
at all times, sound friendly and courteous.
Whatever mode you use to conduct the survey, you will notice one thing in
common: the questionnaire. You would be asking the same set of questions
that had been prepared before conducting the survey. Every selected
member of the population will be repeatedly asked the same questions.
Answers for each question will be quantified and the average for each
response will be tabulated.
Figure 6.5 shows an example of how a questionnaire can be converted into
data that can be generalised:
Figure 6.5: Example on how a questionnaire is converted into data
This is in essence, the value of survey research which is the ability to quantify
observation gathered from a questionnaire. The quantification of observation into
numbers allows further statistical analysis to be carried out on the gathered data.
There are many types of statistical tools available to analyse quantitative data but
it is beyond the scope of this module.
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If you are interested to learn more of the various statistical methods to
analyse quantifiable data, I suggest that you read the following book:
Hinkle, D. E., Wiersma, William S. G. & Jurs, S. G. (1988). Applied Statistics for the
Behavioral Sciences. Second Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
6.4.1 Advantages of Surveys
Wimmer and Dominick (1987) outlined four advantages of using survey
research over other types of research methods such as experimental research.
The advantages are:
(a) Investigating problems in realistic settings.
(b) Cost of conducting surveys is reasonable.
(c) Large amount of data can be collected.
(d) Data helpful to survey research are already available.
6.4.2 Disadvantages of Surveys
Surveys, as with other types of research methods, contain inherent weaknesses.
Several disadvantages as outlined by Wimmer and Dominick (1987) are:
(a) Independent variables cannot be manipulated as in laboratory or
experiment research.
(b) Wording of questions and the placement of items can have biasing effects.
(c) Dependence on sampling techniques.
In other words, the strengths or the weaknesses of the survey method depends on
the decision you make as a researcher even before the first question is asked.
EXERCISE 6.1
List down the four different types of interviews and the situations in
which they are used.
6.4.3 Why We Use Surveys
Although the survey method has some disadvantages, it is still being commonly
used in social science research because it has many uses:
(a) Retrieving information about a respondentÊs past history such as past
behaviour, experiences and activities.
(b) Collecting data on attitudes, values, beliefs and motives of respondents.
(c) Gathering generalisable information on almost any known human
population.
(Smith, 1975)
For an in-depth discussion on the strengths and weaknesses of the survey, please
read the topic on „Survey Research‰ in Roger D. Wimmer and Joseph R.
Dominick, Mass Media Research: An Introduction published by Wadsworth
Publishing Company.
READING A SURVEY REPORT
Reporters seldom get a chance to conduct their own survey. In most likelihood,
they will be exposed to the findings of various surveys conducted by an
independent or educational organisation. The survey report as a scientific paper
is written using scientific jargon and contains too much information that may
clutter your understanding.
6.5.1 Survey Reports
The survey report like all other scientific reports is divided into five topics. The
topics are:
6.5
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In this topic, you will be introduced to the problem statement. The report will
indicate the rational and the importance of studying the problem. You will be
introduced to the definitions of several specific terms that are being studied.
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This topic focuses on the theoretical aspects of the research -- The underlying
theory used to study the said phenomenon. Finally, a set of hypotheses or
research questions are put forward.
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This topic focuses on the method used to study the phenomenon. It will set the
ontological viewpoint of the research. Questions about population and sampling
will be discussed here if it is relevant to the type of research method used.
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This topic focuses on analysing the data using the various statistical tools
available. If the research uses survey research method, you can expect
statistical analysis to test each of the proposed hypotheses.
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This topic discusses the findings of the data analysis in relation to the problem
statement. Suggestions for future research will be included towards the end of the
topic.
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If the method employed in the study is a survey, you should find a copy of
the survey instrument in the appendix.
For more detailed explanation on each of the phases of research process,
visit http://www.ryerson.ca/~mjoppe/ResearchProcess/. From the website,
what do you understand by quantitative and qualitative research?
6.5.2 Scientific Reports
A scientific report is thick and boring to read if you are not used to it. It is
actually not that difficult to read it if you know what to focus on. Here are four
important areas you should focus on:
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All sources cited in the study will be indicated in full in this section.
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It contains a statement of what the research is all about. What are the research
objectives?
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Which type of survey method was employed to conduct the research? It would
also indicate the period when the survey was conducted.
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How big is the sample and what is the population being studied?
The emphasis on all four areas is necessary to allow you to go through the report
quickly.
In this topic, we have discussed at great length the definition of survey and
what it entails.
In many ways, it resembles an interview but it is more structured.
In an interview, the focus is on the individual but a survey looks at
individuals to make informed decisions about the whole population.
Individuals are selected to make a sample. The sample has to be
representative of a predefined population.
The representative sample allows for generalisations to be made about the
entire population.
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What are the major findings? What are the implications of the findings?
ACTIVITY 6.5
To look at the sample of research papers, visit
http:/www.mdrc.org/publications_ research_methodology.html.
Choose one of the research papers, and try to identify all the important
areas of a scientific report.
INTRODUCTION
The Internet is a relatively new phenomenon. It can be a boon or a bane
depending on how you use it. Since the Internet is too big for anyone to
comprehend, you could spend countless hours on the information
superhighway without getting close to what you really need.
Therefore, it is imperative that you are clear on what, when and where the
information is before you log on so that you can retrieve it quickly and with
minimum of effort.
THE INTERNET: A BRIEF HISTORY
The Internet is a relatively new phenomenon. In reality, the Internet is nothing
more than a global network of computers. The global network is made possible
because all the computers are utilising a common language to communicate
with one another. The number of interconnected computers has increased
rapidly and no one knows for certain how many computers are connected to
the Internet.
7.1
Topic 7 INTERNET
The Internet
By the end of this topic, you should be able to:
1. Explain how the Internet started;
2. Explain how to explore the Web using a browser;
3. Elaborate on the uses of the Web; and
4. Conduct an advanced search using a search engine.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
The Internet had its beginning in the early 1960s as part of
a US military project. The U.S. military experts were
concerned that the nationÊs telephone system could be
rendered useless should there be a nuclear strike. In
January 1969, the Advanced Research Projects Agency
(ARPA) commissioned a team of scientists to begin work
on a more durable communication system.
They began looking at how to interconnect computers to share data at the
various federal funded agencies including businesses and universities. At
about the same time, the National Physics Lab in England and Societe
Internationale de Telecommunications Aeromotiques in France were
experimenting with a system that allowed intercomputer communications
called packet switching. We will discuss further on packet switching in the next
sub-topic.
The data network, known as ARPANET, was a hit with many researchers.
Scientists were finally able to send and retrieve messages and data across the
country very rapidly than could be accomplished by courier. The biggest
advantage was that it was inexpensive and fast. Because of its instant success,
the amount of traffic on the network grew by leaps and bounds. In 1983, the
network had grown and become two separate networks: MILNET for military
purposes and ARPANET for academics and other non military uses.
7.1.1 Packet Switching
In the previous section, we touched on how the National Physics Lab in England
and Societe Internationale de Telecommunications Aeromotiques in France were
experimenting with a system that allowed intercomputer communications called
packet switching. What does packet switching do?
Packet switching is actually a computer software that breaks a chunk of data.
For example Microsoft created document into packets. Packets are small pieces
of data that include an origin and destination which provide flexibility and
reliability in moving commands and data from one computer to another.
A computer will send the packets to a router. What is a router? How does it
work? Below is an illustration (Figure 7.1) that simplifies the functions of the
router.
Figure 7.1: The functions of the router
Source: http://www.linksysbycisco.com/static/us/Learning-Center/Network-
Basics/Network-Hardware/How-Routers-Work/index.html
Based on the illustration above, when one of the computers wants to send a file
to another computer, the router is responsible to route the data based on the
recipientÊs address. Packets allow messages to be relayed without depending
on fixed connections between two computers. If there are no problems, the
router will send each packet directly to its destination.
If not, the router will send each packet to another router determined to be in
the best position to see that the packet gets to its destination. In other words, if
one portion of the communication system were to be destroyed in a nuclear
strike, the packets would simply be routed around the damaged area. In a
nutshell, a router has two separate but related jobs which are:
(a) The router ensures that information does not go where it is not needed.
This is crucial for keeping large volumes of data from clogging the
connections.
(b) The router makes sure that information does make it to the intended
destination
The benefits of using packets are enormous. Among them are:
The benefits of packet switching
Information is divided into discrete chunks that can be routed independently to
the destination and then reassembled.
If a packet disappears or is corrupted during transmission, only the damaged
packet needs to be resent, not the whole message.
Packets can be encoded for security.
Packets can be compressed to save transmission time (bandwidth).
A packet can contain information about itself that the receiver can use to validate
the contents.
A packet can store information about where it has been during routing.
Packet transmission is independent of a particular networkÊs communications
speed or protocol. This enables different kinds of networks to receive and send
packets.
Packets enable maximum use of network bandwidth by allowing other traffic to
take place between packets.
(The Internet Unleashed, 1994: 6).
7.1.2 How Computers Communicate
The network of computers is able to communicate with one another because of
Internet Protocol.
SELF-CHECK 7.1
What are the functions of a router?
The Internet Protocol or IP for short is a formal set of rules that
govern how electronic messages are broken into packets, routed and
reassembled.
IP is combined with transmission control protocol to form TCP/IP, the
standard set of rules that all networks use to communicate over the Internet.
In the past decade, the Internet has evolved from a medium for exchanging
highly specialised scientific information into one of the most important
research tools available. The transformation is made possible with the
introduction of the World Wide Web or WWW or the Web for short. The
significance of the Web lies in its capabilities for users to exchange graphical
images, sound and hypertext.
Thus, the Web enables information providers with the ability to create dynamic
web pages that mimic traditional media such as newspapers, radio and
television. With such capabilities, the Web has actually redefined news. News
on the Web is dynamic and evolving in real time. Any latest development
could be fed to the audience instantaneously. The Web offers the immediacy of
television and the depth of a newspaper.
Even though the Internet offers a wide variety of services, the discussion in this
topic is limited to only the Web. For your information, the other types of
services offered to an Internet user are: electronic mail, file transfer, telnet,
chats and instant messaging, interest group membership, interactive
collaboration, multimedia displays, real-time broadcasting, shopping
opportunities, breaking news and many more. If you wish to know more about
some of these services, I suggest that you surf (browse) the Web or pick up a
book on these specialised topics.
EXPLORING THE WEB
7.2
ACTIVITY 7.1
Have you ever used other applications on the Internet such as file
transfer, telnet, chats, instant messaging, facebook, etc? How do all
those applications help you in your daily life?
SELF-CHECK 7.2
Do you know that while you are surfing the Internet, you carry
an inherent risk of exposing yourself to the whole world? Do you
think you have any privacy when surfing the Internet?
To navigate or explore the contents on the Web, you will have to have an
Internet connection and a browser. A browser is any programme that allows
users to connect with a Web server, access files and display those files on the
computer. There are two types of browsers that are widely used worldwide:
Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. Internet Explorer comes
preinstalled with Microsoft Windows while you can download a copy of the
Navigator at www.netscape.com.
The process of accessing and displaying a Web page is as follows:
(a) Type in the uniform resource locator (URL) of the Web site (for example,
http://www.oum.edu.my on the address bar of your browser. The URL
is like your home address. It tells the browser where the Web page is
located (see Figure 7.2).
Figure 7.2: Opening the browser
(b) The browser looks up the siteÊs IP address. You know that this step is
taking place because you will be seeing a message at the bottom of the
screen „Connect: Looking up host: www.oum.edu.my‰ (Figure 7.3).
Figure 7.3: The browser is connecting to the website
(c) The browser will contact the server again. You will see a message at the
bottom of the screen saying „Contacting host www.oum.edu.my‰.
(d) Once the browser makes contact with the Web server, it will ask for the
file that you are looking for. The message at the bottom of the screen will
read „Host http://www.unitem.edu.my contacted. Waiting for reply ...‰
(e) The server sends the file that you have been looking for. The message
reads „Reading file „ or „Transferring data,‰ or it displays other
information about how the transfer is proceeding (e.g. 50% of 20K
transferred‰).
(f) Once the transfer is complete, the server breaks the connection. You
would read the message at the bottom of the screen as „Document: Done.‰
One of the misleading aspects of surfing the Web is the phrase „on the Web.‰
You are actually viewing a copy of a file that is stored on your computer. This
file is stored in your temporary folder. You are only connected with the Web
server momentarily. The file on the Web server could have changed but you
will not know about this until you access it again or by clicking on the refresh
button (Figure 7.4).
Figure 7.4: The refresh button
7.2.1 Cleaning Unwanted Files
You should make it a habit of cleaning out those unwanted files that are kept in
your Internet Explorer temporary folder. Deleting these files will save your
precious hard disk space on your computer. If you want to delete these
temporary files for Internet Explorer, you should do the following steps:
(a) Click on „Tools‰ menu (see Figure 7.5).
Figure 7.5: The Tools menu
(b) Choose „Internet Options ‰ (see Figure 7.6).
Figure 7.6: Choosing the Internet options
(c) In the „General‰ tab, look for „Temporary Internet files‰. Click on „Delete
Files ‰ (see Figure 7.7).
Temporary Internet File
Delete Files
Figure 7.7: Delete files from the „General‰ tab
(d) Then you should close this window by clicking „OK‰ (Figure 7.8).
Figure 7.8: Concluding file deletion
7.2.2 Deleting Cookies
The above steps will only delete your temporary files. Inside your temporary
folder, you will notice an array of programmes undeleted. These programmes
are called cookies. What are cookies?
To open and delete all these cookies, you should:
(a) In the „General‰ tab, look for „Temporary Internet files.‰ Click on „Delete
Cookies ‰ (see Figure 7.9).
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Figure 7.9: Deleting cookies on the „General‰ tab
„Cookies are nothing but an encoded set of information that the Web server
asks your browser to keep for it. The cookies simply contain information
about you and the sites you visit. Cookies are a convenient way for the
vendor to keep information about site visitors without having to keep a
huge database of all visitors whether they are casual or frequent visitors.
You can throw away the cookie file anytime you want. The browser will
rebuild it when it needs it. „
Bates, Regis J. The Internet Blacklick, OH,
USA: McGraw-Hill Professional, 2002. p 500
Temporary Internet File
Delete Cookies
(b) You will get a message „Delete all cookies in the Temporary Internet Files
folder?‰ (Figure 7.10).
Figure 7.10: Message whether to delete all cookies
(c) Click „OK.‰
With all the information deleted, nobody else who has access to your
computer will be able to tell the different types of files that you had
accessed earlier.
USES OF THE WEB
The Web allows reporters and all other media personnel to practise what is
now termed as computer assisted reporting. To the reporter who is hard
pressed for time, the Web offers a much needed relief. The Web enables you,
the reporter, to do some of the following activities (as in Figure 7.11).
7.3
ACTIVITY 7.2
1. Name two browsers commonly used worldwide.
2. What is the URL for the following organisations?
(a) Radio Televisyen Malaysia
(b) Sistem Televisyen Malaysia Berhad or TV3
(c) NTV7
SELF-CHECK 7.3
How can the Internet help a journalist in doing his or her job?
Figure 7.11: What reporters can do on the Web
(a) Finding information
Information about a latest technological breakthrough would take a
longer time to reach your news desk. The Web allows you to search for
the latest information complete with graphical details. Thus, you no
longer need to literally walk to the library to check about the latest
technology.
(b) Checking the latest statistics
Statistics can help to explain a news item. The statistics may not be out in
the printed form but some government agencies are already using the
Web to publish the latest available statistics. Such statistics would have
not been available previously if we were to wait for the printed version.
(c) Searching for background information
Previously, you would be left in the lurch to find background information
about a news item. Now, with the access to almost every knowledge
available on the web, you would be able to probe an issue further.
(d) Source for informed questions
The act of asking questions requires you to be knowledgeable about a
subject. You would not know what to ask if the subject is not within your
realm of accessible knowledge. Previously without the Web, it was close
to impossible to acquire new knowledge quickly and accurately. Now, the
Web has opened up a lot of doors to virtually all forms of knowledge.
Finding information.
Checking the latest statistics.
Searching for background information.
Source for informed questions.
Mining the online databases.
(e) Mining the online databases
Many organisations are creating online digital databases to enable
researchers to do an online search without having to leave their office or
home. These databases contain huge amounts of information just waiting
for someone to dig into. Mining these databases is made easy by
digitalised search engines that are user friendly.
SEARCHING THE WEB
To do a Web search, you can use several search engines that are available.
The database usually contains each pageÊs title, URL and a brief excerpt or
description.
Some of the good search engines existing on the Web can be seen in Table 7.1.
7.4
SELF-CHECK 7.4
Who else would benefit from using the Web? Is the Web a boon or a
bane to you?
ACTIVITY 7.3
What are the uses of the Web?
A search engine is a server-based programme that allows interaction with a
proprietary searchable database of Web pages.
Table 7.1: Search Engines on the Web
Search Engine URL
AltaVista
http://www.altavista.com
Google http://www.google.com
Hotbot http://www.hotbot.com
Infoseek http://www.infoseek.com
These sites are the most popular Web sites because they serve as a gateway to
the Web. Thus, it is good net etiquette if you use a search engine with a site
nearest to you. This improves downloading time and relieves the amount of net
traffic worldwide. For example, AltaVista has mirror sites in 26 countries
including Australia, India, Brazil, Canada, Finland, New Zealand, and
Switzerland.
Of all the above search engines, the Google search engine is currently the most
popular search engine. It is unique because it offers users the opportunity to
interact using other languages besides English. If you prefer to use the Malay
language, you could change this as follows:
(a) Open the Google website in your browser. Click on the „preferences‰
option (see Figure 7.12).
Figure 7.12: The „preferences‰ option on Google
Preferences
(b) In the Interface language, choose Malay (see Figure 7.13).
Figure 7.13: Choosing the Malay language
(c) After selecting your option, click the „Save Preferences‰ button (see
Figure 7.14).
Figure 7.14: Saving the preference
7.4.1 Spider Programme
The administrator of each search engine develops and maintains its own
proprietary database. The database is developed using a programme called
spider.
Spiders roam the World Wide Web and read their pages and other information
to create entries for a proprietary database. It downloads the text to a database.
After cataloguing a specific Web page, the spiders follow links from the Web
page to other pages on the same or different site.
The spider normally returns to the same site from time to time to update the
search engine database. Updating is important because some of these web sites
may have been removed by the Web masters. If you regularly surf the Net, you
would notice that certain sites are no longer available either because they have
closed down or the documents are no longer available.
Save
Preferences
1
2
3
4
7.4.2 Conducting a Search on the Web
Even though there are several different types of search engines on the Web, all
of them use a similar interface for conducting a search. Each search engine will
ask you to type in the word you are looking for. After clicking on the „Enter‰
key on your keyboard, the search begins.
Because each search engine uses different types of Boolean connectors, we will
only discuss the most common ones. Below are the basic steps on how to use
Boolean connectors as shown in Figure 7.15.
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META SEARCH ENGINES
7.5
SELF-CHECK 7.5
Why do different search engines yield different results? Why
canÊt one search engine display all the results that are available on
the internet?
If you have surfed the Web before, you will notice that all search engines will
display all documents that have the words you are looking for. For example if
you are looking for „National Union of Journalists‰ using the Google Search
Engine, you will notice that the search result indicates there are approximately
383,000 documents that have those words.
As with most search engines, the Google Search Engine displays only ten
documents at a time. You would have spent a considerable amount of time
surfing and reading each document before finding something that was relevant
to your needs.
You would also notice that different search engines yield different types of
results. Thus, you would think that it is necessary to repeat the same search
using different search engines. Such tendencies are common if you have
searched the Web before. This is because each search engine varies in its
contents, features, accuracy, and retrieval technologies.
To overcome such problems, programmers have developed meta search engines.
Meta search engines perform simultaneous multi-thread searches of all major
search engines. Using meta search engines is no different from any other search
engines.
As with any search engine, you will submit a request to a meta search engine.
You do not have to worry because the meta search engine uses a similar
interface with most of the other search engines. The meta search engine will
send the request to several search engines simultaneously and organise the
responses into a single and readable report.
Some of the more popular meta search engines are shown in Table 7.2.
Search Engine URL
Metacrawler
http://www.metacrawler.com
Monster
Crawler
http://www.monstercrawler.com
Dogpile http://www.dogpile.com
1blink http://www.1blink.com
Excited http://www.excite.com
Without these meta search engines, you would have to submit your request to
more than one search engine. Meta search engines play a substantial role in
internet search due to the overwhelming size of the Web. The number of Web
pages is continuously increasing every day and nobody has an exact count on
the number of Web pages available.
BOOKMARKING OF WEBSITES
Every individual who has been on the web has a set of his or her favourite sites.
We usually bookmark those sites that we are interested in. In other words, the
selection of websites is very personal and private in nature. Those sites that you
would consider as valuable, would not be valuable to another person. Your
preferences would determine the types of sites deemed important to you.
When creating your bookmark list, you should take into consideration several
factors so that only those sites that are of direct benefit to you are bookmarked.
Below is a list of questions proposed by Reavy (2001) that will help you in
determining whether to bookmark a particular website. The questions are:
(a) Where are you located?
Reporters and journalists are usually interested in covering events within
their own locality. You would want to bookmark important sites within a
60-kilometer radius of your working area.
7.6
ACTIVITY 7.4
Why is it important to consider environmental factors in an
organisationÊs buying decisions?
(b) What beats do you cover?
Your reporting beat should determine which sites are most important. If
you are on the police beat, you would want to bookmark sites of the
police department.
(c) What kinds of reference materials do you need access to?
Sometimes while working on a story, you would want access to certain
critical information to be included in your story. In such circumstances,
you ought to bookmark sites that contain relevant information such as
Bank Negara or the Department of Statistics.
(d) Who are your competitors?
Most newspapers or electronic media organisations maintain their own
websites. You ought to bookmark these sites to allow you to closely watch
what your competitors are doing.
(e) How do you like to search the Web?
The Web contains millions of sites and in all probability, you would
regularly use one or two particular websites. These are the websites that
you ought to bookmark.
Some of the websites that you ought to bookmark would be:
Your favourite search engine
Your online dictionary and thesaurus
Your organisationÊs homepage
Your rivalÊs homepage(s)
Your web mail homepage(s)
7.6.1 How to Bookmark a Website?
It is easy to bookmark a particular website. Both Netscape Navigator and
Microsoft Internet Explorer come with a handy bookmark tool. In this scenario,
you will want to bookmark the Google website.
With Internet Explorer, to bookmark the Google website, take the following
steps:
1. Open the website in your browser (see Figure 7.16).
Figure 7.16: The Google browser
2. Click on the Menu „Favorites‰. Choose the „Add to Favorites ‰ (see
Figure 7.17).
Figure 7.17: Choosing the option „Add to Favorites‰
3. A dialogue box will appear that reads „Internet Explorer will add this
page to your Favorites list‰, you just need to click OK or hit the Enter key
(see Figure 7.18).
Figure 7.18: Click „OK‰ to favourite
The website will be added to the list of your favourite websites. The next time
you would like to surf the particular website, you should once again click on
the „Favorites‰ and click on the name of the site that you had bookmarked
earlier. You should make it a habit of deleting websites that you no longer have
any use for. If you do not do this and keep adding new bookmarks, you would
soon find that you have a long list of „favorites‰ sites.
The World Wide Web makes it easy for reporters and journalists alike to
find information.
Information is now at everybodyÊs fingertips, provided that he or she is
connected to the Web or Internet.
The Web contains all kinds of information; you would have to determine
your purpose before surfing.
To surf the Web without a specific purpose would be a waste of time and
resources.
Bates, R. J. (2002). The Internet. Blacklick, OH, USA: McGraw-Hill Professional.
SELF-CHECK 7.6
What is a meta search engine?
INTRODUCTION
The media library or more fondly called „the morgue‰ is where you would begin
if you were to write news. The library would keep a collection of all news
cuttings covered by a media organisation. If you begin your search in the media
library, it will indicate what has already been written about a topic.
With more and more media organisations creating and maintaining online
libraries, you may no longer find frayed and yellowed clippings stored at these
libraries. Some organisations still maintain the old clippings because the cost of
converting everything into digital form is exorbitant. The discussion of this topic
goes beyond your media library search. We will explore how to conduct a library
search.
Topic 8 The Library
By the end of this topic, you should be able to:
1. Discuss the purpose of doing a library search;
2. Explain two major systems of cataloguing library materials;
3. Conduct a library search; and
60 Find information at the library.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
PURPOSE OF LIBRARY SEARCH
Do you go to the library to read a book or research a topic? If you answered yes
to both questions, I suggest you think again. Gaston and Smith (1988) outlined
two main purposes of going and doing a search at a library which can be seen in
Figure 8.1.
Figure 8.1: Two main purposes of going to the library
These are basically the two things that we do when we are at the library.
We may be physically browsing through the card catalogue for the title of a book
or searching the online database for a certain article of interest or even reading
several magazines or newspapers, but what we are doing is asking, as well as
answering questions. Professionals are trained to continuously update their
knowledge. Why? They do that to be conscious of vital unanswered questions
that have bearing on their work.
Is there any other place better to do this than by going to the library? All too
often, reporters rely a great deal on the media library. They search the media
library for unanswered questions. They want to know what questions have been
asked and answered to. Do they stop here? Efficient and effective reporters
extend their search beyond the media library especially if they are working on an
in-depth piece.
8.1
ACTIVITY 8.1
You have been to libraries before. What is the main purpose for
going to the library?
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Visit http://www.bl.uk/collections/newspapers.html to learn more about The
British LibraryÊs Newspaper collections, the national archive collections in the
United Kingdom of British and overseas newspapers. Does Malaysia have its
own Newspaper Library?
The quest for questions and answers may lead reporters to public libraries or
even libraries at universities. They may even end up in archives to dig for even
more questions and answers. Getting more questions than answers is better
because it jogs your mind to think and you are always on your feet.
Figure 8.2 displays a picture of the National Library of Malaysia.
Figure 8.2: The National Library of Malaysia
Source: http://kualalumpurcityguide.com/382/national-library-of-malaysiaperpustakaan-
negara-malaysia/
8.1.1 Library Collection
In the real world, physical university libraries contain collections of books on a
myriad of subject matters. The library collection can be divided into print, audio
and video, and online databases.
SELF-CHECK 8.1
What are the two main purposes of doing a library search?
8.1.2 Organising Your Search
If you go to a library without a purpose you will end nowhere. This is because
the library contains far too much information than what we can hope to consume
in our lifetime. If you go without a purpose it is likened to going to a shopping
complex without a clear idea of what to buy.
In the end, you would be buying something else that you did not really need. In
the library, you would have ended up reading something else and gone astray.
Thus, purpose is important and should be guided by our needs. We should be
very selective in choosing the materials that we want to be exposed to. Being
selective is not bad if you know your purpose.
A sense of purpose will allow you to organise your search well. Even if your
search is minimal, you would still want to organise it in order to maximise the
use of your time.
LIBRARY SYSTEM OF CATALOGUING
Upon entering a library, you will notice that everything is neatly arranged.
Everything is catalogued and numbered to allow for easy access and to expedite
arrangement of materials. All of this is possible because all libraries use a
particular system of cataloguing all available materials in its collection. There are
two systems of cataloguing being used by libraries worldwide which are shown
in Figure 8.3.
8.2
Printed documents are made up of books, journals, government and agency
reports.
Audio and video materials come in various formats, shapes and sizes. Audio
and video materials are now currently produced on digital format, while
those in analogues are still being treasured.
Online databases now allow you to venture beyond the physical boundary of
time and space.
Figure 8.3: Two systems of cataloguing
(a) The Dewey Decimal System
The system is named after its creator: Melvil Dewey. The system divides all
possible areas of knowledge into ten major areas.
Each of them is then assigned a range of 100 numbers as shown in Figure
8.4 below.
Figure 8.4: The ten major areas according to the Dewey Decimal System
Each of these large classes of numbers can be further divided into an array of
ten numbers to form subclasses. The breakdown allows for specialised range of
knowledge within each subclass. Each subclass can be further subdivided by
adding decimals to accommodate almost any conceivable subject matter.
Below (Figure 8.5) is the example of the Dewey Decimal system. The
underlined digits in the following example demonstrate the notational
hierarchy in the Dewey Decimal System. To further understand the system,
visit http://www.oclc.org/dewey/about/:
Figure 8.5: An example of the Dewey Decimal System
(b) The Library of Congress System
This system created by the Library of Congress uses call numbers that begin
with one or two letters and followed by a whole range of numbers from 1-
9999. The Library of Congress numbers can have the decimal extension and
sometimes, the year of publication is included in the call numbers.
The major classifications according to the Library of Congress system are as
listed in Figure 8.6.
Figure 8.6: The major classifications according to the Library of Congress
Below is the example of a sample call number used in The Library of
Congress system (refer to Figure 8.7).
Figure 8.7: Sample call number
Try to search for other websites that will help to explain further on The
Library of Congress System. Whether a library is using the Dewey Decimal
system or the Library of Congress system of cataloguing, you should be able
to locate a material if you follow the guidelines below:
QE 534.2 B64
Iwkfgnkpgu"nqecvkpi"ocvgtkcnu"
Consider each symbol as important, whether it is a number or
letter in capital or lower case.
Read all the symbols in the order it appears, regardless of whether
they are letters or numbers.
Start with the first line and read each line from left to right.
All the materials in the library would be shelved in numerical
order.
When the call number includes letters, each library material with
the same number would be shelved alphabetically.
After going through this section and if you still have problem locating a material
in the library, get the help of the librarian at the help desk. Librarians are trained
professionals and most library users seldom seek the help of these professionals.
A book may be temporarily taken out of circulation for repair or a new binding,
etc. The librarian may even help you to loan the materials through interlibrary
facilities.
ACTIVITY 8.2
1. Do you know what the sample call number in Figure 8.7 stands
for and what subject it represents in The Library of Congress
System? To get the answer, visit
http://www.info.library.yorku.ca/yorkline/lc/lc.html.
2. Which system of cataloguing is being used by the National Library
of Malaysia? You might get the answer by visiting
http://www.pnm.my/.
SELF-CHECK 8.2
What are the two cataloguing systems used by libraries worldwide?
CONDUCTING A LIBRARY SEARCH
In conducting an efficient library search, we should be aware of our limitations.
For reporters and journalists alike, time is the most limiting factor for doing
library search. They are restricted in the amount of time that can be allocated for
conducting the search.
8.3.1 Choose a Topic
With time limitation in mind, journalists must determine and narrow down a
research topic that can be researched within the least amount of time. Such
provisions would mean that when they choose a topic area, it will have to be
within their personal range of knowledge. Choosing a topic beyond oneÊs area of
knowledge will only create unnecessary setbacks to the research. In all
probability, the search will be incomplete and lacking in the depth and breadth
necessary to allow for a full grasp of the researched phenomenon.
Starting a search on a topic that you have zero knowledge of, would mean that
you are engaging yourself in a long and time consuming process. Even though
the rewards are great but with limited time, you will not be able to have total
grasp of the subject matter. Thus, you should do a research topic on a subject that
has interested or fascinated you for a long time. You should allocate enough time
to obtain the necessary materials, to read, and then to evaluate their usefulness.
8.3
SELF-CHECK 8.3
Which one do you think will help you better in conducting your
search in the library; a topic that is very broad or a topic that is
very narrow and specific?
Figure 8.8: The Time magazine
If you have no idea what to research for, you could begin by browsing current
periodicals such as Time (see Figure 8.8), Far Eastern Economic Review or other
magazines of interest. The idea could be further developed if you read the
general topic in an encyclopaedia. The Encyclopaedia Britannica is a good place
to find background information about a particular topic. From a general topic,
you would have to narrow down to specifics. This is to allow for better
management of your resources and time.
You should avoid pitfalls such as too broad or too narrow a topic. If you choose a
topic that is too broad, you may be overwhelmed with the amount of information
available. Too narrow a topic, and you would find that there is not enough
material in the area that you are researching. For example, you are interested in
researching culture but the topic is considered too broad.
To focus on your research area, below in Figure 8.9 is a set of six questions to
help you limit your research focus.
Figure 8.9: The six questions to help limit focus during research
If you had answered all the above questions sincerely, you would have a clear
understanding of your research topic. Clarity is important because it will guide
you along the research process. The problem with the research process is that
you will need to adjust the topic from time to time. Adjustment is necessary as
your knowledge about a research topic improves. If you are clear on what you
want to study, you will be able to stay on track and not be easily swayed by
„new‰ information you may uncover along the way.
8.3.2 Literature Search
After developing and selecting a viable research topic, there are four steps (as in
8.10) in doing the literature search. The steps are:
Figure 8.10: The four steps in literature search
(a) Identifying search terms
This involves coming up with keywords that are relevant to our research
topic. We will use the keywords to locate information that is available
whether in printed and electronic forms. You should begin with a handful
of search terms that are relevant to your research topic. Keywords are
actually search terms that describe your topic.
The keywords have to be broad enough so that you would uncover all the
relevant materials. However, it should not be too broad that it bogs you
down trying to sort through the mountain of information. In developing
keywords for your research topic, you should ask yourself these questions:
(i) What are the related concepts?
(ii) What concepts are synonymous to it?
Related and synonymous concepts are important because different
organisations categorise topics differently. Some organisations categorise
information using the Library of Congress subject headings while others
may classify their materials using the Dewey Decimal system.
With the expanded keywords, you would begin your research with a good
source. In most likelihood, a good research source is a book that is
constantly being referred to by researchers in a particular area. From here,
you would build a list of related materials by looking through the subject
index.
For example, your research topic is on the „History of Malacca.‰
Your keywords that are relevant to the research topic might be
„Melaka‰, „Malacca‰, „Malaysian History‰, „Kesultanan Melayu Melaka‰,
„Parameswara‰, „Hang Tuah‰, etc.
(b) Locating sources in the library
The vast amount of material deposited in a university library would
overwhelm a novice researcher. The advent of online databases and online
cataloguing of library materials has allowed researchers to greatly expedite
their research process. These online databases come with a preinstalled
search engine that allows you to search for the relevant materials. One of
the examples of online databases used in the Library is OPAC (online
public access catalogue) system.
To conduct a comprehensive search of all the materials in a library, your
working knowledge of Boolean connectors will come in handy.
Below are some of the most common Boolean connectors:
ACTIVITY 8.3
Think of one research topic and the keywords that are related to it.
For more information on how to use the search engine effectively,
visit http://home.sprintmail.com/~debflanagan/engines.html
AND use this term if you are locating two ideas simultaneously.
Documents that contain both words will be retrieved. The word „AND‰
narrows down your research term.
OR use this term if you want to broaden your search. Documents that
have either one of the words will be retrieved. The word „OR‰ is good
for searching synonyms.
›"fi"/"v{rg"vjg"yqtf"ykvjkp"swqvcvkqp"octmu"kh"{qw"ctg"nqqmkpi"hqt"c"
urgekhke""rjtcug0
(c) Evaluating relevant information
While conducting your research, you will come across two sources of
information:
(i) Primary Sources
Primary sources of information are evidence left behind by
participants or observers. They may include published, unpublished
documents, visual documents and artefacts, and oral traditions or oral
histories.
Published documents are books, magazines, newspapers, government
documents, non-government reports and others. Unpublished
documents come in various shapes and types. These may include
personal letters, diaries, journals, wills, deeds, business
correspondences, minutes of board meetings, research and
development files, etc. Visual documents and artefacts include
photographs, paintings, films and other types of artwork. Oral
traditions are spoken words from people with firsthand knowledge of
historical events.
Figure 8.10 shows two of the artefacts found in the Neolithic era. The
artefacts are examples of primary sources.
ACTIVITY 8.4
1. Visit www.pnm.com.my and click to the link captioned
Sistem Katalog Awam dalam Talian (OPAC). Here, one can
have the chance of using the OPAC system of the National
Library of Malaysia.
2. How about Open University Malaysia's Library? Does it use
the OPAC system?
Figure 8.10: Artefacts from the Neolithic era
Source: http://www.arkeolog.netteyim.net/arkeo/caglar/neo.htm
(ii) Secondary Sources
Secondary sources of information are materials that interpret or
analyse historical events. Secondary sources of information may
include textbooks, journal articles, and websites. Whether the
materials are gathered from primary or secondary sources, you will be
required to evaluate those collected materials.
Evaluating the materials using these criteria:
(d) Using the information effectively
In order to use the information effectively, you will need to cite the
materials according to the prescribed citation standard. There are many
types of citation styles that you can use. Two commonly used citation styles
are:
Only one style of citing materials should be used. This is to allow
consistency and prevent unnecessary confusion. It is also to allow you to
find the necessary information again, should the need arise. You should file
a proper list of all relevant information so that you can retrieve it later.
The mistake that most people do while doing a search at the library is
failing to keep proper records. In the end, they do not know where to find
something that they had earlier read. Since they want to use the materials,
they have to search for it again. This is a huge waste of time.
The American Psychological Association or the APA Format
Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations
by Kate Turabian
ACTIVITY 8.5
To learn more about the APA Format and the Manual for Writers of
Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations by Kate Turabia, visit the
following websites.
(a) http://www.docstyles.com/apacrib.htm
(b) http://www.bridgew.edu/Library/turabian.htm
You can also do your own search using the search engines such as
Yahoo, Google, Altavista, etc, on the APA Format and „Manual for
Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations by Kate
Turabian‰.
SELF-CHECK 8.3
What are the six questions that allow you to focus on your
research area?
FINDING INFORMATION AT LIBRARIES
Do all the libraries keep the same collection of books? Libraries have large
amounts of materials that we certainly do not know where to start to find the
necessary information. All too often, we assume that the materials are
unavailable or have yet to be published because we cannot find them. Actually,
there exist various sources of information that could be helpful at the library if
you know where to look for them. Some of these sources of information give you
the research information that you are seeking. Others will often direct you to the
sources.
For general information, you should seek the following sources of information
(refer to Table 8.1).
Table 8.1: Sources of Information for General Types of Information
Sources Explanation
Encyclopaedia There are many types of general encyclopaedia published and most
libraries have either the Encyclopaedia Britannica or the Americana
Encyclopedia. These encyclopaedias contain information on almost
all subjects and should be a good place to begin a search.
WhoÊs Who Basic information about prominent people in all fields of information.
Their accomplishments, published credits and important dates are
given.
Newspaper and
Magazine
Indexes
Some libraries make their own index of these materials. Seek the
help of the librarian at the readerÊs desk to enquire if the library you
are in has one.
Books in Print Published in volumes according to subjects, authors, and titles.
Miscellaneous
directories
An assortment of directories may be shelved in the reference section
of the library. These directories usually contain names, addresses,
phone numbers, positions and other critical information about
experts that can help you with your research.
Newspapers Back issues of local newspapers are usually available either in paper
copies or microfilm.
Library
catalogue files
The subject listings in the library catalogue files should present a
listing of books on the topic that you are interested to write about.
Reference
services
Some libraries offer this service to its users. All you need to do is to
call the reference librarian and the person will retrieve the necessary
information for you.
8.4
Statistical
abstracts and
yearbooks
Government agencies publish different types of abstracts or
collections of data annually and they are required by law to deposit
these materials at selected public libraries. These books contain a
wealth of information about various types of statistics from
demographic to economic indicators.
Government
pamphlets
Government agencies churn out numerous pamphlets that may offer
statistics and information for issue-related articles.
Parliamentary
minutes
The law section of all university libraries keeps minutes of both
houses of parliament. These minutes are a must for hot and political
issues.
Almanacs A few publishers publish inexpensive paperback almanacs that
contain useful information and statistics. These almanacs along with
a dictionary, atlas and desk encyclopaedia are essential reference
materials for writers and reporters alike.
Annual reports Public listed corporations publish annual reports and make these
reports available to the public. These reports contain financial
information, listing of officers and various transactions of a preceding
year.
ACTIVITY 8.6
1. Visit Open University MalaysiaÊs digital Library. Search the
library collection using the keywords below:
(a) Encyclopaedia
(b) WhoÊs Who
(c) Newspaper and Magazine Indexes
(d) Books in Print
(e) Directories
(f) Statistical abstracts and yearbooks
(g) Almanacs
(h) Annual Reports
2. Are you satisfied with the result? If not, you might want to visit
the National Library of Malaysia or your respective State Library
for more collections of the materials above.
We have discussed the two main purposes of doing a library search, asking
questions and answering questions.
For the search to be successful, it has to be guided by our purpose.
We have to decide on what, where and when to investigate a particular
search topic.
To ensure success, we must be able to narrow down the topic so that we are
able to manage it, given our limitations.
Interviewing is one of the many forms of gathering news and information that is
used by journalists. Information gathered during interviews adds motion, sound,
colour and life to a news item.
The myriad facts gathered enable readers to empathise, disagree, identify or
believe in the news item. Thus, it is unimaginable for journalists and writers in
general, to go about their daily routine without conducting some form of
interview.
Topic 5 Interviews
By the end of this topic, you should be able to:
1. Define what an interview is and outline what is needed for an
interview;
2. Explain the three types of interviews;
3. Describe two different stages of interviewing; and
4. Explain four types of interviewing terms.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
TOPIC 5 INTERVIEWS DEFINING AN INTERVIEW
What is an interview? Webster's New World Dictionary of Media and
Communications (1996: 311) defines an interview as;
Such a definition describes interviewing as a one-way process of communication
where one party (subject of an interview) does all the talking while the other
party (interviewer or reporter) asks questions and takes down notes.
For journalistic interviews to be successful, you should not allow this to happen. You
as the interviewer should steer the interview according to your needs. You should
not lapse in your thoughts during the entire interview. You should not be too
engrossed with taking notes that you forget what your purpose was and objectives
of interviewing the informant. You should at all times, evaluate all the responses
given to the questions posed. The questions posed will be the standard 5Ws and 1H.
The collated information is evaluated for accuracy, fairness, newsworthiness and
potentiality to make for a readable news story. With all the information gathered, a
reporter will subject all the given responses to two final questions as shown in Figure
5.1 below.
Figure 5.1: The two final questions for a reporter
„a colloquy or dialogue with the interviewer asking questions and the
interviewee providing responses.‰
SELF-CHECK 5.1
Are you conducting an interview when you ask a friend what he or
she is doing in his or her spare time? When a police officer questions
a detainee in a lock-up, can it be considered an interview? Is an
interview different from a conversation?
Is my story fair
and accurate
What will it mean
to my reader?
Successful interviews depend on the type of information you are able to elicit
from the respondent. You must be able to coax respondents to say what they
really think and feel.
You will be able to do this if you are able to incorporate what Metzler (1997) says
about interviews. Metzler (1997: 12) stressed that interviews are:
In other words, an interview consists of two parties, as in Figure 5.2.
Figure 5.2: The two parties involved in an interview
5.1.1 The Interviewee
Of the two parties in the interview, the interviewee is the most important party
and is the source of information. Sources of interviews can be divided into three
categories (Pitts et al., 1997), which are:
(a) Primary sources;
(b) Support sources; and
(c) Expert sources.
A two-person conversational exchange of information on behalf of an
unseen audience to produce a level of enlightenment neither participant
could produce alone.
Interviewer Interviewee
5.1.2 The Interviewer
The other important party in an interview is you·the interviewer. You should
come prepared. You too have to impart and share your knowledge and thoughts
to make the conversation a resounding success. You cannot leave everything to
the interviewee. If you come prepared, you will be able to control the outcome of
the interview.
Imagine a conversation where one party does all the talking while you as the
interviewer do nothing but listen. How long do you think the conversation can
last? Unless your intention is to irk the other party, do not use this approach.
Such an approach is only valuable if you are trying to brush off a smart and fasttalking
salesperson.
In order to contribute effectively in an interview, you should always come fully
prepared. You should treat every interview as important. You should be aware
that you are not the only one collecting information. The interviewee is doing the
same. He or she is judging you by what you say and do. The questions you pose
during interviews will show whether you are caring and sensitive towards their
needs. You will have to convince them that their best interest is always being
safeguarded. To convince them further, you could show them examples of your
previous writings; writings that are empathetic to the needs of the informant, so
that the interviewee will feel comfortable sharing information and opinions with
you.
„Primary sources are those directly involved with the information you (as a
reporter) are seeking.
Support sources are those with meaningful connections to your primary
sources.
Expert sources are people recognised as having superior knowledge or
skills relating to the subject matter you are investigating.‰
(Pitts et al. 1997: 53 64)
SELF-CHECK 5.2
How did Metzler define interview?
WHY THE NEED FOR INTERVIEWS?
Interviews offer an invaluable method of gathering information for journalists
and all writers alike. An analysis of all the reported news that appear in the
newspapers will indicate that more than 80 percent are written based on facts
gathered at interviews. We can identify four main uses for interviews as a fact
gathering tool as highlighted in Figure 5.3.
Figure 5.3: The four main uses of interviews
(a) Supporting quotes
A lively and original quote is like a precious gem. The value of a good
quotation from an expert in a particular field lies in its ability to lend
support to what you are writing. Attributing a quotation to an expert will
definitely lend credibility to a news item. If you want to find a good solid
quotation, you would have to listen and listen hard.
Below is a quote from the fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Dr
Mahathir Mohamad, condemning the US and British attack on Iraq, which
illustrates the point about looking out for exceptional quotations during
interviews:
(b) Research and background information
Not everyone you interview needs to be identified and used in your news
item. Some of the people are interviewed just for research and background
information purposes. They are interviewed because it helps you to better
understand the subject matter. For example, you could be researching on a
5.2
„This is an act by imperialists who still want to control the world.‰
(The Sun, March 25, 2003+
Supporting quotes
Opinions
USES OF
INTERVIEWS
Research and background
information
Responses to public
issues
nuclear power plant and since in all probability you may have little or no
knowledge on this subject, you will seek to learn more by interviewing
experts such as nuclear scientists.
Below is a quote from Dr Diane Levin, author of Teaching Young Children
in Violent Times, recommending that young children be protected from
news reports of war and violence whenever possible. The explanation
from Dr Diane Levin will help the reader to understand and learn the
effects of news reports of war and violence to young children.
(c) Opinions
Opinions are the life and blood of news writing. As a reporter, you would
seek opinions from subject specialists who would be able to discuss the
topic at length. You would have to identify who the subject specialists are
for a particular area. Because you would need to get opinions from subject
specialists in a short period of time, you would not have the time to call
upon the individual at his or her home or office. You would have to do the
interview over the telephone.
When you are doing the interview over the telephone, you would have to
be brief. You would introduce yourself and go straight to your questions.
If the person says he or she will call you back, do make sure that the party
has your telephone number before you hang up.
Impress on them that you need their opinion urgently so that they will call
you back as soon as possible. If the other party does not reply your call,
you would have to gather the opinion from another source. Thus, it is
always good to have a list of subject specialists who are willing to entertain
your request for a brief interview over the telephone.
(d) Responses to public issues
Government officers, especially those holding office at federal, state and
district levels, are used to receiving telephone calls from mass media
representatives. These government officers are called upon to respond
swiftly to complaints made by the public on matters of public interest.
„. . . Even when parents do their best to shield younger children from
media reports, children may be exposed to some degree to these events.
So the question for us is not whether or not to talk with children, but how
to do so.‰
(The New Straits Times, March 25, 2003)
Because of this, most government offices have set up a public relations
section to respond to queries from the mass media.
The officers manning this section are trained to handle any query from the
media personnel swiftly. These officers know that it is their duty to ensure
that all questions from the media are answered in full and without delay.
If they do not know the answer to a question, they would usually ask for
some time to obtain the answer from the relevant section.
METHODS OF INTERVIEWS
Interviews can be conducted in many different ways. Some of the more common
forms of conducting interviews are illustrated in Figure 5.4.
Figure 5.4: The common forms of conducting interviews
ACTIVITY 5.1
For examples of question and answer news items, visit
http:/www.cnn.com. Try to search for Malaysian Prime Minister
Mahathir MohamadÊs interview transcripts.
Can you think of the purpose of the interviews?
Face-to-face Telephone Mail
5.3.1 Face-to-face
The first type of interview allows both the interviewer and interviewee to meet in
person at an agreed upon time and place. There are two types of face-to-face
interviews which are formal and informal.
(a) Formal interviews
Most of the time, the location of the interview is at the office of the
interviewee. Sometimes, both parties could agree to meet at a neutral place
such as at a restaurant or hotel lobby.
In a formal interview, you as the interviewer will inform the interviewee in
advance the topic of discussion. This is to enable the interviewee to prepare
for all eventualities during the interview. Sometimes, they will ask you to
submit a list of questions so that they can come prepared. You will also
have to come prepared for the interview. In a situation where both parties
are accessible to each other in a given setting and time, the formal interview
is definitely the best method of gathering information.
With formal in-person interviews, you can verify the identity of your
interviewee. The other party in the interview will definitely do the same
when both of you meet for the first time. You should make a positive
impression of yourself at this first meeting. You should strive to develop a
good working rapport with the other party by conducting the interview in
the most professional manner.
If the other party is happy with the first meeting, you can expect a fruitful
and long lasting business relationship. This is necessary because you may
never know when you will need to interview the person again. If you are in
a hurry, you may even be allowed to interview the person by telephone.
This is possible only when you have gained the trust of the other party.
SELF-CHECK 5.3
What are the different types of information gathered from these
three forms of interviews?
When both parties make a prior arrangement to meet at a specific place
and time to discuss a specific topic, the interview is said to be formal.
TOPIC 5 INTERVIEWS
(b) Informal Interviews
A reporter could carry out the interview at any time and place, and
sometimes even without the knowledge of the interviewee. For example,
the reporter could just be waiting at a bus stop when he or she suddenly
strikes up a conversation with another person who happened to be there.
The interviewee may be unaware that he or she is being interviewed
because the reporter did not reveal his or her true identity. The topic of the
conversation could be on the reliability of the bus company service plying a
route.
From the informal interview at the bus stop, you could have gathered that
the bus service has been very unreliable. The buses never ply the route
according to the publicised schedule. The drivers of the buses could be
driving recklessly. On further checks with the local police station, you
ascertain that there have been numerous accidents involving buses from
that company. What started out as an ordinary conversation has turned out
to be a tremendous lead. With the gathered information from the informal
interview, you would probe further on the issue by seeking an explanation
from officials of the bus company.
An interview is said to be informal if the conversation is carried
out without any prior arrangement.
ACTIVITY 5.2
Adapted from an interview published in PropertyTimes, below is an
insert of New Straits Times published on June 21, 2003. Read the
interview between PropertyTimes and Encik Johan Ariffin, an
executive director of TTDI Development Sdn Bhd.
How has Danaharta managed to synergise with TTDI?
We realised that the best way to be effective was to integrate
DanahartaÊs property outfit with TTDI. For better synergy,
Danaharta relocated its property operations to TTDIÊs premises (in
Shah Alam).
I came on board in July 2003 with an „advance party.‰ Then in
August, the rest of DanahartaÊs property division came in.
Does this mean DanahartaÊs propety division staff has now moved
to TTDI?
Well, we wear two hats. The Danaharta people have been
seconded to TTDI until 2005.
And what happens after that?
After DanahartaÊs closure (in 2005), its staff seconded to TTDI will
be retrenched like the rest. We are aware of this.
How has the integration worked out? What strengths have the
Danaharta team bought to TTDI and vice versa?
It has gone pretty well. Whatever we have done, we have done
with the realisation that TTDI is an ongoing concern and we are
not going to detract from the common objectives of the company
as a development outfit.
The first thing we did was re-organise the existing departmental
structure to create eight sections.
For example, planning was taken out of the property
development division and made into a department of its own.
Land was also taken out of property development and put under
planning and land administration, because the two go together.
This enables the property development division to focus entirely
on producing quality products on time, within budget and
specifications.
Of the eight divisions, four are headed by Danaharta people and four
by TTDI. The TTDI teamÊs contribution has been in the areas of quantity
surveying, property maintenance and management of investment
properties, security, land administration, quality assurance and so on.
How has this helped in operations?
It has streamlined operations and ensured clear delineation of
duties for optimum efficiency.
One of the most significant results is the creation of the
contracts and quality assurance department, which was taken out from
the property development division.
This will ensure TTDIÊs high quality standards and pedigree will be
maintained. We must remember that while the TTDI name gives the
edge, weÊre only as good as our last success or failure. Our laurels will
only get us so far.
After the integration and organisational restructuring, what did you do
next?
We looked at TTDIÊs policies. We needed to bring the IT, credit, safety
and other policies and the authoritiesÊ standards in line with Danaharta
governance standards.
Why were they found to be wanting in any way?
No. You need to recognise that TTDI was part of PNB and thus adhered
to stringent standards. What we wanted to do was improve further
in line with our agenda to become customer-responsive in every
way. Success today means being responsive to customer needs.
First, we needed to eliminate any unnecessary levels of bureaucracy.
This means positive and timely responses in every area. For example, if
residents report that a light has blown out in the corridor of their condo
on Monday morning, it must be fixed by Monday night. All sales and
marketing inquiries and customer complaints must also be attended to
immediately.
Another area we improved upon was payment for our contractors.
Once a site evaluation is done and we are satisfied the standards have
been met, they are paid within nine days. This helps eliminate
uncertainties - the contractors do not have to factor in holding costs for
their materials and we get a lower price from them.
1 06 TOPIC 5 INTERVIEWS
5.3.2 Telephone Interviews
You would employ the same basic techniques as in the face-to-face interview.
This method of interviewing is used when time and distance do not allow you to
make a personal visit. The telephone interview is best conducted if you know
and have met the interviewee prior to this telephone call.
The telephone interview is used when you want to do the following (refer to
Figure 5.5 below):
Figure 5.5: Purposes of telephone interviews
Some public figures who are used to being interviewed by telephone are often
asked for their comments on certain issues via this method of interviewing. They
would say that they are too busy now but would call back later if you would
leave your office telephone number. Do not be surprised if the caller telephones
back within a few minutes. These people do this just to check on the identity and
verify the authenticity of the caller.
If you give them your mobile phone/handphone number, they will insist that
you give your office number. If you say that you are out at the moment, they will
insist on calling when you are back at the office. With the given media
organisation telephone number, they can cross check it with the telephone or
media directory.
It can be very discomforting to be on the telephone for long periods of time. The
telephone interview therefore, does not allow you to discuss too many topics.
You should limit the conversation to a single topic. Do not try to extend the
conversation for more than 15 minutes. Unless the interviewee is a very good
friend of yours, the conversation should stop when the 15 minute period is over.
1. check on certain facts;
2. Obtain a brief quotation; and
3. Submit follow-up questions to those addressed
during an initial face-to-face interview
5.3.3 Mail
The face-to-face interview is best when you can meet with your interviewee.
Sometimes, your respondent may live in another country and it is costly to travel
just to meet one person. Under such circumstances, you can still conduct the
interview by mailing your questions to him or her. Hopefully, he or she will
reply to your mail promptly. You would also hope that the respondent will
answer all your questions. Generally, there are two types of interviews, which
are Ordinary Postal Service and E-mail.
(a) Ordinary Postal Service (Snail Mail)
One of the ways to conduct an interview is by mailing your questions to
him or her. However, mail-in interviews are very slow and sometimes you
do not get a reply from your respondent. A no-reply can mean two things:
the party is not interested in answering your questions or the letter could
have been lost in the mail. Even if the party answered your questions, the
mail could have arrived very late that it defeats the purpose of conducting a
mail-in interview in the first place.
(b) E-mail
The advent of the Internet and the pervasiveness of e-mails make mail
interviews now a viable and cheaper alternative to all the other types of
interviews. Questions sent through e-mail can be directed to one or more
respondents at the same time with the fraction of the cost of snail mail
(ordinary postal services).
E-mails are fast and there are even e-mailing programmes that can inform
the sender if the intended receiver has retrieved and read the mail. E-mails
are easy and user friendly because it automatically keeps a copy of all your
outgoing mails. You can resend any mail should the need arise. If the
answer given is vague, you can always reword the response and submit it
back for further clarification. Interviewing by e-mail is only possible if both
parties have both an Internet and email account and are provided with the
appropriate computer software.
It is assumed that you know the e-mail address of your respondent and that
the personÊs account is active. The trouble with e-mailing is that some
people have more than one account. This is made possible with free e-mail
accounts provided by numerous service providers. It becomes more
complicated when people start using pseudonyms and you are unable to
determine the identity of the owner of a particular e-mail address.
1 08 TOPIC 5 INTERVIEWS
Unless you know personally the owner of a particular e-mail account, you
are duty bound to check and cross check the identity before communicating
with the concerned party. You could verify a personÊs identity by accessing
an organisationÊs web page to see if it is listed.
Alternatively, you would have to verify by making a personal appointment
to meet the owner of an e-mailing address. This is burdensome but the
extra steps taken will protect you , should you want to use the content
originated from an e-mail interview. You should be cautious when using
information originating from any interview, especially by e-mail and make
sure it is not slanderous, subversive or prejudicial to public safety.
PROCESS OF INTERVIEWING
As an information gathering tool, the interview should be viewed as a process.
The process starts even before the reporter conducts the interview.
The interview process can be divided into two stages as can be seen in Figure 5.6.
Figure 5.6: The two stages of an interview
5.4
SELF-CHECK 5.3
„Any reporter who hopes to do a good job should be able to talk to
an interviewee, quickly making them feel comfortable and willing to
talk.‰ Frost, Chris (Author). Reporting for Journalists. Florence, KY,
USA: Routledge, 2001. p 96.
Planning the
interview
Conducting the
Interview
Of the two stages, the actual process of conducting an interview may not take a
long time. The time taken to conduct the interview may last between half of an
hour or as long as three hours. This time is comparatively shorter than the time
you would allocate to plan for the actual interview. It is rare that you will
interview a respondent for several days.
5.4.1 Planning the Interview
Planning is pivotal to ensure success in everything and this includes conducting
an interview. In fact, planning is central to every journalistic endeavour. You
determine all possible outcomes and outline all possible approaches to
accomplish what you have set out to achieve. In other words, an effective
interview includes clear and achievable objectives.
(a) Determining the purpose of the interview
In determining clear and achievable objectives, four questions to guide you
in the process are shown in Figure 5.7.
Figure 5.7: The four questions for guidance in the interview process
The first two questions are related to the uses of interviews as they have
been discussed in the previous section. You should review the above
section if you are not sure what the uses of interviews are.
The latter two questions depend on the type of news writing that you are
planning for. If the information needed is for a breaking news item, you do
not have much time to research and plan the interview. You would rush to
the scene immediately and start interviewing any available sources. You
would also call up several sources who know about it.
What kind of information is needed for the news item?
Who is the best person to provide the much needed information?
What type of news item will be written?
How long will the news item be written (the length of the story)?
If the news item is an investigative piece that is not tied to a deadline you
will have more time to prepare and plan your interview. In such
circumstances, you would be interviewing more than one person. This can
take days and even months as the case of reporting of the Watergate
Scandal. Woodward and Bernstein interviewed and reinterviewed many
officials including senior members of the Nixon administration. The
purpose is to check and crosscheck the information given. While
investigating the scandal, Woodward and Bernstein would write stories
about the subject of their investigation. The story was dragged on for
months culminating with the resignation of Nixon from the United States
Presidency.
(b) Research a selected topic
After determining the purpose of an interview, the next step will be to
research a selected topic. A reporter will always start with the media
library.
Why is research necessary before going for an interview? Refer to
Figure 5.8.
Figure 5.8: Reasons for research
Research should not stop after a visit to the media library. It is a common mistake
to be satisfied with information that may be stored in the library. The next step
would be to go to the public libraries and archives. These places may keep public
records that are related to your research topic. After the public library, it would
be wise if you could talk to well-informed people about the topic. They may
enlighten you on aspects of the topic that you are unsure of.
Updating knowledge about an issue
Knowing what has been written
Identifying potential sources of information
Framing questions
Do not only research on the topic of the interview, you should research the
person to be interviewed. This will allow you to ask the right questions and
understand the answers. This will enable you to demonstrate unobtrusively to
the respondent that you cannot be easily deceived.
While doing the research, you will know when it is time to fix an appointment
for an interview. You would normally contact the person by telephone to seek for
a suitable date and time. Since you are working with a deadline, you would ask
for an opportunity to meet the person as soon as possible. In all probability, you
would want to meet the person within a week.
The person may be too busy to fit in your request. You will have to explain to the
person why it is to his or her best interest that the interview be granted as soon as
possible.
Metzler (1997: 60) outlines 10 reasons why a source will
grant you the interview:
An opportunity to obtain recognition and publicity.
An opportunity to tell your side of an issue or controversy.
An opportunity to educate the public on some issue about which you feel
strongly: There is a little educator (or propagandist) in all of us.
An opportunity to promote, such as an actress pushing her latest movie.
An opportunity to clarify a position or eliminate misunderstanding.
An opportunity to influence or impress others.
A novel experience, ego inflating.
A touch of immortality, words frozen into print to be seen by future historians.
Sympathy with a purpose or cause·enough to override the pain. The 1990s
brought examples of rape survivors willing to go public with painful stories of
their attacks and the often greater pain of coping with the legal systemÊs
wayward machinations.
Sympathy with a new or novel topic or approach·the promise by the
interviewer to cover new ground, not just a rehash.
You could use any of the above reasons to impress the person on the urgency and
importance of the interview. Sometimes if you are just plain out of luck or the
person is extremely busy, he or she may refuse to be interviewed. In this case,
you should try to conduct the interview while you are actually talking to the
person on the telephone. This is where good and thorough planning is pivotal.
This is also where an excellent research will pay good dividend.
You should ask your most important questions straight away. You should not
dilly-dally by asking unnecessary questions. You have nothing to lose. Ask
questions that will yield the most crucial information. If you are good, you would
be able to get enough information without having to meet the person. The next
subtopic will be discussed further on how to conduct an interview.
5.4.2 Conducting the Interview
As has been discussed, planning is essential for a successful interview. The
planning is just the initial stage of the interview. When you meet the interviewee,
you are already in the second stage of conducting the interview. Figure 5.9
highlights tips for conducting interviews:
ACTIVITY 5.3
Imagine that you are given a task to write an article about the
strategies adopted by Open University Malaysia (OUM) in
penetrating the global education market. You are required to conduct
an interview with one of the top management of OUM. How would
you go about planning the interview? The hints below might help you
plan the process:
1. Who is the best person to provide the much needed information?
2. What is the kind of research that needs to be done?
3. What is the approach that you would take for the interview?
Figure 5.9: Tips for conducting interviews
(a) Arrive early
When the day of the interview comes, you should arrive early. If you are
not sure of the place, you will have checked out the address a day earlier.
This is to make sure that you are not late for the interview. Check and
familiarise yourself with the surroundings. You should take note of the
flow of traffic. Will you be caught in traffic congestion? If so, you should
allow more time for travelling purposes.
You should not be late for the interview. However, you may not want to be
too early for the interview. You should strive to arrive at least 15 minutes
before the interview. You should not be more than half an hour early. Your
1 14 TOPIC 5 INTERVIEWS
respondent may feel uncomfortable going on working, knowing that you
are literally at the door waiting.
(b) Dress appropriately
Dress appropriately for an interview. You can wear a track suit if you are
interviewing a sportsman who is training on the field. Wearing tattered
and faded jeans is suitable for meeting a friend but this is inappropriate
attire if you are going to interview someone in his or her office. Your attire
will reflect on your personality and determine the impression you give.
Your interviewee will have a lasting impression of you and you would
want it to be a positive one, especially if it is for the first time.
(c) Remind your interviewee on the purpose of the interview
After the normal pleasantries, you should take the opportunity to remind
your interviewee on the purpose of the interview. He or she may have
forgotten the reasons for granting you the interview. While doing this, you
should never forget to thank the person for granting the interview.
(d) Go straight into the interview
You should go straight into the interview after some pleasantries. Do not
waste time because the person may allocate only a half hour slot before he
or she sees somebody else. You should go through all the basic questions
first: who, what, where, when, why and how. If you need to ask sensitive
questions, you should do it tactfully. The questions must be asked in a nonthreatening
manner.
The type of questions posed during an interview is basically made up of
open-ended questions and close-ended questions as in Table 5.1:
Table 5.1: Open- and Close-Ended Questions
Open-ended questions
Do not require specific answers or allow the respondent
to digress.
Close-ended questions Require brief and pointed replies.
(e) Pose one question after another
While interviewing, you should pose one question after another. However,
you should allow the respondent time to deliberate before giving a response.
Pausing for a moment is important sometimes. The person may be thinking
of how best to phrase the answer. Do not rush your respondent into giving a
quick response. You should give the respondent some breathing space.
(f) Ask the respondent to clarify
If the answer given is vague, you should ask the respondent to clarify. If
necessary, you could read back the response given by the person. This is to
allow the person to think and state his or her thoughts clearly. If the answer
given is on some technical aspect, do ask the person to clearly outline the
major components and to give any supporting documents to help you
understand better.
(g) Listen attentively
While the other person is talking, listen attentively. Listening is imperative.
Listening is different from hearing. Hearing is done passively. You hear
water running or the cool stream from an air-conditioning system, but you
do not listen to them. Listening requires active participation. Listening
needs you to focus on the things that are being said by the other person.
Sometimes you will need to respond empathetically.
During interviews, listening is receiving information through your ears and
eyes. On receiving each bit of information, you decide what you think and
feel about it. By doing so, you are engaging the other party in the
conversation and giving meaning to the topic of discussion.
(h) Use a tape recorder
You cannot listen properly if you are too busy taking down notes. This is
where a good tape recorder becomes an essential item to be taken for an
interview. If you are going to use it, you should ask for permission first.
The interviewee may not feel comfortable talking knowing that the
conversation is being recorded. He or she may freeze and may have second
thoughts about what to say.
They may hide vital information to protect themselves. You would not
want this to happen. You will have to convince the interviewee that the
tape will not be given to a third party. You are using it so that nothing of
importance is being left out. If the other party says no, you have no choice
but to concede.
You will not face this situation if you had done a thorough research on the
person who is the subject of your interview. Another reporter could have
told you of the personÊs quirk about tape recording. You can hide your
micro tape recorder in your pocket or beg. If you are doing a clandestine
recording of an interview, you should be mindful of the recording length of
the tape. You would not be able to slot in a new tape during the interview.
If you are using a tape recorder for an interview, as with any other
electronic devices, you should also bring a fresh set of batteries. You would
not want the machine to die on you just at the most crucial moment of
interview.
(i) Ask for copies of any documents mentioned
Towards the end of the interview, you should ask the interviewee if you
could be given copies of any documents mentioned throughout the
conversation. The documents can be used as proof to substantiate claims
made by the interviewee. The documents can be used to defend yourself
should the need arise. Before using any of the documents in your story, it is
prudent to check for its authenticity and validity. The content may be
slanderous, subversive or even be official government secrets. You will
learn more about these three aspects in Topic 8 of this module.
(j) Do not drag the interview
When the time allotted for the interview is almost up, you should offer to
stop. Do not drag the interview beyond what was agreed initially. If the
respondent does not mind continuing, then you can continue with the
interview. Sometimes, the person may stand up and this is an indication
that your time is up.
(k) Summarise
To summarise, you should ask whether the person would like to add any
last words before you leave. Do thank the person again for the opportunity
given. Finally, ask whether you can call the person by telephone should the
need arise. A nod or a smile from the person will mean that you are
allowed to call him or her later. Make sure you do not leave any of your
personal belongings behind. On leaving, you should not forget to switch off
your tape recorder.
(l) Find a place to do a quick review of the interview
Once you are out of the personÊs office, you should find a place to do a quick
review of the interview. A review at this particular moment in time is crucial
because everything is still fresh in your memory. You should note down
things that may have slipped your mind previously. You should also take
note of things that will require you to do a follow-up with another source.
INTERVIEWING TERMS
There are some terms that are commonly used in journalistic interviews. These
terms may be familiar to reporters, journalists and writers alike but to the layman,
they may not know the subtle differences. In order to conduct an effective
interview, it would be prudent if you would explain the meaning of these terms to
your interviewee before using it. This is to prevent unnecessary confusion and
safeguard the interests of both parties of an interview.
ACTIVITY 5.4
You can practise by interviewing your family or friends. The range of
topics can be from their favourite sports, movies or music to their
views on the war in Iraq.
SELF-CHECK 5.5
You are assigned to interview the CEO of KLCC Projects after the
launching of their latest computer software I-Contact.
What are the things to consider for the interview?
1 18 TOPIC 5 INTERVIEWS
These terms are as in Figure 5.10.
Figure 5.10: Interviewing terms
(a) On the record. This means that you can use whatever is being said by a
source. You are allowed to attribute the information to the source by name.
(b) Off the record. This term means that you are not allowed to use the
information given by a source in your news item. You can verify the
content with another source. If the alternative source confirms the
information, you are allowed to use it. You can attribute the information to
the alternative source. During the verification process, you are not allowed
to inform the alternative party of who is the original source of information.
(c) Not for attribution. While conducting the interview, there will be time
when the source will request for anonymity. If you grant this request, you
will not be allowed to divulge your source name in your news item.
Without giving the name of the person, you will find that your news item
lacks credibility. What option do you have? This is where you would use
the term „not for attribution.‰ You would use the information but the
source will be indicated as „a senior government official‰ or „a wellinformed
source in an organisation.‰
(d) Background. The information given may not be attributed to the source. It
has the same meaning as not for attribution. You would use the information
given to offer a perspective of your news item so that your intended
audience understands its importance.
You have just learned how important interviewing is as a fact gathering tool
for every journalist.
Most of the news stories that you read in the newspapers originate from
formal and informal interviews.
Journalistic interviews are different from other types of interviews because
they are conducted for an unseen audience.
ACTIVITY 5.5
Read a crime related news in your local newspaper. Outline a list of
questions that you would consider asking the source in the news
item. What other sources would you have used to gather
information about the news?
SELF-CHECK 5.6
What would you do if you need to publish a story on something that
an informant says is „off the record‰?
INTRODUCTION
Surveys are a special type of interview conducted on a sample selected from a
population. All the respondents are asked the same set of questions using a
specially formulated questionnaire.
The data from the questionnaire is tabulated with the purpose of gauging the
opinion or perception of the population regarding a particular issue. In this topic
you will learn about surveys and how to plan and conduct a survey.
Topic 6 SURVEYS
By the end of this topic, you should be able to:
1. Define what a survey is;
2. Discuss four major concerns in planning a survey;
3. Apply four ways of conducting a survey; and
4. Explain the major components of a survey report.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
WHY WE DO SURVEYS
In the United States, surveys are conducted from time to time to gauge public
opinion on issues of public interest. The Gallup poll which is named after the
Gallup Organisation conducts numerous surveys especially during the
Presidential elections to gauge which candidate is leading in the Presidential
race. Because of the high profile nature of these surveys, the American mass
media announce the poll results with much rigour.
Below is a story that appeared in The Star about a poll that measures support
for Australian Prime Minister, John HowardÊs backing of a US-led war on Iraq.
SELF-CHECK 6.1
„Survey research is one of the most important areas of measurement
in applied social research. The broad area of survey research
encompasses any measurement procedures that involve asking
questions of respondents.‰
http://trochim.human.cornell.edu/kb/survey.htm
Have you ever been involved in any survey done by the Malaysian
Government?
SYDNEY: Public support for AustraliaÊs conservative government has
slumped sharply because of its unflinching backing of a US-led war on Iraq,
an opinion survey showed yesterday.
The Morgan poll found support for Prime Minister John HowardÊs
coalition slipped 45 percentage points to 39%.
That put the government behind the opposition centre-left Labour for the
first time in nearly seven months. Labour climbed 4.5 points to 40.5%.
Howard warned Australians yesterday to prepare for war sometime this
week.
He said there was no legal necessity to have a second UN Security Council
Resolutions as Resolution 1441, passed last November, warned Iraq of dire
consequences if it did not disarm.
The Roy Morgan Research Centre, which carried out the opinion survey,
said questionnaire of the pollÊs 2,118 respondents made it clear that the swing
from the Liberal-National coalition to Labour was „strongly related to the
impending war in Iraq.‰
(The Star, March 18, 2003)
The poll that appeared in The Star barely covers the minimum elements necessary
set by the National Committee on Published Polls (Meyer, 1979: 185 186) that are:
In Malaysia, surveys to gauge public opinion on any particular issue are seldom
conducted by the mass media. This is because a huge amount of money, time
and resources are involved in conducting a survey. Most Malaysian mass media
organisations do not have a research and development unit in their outfit. Some
of them that do have such units are mainly used to conduct market research.
This is understandable because such surveys can cost anywhere between
RM100,000 to RM1 million depending on the subject matter, number of
personnel involved, and size of the sample being studied.
Because of these factors, surveys are usually conducted by public and private
institutions of higher learning in Malaysia. Not much is made known to the
public because the findings of these surveys are rarely publicised by the
Malaysian mass media. This does not mean that the findings of these surveys are
irrelevant and useless. On the contrary, the findings of these surveys are usually
made known to policy makers to help them in formulating various policies
affecting the public.
The identity of the sponsor of the survey
The exact wordings of the questions asked
A definition of the population sampled
The sample size, where the survey design makes it relevant and the response
rate
Some indication of the allowance that should be made for sampling error
Which results are based on part of the sample, e.g. probable voters, those who
have heard of the candidates or other subdivisions
How the interviews were collected in person, in homes, by phone, by mail, on
street corners, or whatever
When the interviews were collected
DEFINING SURVEYS
As has been mentioned, surveys are a specific form of interview. An interview, in
general, allows both parties to explore the meaning of the questions and answers
involved. In a survey, the task of exploring meaning lies with the surveyor. The
surveyor makes various decisions before executing the survey and gives meaning
to the findings. This is in essence the meaning of survey as given by Kerlinger.
Kerlinger (1973: 410) has defined survey as a research method that:
According to Kerlinger (1973), sociological facts or variables are attributes of
individuals due to their membership in social groups such as income, political
and religious affiliation, socio-economic status, education, age, living expenses,
occupation, race and others. Psychological variables are opinions and attitudes
that influence a personÊs behaviour. Survey research as a scientific method of
study endeavours to discover the link between sociological and psychological
variables in human behaviour.
In social science, Wimmer and Dominick (1987) propose two types of surveys,
which are:
(a) Descriptive survey
Descriptive survey is defined as an attempt „to picture or document current
conditions or attitudes, that is, to describe what exists at the moment‰
(Wimmer & Dominick, 1987: 102). This is the general type of survey
conducted by numerous organisations to discover the general situation in a
given area. In other words, descriptive surveys are used to learn about the
status quo in a particular population.
For example, „A descriptive study of gender equity in rural secondary
classroom situations‰ examined gender equity in rural high school
classrooms. Results showed that teachers called on male students more
often and gave praise to female students more often in the same classroom.
This study tries to describe the gender equity situation in rural secondary
classrooms. You can get the abstract of the research from the Open
University Digital Library (Proquest).
„Studies large and small populations (or universe) by selecting and
studying samples chosen from the population to discover the relative
incidence, distribution, and interrelations of sociological and psychological
variables.‰
(b) Analytical survey
Analytical survey is defined as an „attempt to describe and explain why
certain situations exist‰ (Wimmer and Dominick, 1987: 102). This type of
survey seeks to understand the relationship among the concepts studied.
With the understanding, researchers will be able to predict and control the
outcome of an action. Thus they are able to make an informed decision
before executing the action.
For example, „An analytical study: Engineering Education in Pakistan‰
focuses on analysing the main aspects that would clarify the reality of
engineering education during a specified period in Pakistan. These aspects
are the faculty members, curricula and syllabuses, students and admission
policies, etc. From the results of the study, it can help the government to
anticipate the changes and progress in the development of engineering
education. You can get the full article of the research from the Open
University Digital Library (Proquest).
Visit http://www.amstat.org/sections/srms/whatsurvey.html. Can you
get a clear picture of what Survey Research Method is all about?
PLANNING THE SURVEY
A lot of effort is involved in planning a survey. The planning starts with
determining the purpose of carrying out the study. You should be clear on what
you hope to achieve. The purpose should be clear and achievable within the
given deadline. You should also have enough funds to cover all the expenses of
executing the survey.
6.3
ACTIVITY 6.1
How is a survey different from a journalistic interview?
SELF-CHECK 6.2
Surveys are usually conducted using a set of questions called a
questionnaire. Why do you think that a questionnaire is important
in a survey research method?
Planning is essential to ensure that the data obtained from the survey is both
reliable and valid. With reliable and valid data, you would be able to make
certain generalisations about the population being studied.
Generalisation is an important component of any survey. The ability to generalise
is paramount because it would be too costly to interview every member in a
society. Thus, the only viable alternative is to conduct a survey by choosing a
random sample of the population so as to gauge the opinion of the whole public.
In planning a survey, some major concerns are as shown in figure 6.1.
Figure 6.1: Major Concerns in Planning a Survey
6.3.1 Length of the Survey Instrument
(Questionnaire)
The time to administer the survey instrument should always be taken into
consideration. If the questionnaire is too short, you are not maximising the
resources spent on conducting the survey. Using a lengthy questionnaire is not
advisable either as it would be too time consuming for respondents to answer.
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The questionnaire is a formal approach to measuring characteristics, attitudes,
motivations, opinions as well as past, current and possible future behaviours. The
information produced from a questionnaire can be used to describe, compare or
predict these facts.
http://www.ryerson.ca/~mjoppe/
ResearchProcessQuestionnaireDesignand Wording.htm
To determine the proper length of the survey instrument, you would have to
know how long it will take to execute it. It should take between 20 to 30 minutes
to administer it. Anything longer means you are risking the possibility of the
interviewee walking away before you get the chance to ask all the questions in
the instrument. You must be aware that you are actually asking your respondent
to give his or her time to answer all the questions. Due to this, enumerators (a
census taker) executing the survey are always advised to inform the amount of
time necessary to answer the questionnaire to the respondent before proceeding.
This is necessary in order to get full cooperation from all the respondents.
6.3.2 Types of Questions
The types of questions used will influence your findings. Most surveyors prefer
using close-ended questions over open-ended questions. It is much easier to
summarise the responses of close-ended questions. If there is a need for openended
questions, you should leave it towards the end of the questionnaire and
minimise the number of questions.
Examples of close-ended questions are:
How much time do you spend watching television?
1 hour or less
2 hours
3 hours
4 hours
More than 5 hours
What is your favourite free-to-air television station?
TV1
TV2
TV3
NTV7
What is your most favourite television programme?
Why do you like watching that particular television programme?
TOPIC 6 SURVEYS 127
In constructing the survey instrument, Wimmer and Dominick (1987: 106-109)
suggest several doÊs and don´ts about writing the questions. This can be seen in
Figure 6.2.
Figure 6.2: WimmerÊs and DominickÊs DoÊs and DonÊts in writing questions
ACTIVITY 6.2
To know more about questionnaires, visit
http://www.ryerson.ca/~mjoppe/ResearchProcess/Questionnaire
DesignandWording.htm.
Imagine that you are one of the respondents of a survey. Which type
of questions would you prefer to answer: closed-ended questions or
open-ended questions? Why?
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1 28 TOPIC 6 SURVEYS
(a) Make questions clear
To ensure proper responses from respondents, questions should be worded
clearly. Jargon or specialised terms that are only understood by experts
should be left out. If possible, questions should be worded in everyday
speech.
(b) Keep questions short
Long winded questions are unnecessary obstacles especially in
questionnaires. In such circumstances, there is a higher probability of
respondents requesting that you repeat the question. Respondents may
forget the whole question and cannot comprehend what you are trying to
ask.
(c) Include complete instructions
Questionnaires should also include complete instructions on how to
answer questions, especially in mail questionnaires. The respondents in a
mail questionnaire are unable to ask questions about the survey. Thus, you
as the researcher have to test the questions and make necessary
adjustments, including adding any instructions as required before mailing
the questionnaire.
(d) Remember the purpose of the research
Sometimes we may be carried away with designing the instrument that we
forget our purpose of doing the research in the first place. The purpose of
the research should always serve as a guide to determine what the relevant
questions are. If the purpose of the research is to gauge television usage,
you should not include questions about other types of mass media.
(e) Do not ask double-barrelled questions
Each question should always only ask one thing at a time. A doublebarrelled
question is one that asks two or more questions simultaneously.
For example, „Is your purpose for watching television to obtain information
and to be entertained during your free time?‰ The question should be made
into two separate items:
(i) Is your purpose for watching television to obtain information?
(ii) Is your purpose for watching television to be entertained during your
free time?
(f) Avoid biased words or terms
Biased wording of questions should be avoided. Question such as „Do you
read or watch television during your free time?‰ may cause the respondents
to answer the question untruthfully. They may feel that by answering
TOPIC 6 SURVEYS 129
truthfully that they watch television during their free time, it undermines
their sense of esteem. Thus, they will choose to answer reading as their
pastime activity.
(g) Do not use questions that ask for highly detailed information
You should avoid asking questions that require highly detailed
information. An example, „During the past one month, how many hours
did you spend listening to the radio?‰ The respondent will have a hard
time trying to figure the amount of time spent listening to the radio for an
entire month. What would be proper is to ask your respondent: „How
many hours did you spend listening to the radio yesterday?‰
(h) Avoid potentially embarrassing questions unless necessary
Lastly, you should avoid asking unnecessarily detailed and embarrassing
questions. Respondents may refuse to answer questions such as age and
income. If you must, you should place these questions towards the end of
the questionnaire, due to the possibility that the respondent might get
distracted and refuse to answer, if those kinds of questions (e.g. age or
income) are being asked in the first part of the questionnaire.
ACTIVITY 6.3
Below are four samples of questions in a questionnaire. Evaluate each
of the questions based on Wimmer and Dominick DoÊs and DonÊts of
writing questions.
1. How many times do you watch television in a month?
(a) Very Often
(b) Often
(c) Sometimes
(d) Rarely
(e) Never
2. What do you think of the television programmes in
Malaysia?
(a) Superb
(b) Excellent
(c) Great
(d) Good
(e) Fair
(f) Not so Great
3. Weight: kg
4. If you were the Malaysian Prime Minister, what would
you do to stop crime and control inflation?
To find our more on questionnaires, visit Open University
Malaysia's Digital Library (ebrary) and search for a book titled The
ResearcherÊs Toolkit.
6.3.3 Sample and Population
The objective of any scientific endeavour is to describe the nature of a
population (Wimmer and Dominick, 1987). Most of the time, we are unable to
examine every member of a population because it is too costly.
Examining every member of the population is called a census. MalaysiaÊs
Department of Statistics conducts a census every ten years to collect information
about the population.
Since the probability of executing a census is small, the alternative is to select a
sample from the population.
To ensure the sample is representative, each member of the population must be
given a fair and equal chance of being selected which is called random sampling.
Studies indicate that a sample size of between 400 to 2000 respondents should be
sufficient (see Wimmer and Dominick, 1987; Kerlinger, 1973). Even though a
larger sample is better, it should be representative of the entire population. A
larger but unrepresentative sample is meaningless, so too is a small and
unrepresentative sample. Thus, the selection of sample should be done carefully
to ensure its representativeness to the population.
A population is a group of individuals, persons, objects, or items from which
samples are taken for measurement. For example, a population of presidents
or professors, books or students.
http://trochim.human.cornell.edu/tutorial/mugo/tutorial.htm
A sample is defined as „a subset of the population that is taken to be
representative of the entire population (Wimmer and Dominick, 1987: 69).‰
CONDUCTING THE SURVEY
Surveys can be conducted in numerous ways. Figure 6.4 shows the most
common ways of conducting surveys.
Figure 6.4: Common ways in conducting surveys
6.4
ACTIVITY 6.4
To know more about sampling in research, visit
http://trochim.human.cornell.edu/tutorial/mugo/tutorial.htm.
Imagine that you are trying to conduct a research on the job
satisfaction level among primary school teachers in Malaysia. Since it
would be impossible to ask every single primary school teacher in
Malaysia about their job satisfaction level, who should be your
sample? Do you think that the sampling method is sufficient in
representing the whole population?
SELF-CHECK 6.3
What is the difference between random sampling and purposive
sampling?
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(a) Personal interviews
The personal interview is executed with a team of trained enumerators
(census takers). Training of enumerators is necessary because the researcher
who plans the instrument does not go to the field. The success of the survey
depends highly on the ability of the enumerators to conduct the interview.
The content of the questionnaire is explained thoroughly to the enumerators to
weed out any ambiguity or any misunderstanding on how to answer the
questions in the instrument. This mode of survey is expensive because
enumerators are paid according to the number of completed questionnaires.
Even though it is costly, the personal interview offers the highest rate of
success.
(b) Mail questionnaires
A mail questionnaire is usually used if the respondents are sparsely located
geographically. Clear directives are written on the questionnaire in order
for the respondents to answer it properly. They cannot ask you about the
questionnaire should a need arise. Of the four ways of conducting surveys,
the mail questionnaire is very much dependent on the cooperation of
respondents to answer and mail back the completed instrument.
The rate of return of completed questionnaires is usually less than 25
percent. Because of this, a much higher sample is taken from the population
to compensate for the low return rate. This type of survey takes a longer
period of time to be conducted. You may have to send two or three
reminders to those respondents who have yet to mail back the
questionnaire.
(c) Panel Interviews
The panel interview involves eliciting responses from a group of
respondents. Members of the group are purposely selected to represent
specific segments of the population. For example, members of the panel
could be from the same income group or the same race.
In a panel interview, the interviewer acts as a moderator. The whole
interview session is usually tape recorded and transcribed verbatim later.
The session can take anywhere between one to three hours and members of
the group are usually compensated for agreeing to be part of the panel.
(d) Telephone
The telephone survey is easy to administer but is very costly. The bulk of
the cost is on long distance telephone charges. Thus, you would have to
design the survey instrument very carefully taking into consideration the
1 34 TOPIC 6 SURVEYS
length of time to administer it over the telephone. It is advisable that the
instrument takes no more than 10 to 15 minutes. If the telephone interview
is conducted over a longer period of time, there is a tendency for the
interviewee to hang up the telephone.
The enumeratorÊs voice also plays a crucial role in telephone surveys.
Because the respondents do not get a chance to see and can only hear the
enumerators, they will have to be trained on voice control so that they,
at all times, sound friendly and courteous.
Whatever mode you use to conduct the survey, you will notice one thing in
common: the questionnaire. You would be asking the same set of questions
that had been prepared before conducting the survey. Every selected
member of the population will be repeatedly asked the same questions.
Answers for each question will be quantified and the average for each
response will be tabulated.
Figure 6.5 shows an example of how a questionnaire can be converted into
data that can be generalised:
Figure 6.5: Example on how a questionnaire is converted into data
This is in essence, the value of survey research which is the ability to quantify
observation gathered from a questionnaire. The quantification of observation into
numbers allows further statistical analysis to be carried out on the gathered data.
There are many types of statistical tools available to analyse quantitative data but
it is beyond the scope of this module.
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If you are interested to learn more of the various statistical methods to
analyse quantifiable data, I suggest that you read the following book:
Hinkle, D. E., Wiersma, William S. G. & Jurs, S. G. (1988). Applied Statistics for the
Behavioral Sciences. Second Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
6.4.1 Advantages of Surveys
Wimmer and Dominick (1987) outlined four advantages of using survey
research over other types of research methods such as experimental research.
The advantages are:
(a) Investigating problems in realistic settings.
(b) Cost of conducting surveys is reasonable.
(c) Large amount of data can be collected.
(d) Data helpful to survey research are already available.
6.4.2 Disadvantages of Surveys
Surveys, as with other types of research methods, contain inherent weaknesses.
Several disadvantages as outlined by Wimmer and Dominick (1987) are:
(a) Independent variables cannot be manipulated as in laboratory or
experiment research.
(b) Wording of questions and the placement of items can have biasing effects.
(c) Dependence on sampling techniques.
In other words, the strengths or the weaknesses of the survey method depends on
the decision you make as a researcher even before the first question is asked.
EXERCISE 6.1
List down the four different types of interviews and the situations in
which they are used.
6.4.3 Why We Use Surveys
Although the survey method has some disadvantages, it is still being commonly
used in social science research because it has many uses:
(a) Retrieving information about a respondentÊs past history such as past
behaviour, experiences and activities.
(b) Collecting data on attitudes, values, beliefs and motives of respondents.
(c) Gathering generalisable information on almost any known human
population.
(Smith, 1975)
For an in-depth discussion on the strengths and weaknesses of the survey, please
read the topic on „Survey Research‰ in Roger D. Wimmer and Joseph R.
Dominick, Mass Media Research: An Introduction published by Wadsworth
Publishing Company.
READING A SURVEY REPORT
Reporters seldom get a chance to conduct their own survey. In most likelihood,
they will be exposed to the findings of various surveys conducted by an
independent or educational organisation. The survey report as a scientific paper
is written using scientific jargon and contains too much information that may
clutter your understanding.
6.5.1 Survey Reports
The survey report like all other scientific reports is divided into five topics. The
topics are:
6.5
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In this topic, you will be introduced to the problem statement. The report will
indicate the rational and the importance of studying the problem. You will be
introduced to the definitions of several specific terms that are being studied.
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This topic focuses on the theoretical aspects of the research -- The underlying
theory used to study the said phenomenon. Finally, a set of hypotheses or
research questions are put forward.
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This topic focuses on the method used to study the phenomenon. It will set the
ontological viewpoint of the research. Questions about population and sampling
will be discussed here if it is relevant to the type of research method used.
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This topic focuses on analysing the data using the various statistical tools
available. If the research uses survey research method, you can expect
statistical analysis to test each of the proposed hypotheses.
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This topic discusses the findings of the data analysis in relation to the problem
statement. Suggestions for future research will be included towards the end of the
topic.
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If the method employed in the study is a survey, you should find a copy of
the survey instrument in the appendix.
For more detailed explanation on each of the phases of research process,
visit http://www.ryerson.ca/~mjoppe/ResearchProcess/. From the website,
what do you understand by quantitative and qualitative research?
6.5.2 Scientific Reports
A scientific report is thick and boring to read if you are not used to it. It is
actually not that difficult to read it if you know what to focus on. Here are four
important areas you should focus on:
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All sources cited in the study will be indicated in full in this section.
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It contains a statement of what the research is all about. What are the research
objectives?
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Which type of survey method was employed to conduct the research? It would
also indicate the period when the survey was conducted.
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How big is the sample and what is the population being studied?
The emphasis on all four areas is necessary to allow you to go through the report
quickly.
In this topic, we have discussed at great length the definition of survey and
what it entails.
In many ways, it resembles an interview but it is more structured.
In an interview, the focus is on the individual but a survey looks at
individuals to make informed decisions about the whole population.
Individuals are selected to make a sample. The sample has to be
representative of a predefined population.
The representative sample allows for generalisations to be made about the
entire population.
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What are the major findings? What are the implications of the findings?
ACTIVITY 6.5
To look at the sample of research papers, visit
http:/www.mdrc.org/publications_ research_methodology.html.
Choose one of the research papers, and try to identify all the important
areas of a scientific report.
INTRODUCTION
The Internet is a relatively new phenomenon. It can be a boon or a bane
depending on how you use it. Since the Internet is too big for anyone to
comprehend, you could spend countless hours on the information
superhighway without getting close to what you really need.
Therefore, it is imperative that you are clear on what, when and where the
information is before you log on so that you can retrieve it quickly and with
minimum of effort.
THE INTERNET: A BRIEF HISTORY
The Internet is a relatively new phenomenon. In reality, the Internet is nothing
more than a global network of computers. The global network is made possible
because all the computers are utilising a common language to communicate
with one another. The number of interconnected computers has increased
rapidly and no one knows for certain how many computers are connected to
the Internet.
7.1
Topic 7 INTERNET
The Internet
By the end of this topic, you should be able to:
1. Explain how the Internet started;
2. Explain how to explore the Web using a browser;
3. Elaborate on the uses of the Web; and
4. Conduct an advanced search using a search engine.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
The Internet had its beginning in the early 1960s as part of
a US military project. The U.S. military experts were
concerned that the nationÊs telephone system could be
rendered useless should there be a nuclear strike. In
January 1969, the Advanced Research Projects Agency
(ARPA) commissioned a team of scientists to begin work
on a more durable communication system.
They began looking at how to interconnect computers to share data at the
various federal funded agencies including businesses and universities. At
about the same time, the National Physics Lab in England and Societe
Internationale de Telecommunications Aeromotiques in France were
experimenting with a system that allowed intercomputer communications
called packet switching. We will discuss further on packet switching in the next
sub-topic.
The data network, known as ARPANET, was a hit with many researchers.
Scientists were finally able to send and retrieve messages and data across the
country very rapidly than could be accomplished by courier. The biggest
advantage was that it was inexpensive and fast. Because of its instant success,
the amount of traffic on the network grew by leaps and bounds. In 1983, the
network had grown and become two separate networks: MILNET for military
purposes and ARPANET for academics and other non military uses.
7.1.1 Packet Switching
In the previous section, we touched on how the National Physics Lab in England
and Societe Internationale de Telecommunications Aeromotiques in France were
experimenting with a system that allowed intercomputer communications called
packet switching. What does packet switching do?
Packet switching is actually a computer software that breaks a chunk of data.
For example Microsoft created document into packets. Packets are small pieces
of data that include an origin and destination which provide flexibility and
reliability in moving commands and data from one computer to another.
A computer will send the packets to a router. What is a router? How does it
work? Below is an illustration (Figure 7.1) that simplifies the functions of the
router.
Figure 7.1: The functions of the router
Source: http://www.linksysbycisco.com/static/us/Learning-Center/Network-
Basics/Network-Hardware/How-Routers-Work/index.html
Based on the illustration above, when one of the computers wants to send a file
to another computer, the router is responsible to route the data based on the
recipientÊs address. Packets allow messages to be relayed without depending
on fixed connections between two computers. If there are no problems, the
router will send each packet directly to its destination.
If not, the router will send each packet to another router determined to be in
the best position to see that the packet gets to its destination. In other words, if
one portion of the communication system were to be destroyed in a nuclear
strike, the packets would simply be routed around the damaged area. In a
nutshell, a router has two separate but related jobs which are:
(a) The router ensures that information does not go where it is not needed.
This is crucial for keeping large volumes of data from clogging the
connections.
(b) The router makes sure that information does make it to the intended
destination
The benefits of using packets are enormous. Among them are:
The benefits of packet switching
Information is divided into discrete chunks that can be routed independently to
the destination and then reassembled.
If a packet disappears or is corrupted during transmission, only the damaged
packet needs to be resent, not the whole message.
Packets can be encoded for security.
Packets can be compressed to save transmission time (bandwidth).
A packet can contain information about itself that the receiver can use to validate
the contents.
A packet can store information about where it has been during routing.
Packet transmission is independent of a particular networkÊs communications
speed or protocol. This enables different kinds of networks to receive and send
packets.
Packets enable maximum use of network bandwidth by allowing other traffic to
take place between packets.
(The Internet Unleashed, 1994: 6).
7.1.2 How Computers Communicate
The network of computers is able to communicate with one another because of
Internet Protocol.
SELF-CHECK 7.1
What are the functions of a router?
The Internet Protocol or IP for short is a formal set of rules that
govern how electronic messages are broken into packets, routed and
reassembled.
IP is combined with transmission control protocol to form TCP/IP, the
standard set of rules that all networks use to communicate over the Internet.
In the past decade, the Internet has evolved from a medium for exchanging
highly specialised scientific information into one of the most important
research tools available. The transformation is made possible with the
introduction of the World Wide Web or WWW or the Web for short. The
significance of the Web lies in its capabilities for users to exchange graphical
images, sound and hypertext.
Thus, the Web enables information providers with the ability to create dynamic
web pages that mimic traditional media such as newspapers, radio and
television. With such capabilities, the Web has actually redefined news. News
on the Web is dynamic and evolving in real time. Any latest development
could be fed to the audience instantaneously. The Web offers the immediacy of
television and the depth of a newspaper.
Even though the Internet offers a wide variety of services, the discussion in this
topic is limited to only the Web. For your information, the other types of
services offered to an Internet user are: electronic mail, file transfer, telnet,
chats and instant messaging, interest group membership, interactive
collaboration, multimedia displays, real-time broadcasting, shopping
opportunities, breaking news and many more. If you wish to know more about
some of these services, I suggest that you surf (browse) the Web or pick up a
book on these specialised topics.
EXPLORING THE WEB
7.2
ACTIVITY 7.1
Have you ever used other applications on the Internet such as file
transfer, telnet, chats, instant messaging, facebook, etc? How do all
those applications help you in your daily life?
SELF-CHECK 7.2
Do you know that while you are surfing the Internet, you carry
an inherent risk of exposing yourself to the whole world? Do you
think you have any privacy when surfing the Internet?
To navigate or explore the contents on the Web, you will have to have an
Internet connection and a browser. A browser is any programme that allows
users to connect with a Web server, access files and display those files on the
computer. There are two types of browsers that are widely used worldwide:
Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. Internet Explorer comes
preinstalled with Microsoft Windows while you can download a copy of the
Navigator at www.netscape.com.
The process of accessing and displaying a Web page is as follows:
(a) Type in the uniform resource locator (URL) of the Web site (for example,
http://www.oum.edu.my on the address bar of your browser. The URL
is like your home address. It tells the browser where the Web page is
located (see Figure 7.2).
Figure 7.2: Opening the browser
(b) The browser looks up the siteÊs IP address. You know that this step is
taking place because you will be seeing a message at the bottom of the
screen „Connect: Looking up host: www.oum.edu.my‰ (Figure 7.3).
Figure 7.3: The browser is connecting to the website
(c) The browser will contact the server again. You will see a message at the
bottom of the screen saying „Contacting host www.oum.edu.my‰.
(d) Once the browser makes contact with the Web server, it will ask for the
file that you are looking for. The message at the bottom of the screen will
read „Host http://www.unitem.edu.my contacted. Waiting for reply ...‰
(e) The server sends the file that you have been looking for. The message
reads „Reading file „ or „Transferring data,‰ or it displays other
information about how the transfer is proceeding (e.g. 50% of 20K
transferred‰).
(f) Once the transfer is complete, the server breaks the connection. You
would read the message at the bottom of the screen as „Document: Done.‰
One of the misleading aspects of surfing the Web is the phrase „on the Web.‰
You are actually viewing a copy of a file that is stored on your computer. This
file is stored in your temporary folder. You are only connected with the Web
server momentarily. The file on the Web server could have changed but you
will not know about this until you access it again or by clicking on the refresh
button (Figure 7.4).
Figure 7.4: The refresh button
7.2.1 Cleaning Unwanted Files
You should make it a habit of cleaning out those unwanted files that are kept in
your Internet Explorer temporary folder. Deleting these files will save your
precious hard disk space on your computer. If you want to delete these
temporary files for Internet Explorer, you should do the following steps:
(a) Click on „Tools‰ menu (see Figure 7.5).
Figure 7.5: The Tools menu
(b) Choose „Internet Options ‰ (see Figure 7.6).
Figure 7.6: Choosing the Internet options
(c) In the „General‰ tab, look for „Temporary Internet files‰. Click on „Delete
Files ‰ (see Figure 7.7).
Temporary Internet File
Delete Files
Figure 7.7: Delete files from the „General‰ tab
(d) Then you should close this window by clicking „OK‰ (Figure 7.8).
Figure 7.8: Concluding file deletion
7.2.2 Deleting Cookies
The above steps will only delete your temporary files. Inside your temporary
folder, you will notice an array of programmes undeleted. These programmes
are called cookies. What are cookies?
To open and delete all these cookies, you should:
(a) In the „General‰ tab, look for „Temporary Internet files.‰ Click on „Delete
Cookies ‰ (see Figure 7.9).
""""""""""""
Figure 7.9: Deleting cookies on the „General‰ tab
„Cookies are nothing but an encoded set of information that the Web server
asks your browser to keep for it. The cookies simply contain information
about you and the sites you visit. Cookies are a convenient way for the
vendor to keep information about site visitors without having to keep a
huge database of all visitors whether they are casual or frequent visitors.
You can throw away the cookie file anytime you want. The browser will
rebuild it when it needs it. „
Bates, Regis J. The Internet Blacklick, OH,
USA: McGraw-Hill Professional, 2002. p 500
Temporary Internet File
Delete Cookies
(b) You will get a message „Delete all cookies in the Temporary Internet Files
folder?‰ (Figure 7.10).
Figure 7.10: Message whether to delete all cookies
(c) Click „OK.‰
With all the information deleted, nobody else who has access to your
computer will be able to tell the different types of files that you had
accessed earlier.
USES OF THE WEB
The Web allows reporters and all other media personnel to practise what is
now termed as computer assisted reporting. To the reporter who is hard
pressed for time, the Web offers a much needed relief. The Web enables you,
the reporter, to do some of the following activities (as in Figure 7.11).
7.3
ACTIVITY 7.2
1. Name two browsers commonly used worldwide.
2. What is the URL for the following organisations?
(a) Radio Televisyen Malaysia
(b) Sistem Televisyen Malaysia Berhad or TV3
(c) NTV7
SELF-CHECK 7.3
How can the Internet help a journalist in doing his or her job?
Figure 7.11: What reporters can do on the Web
(a) Finding information
Information about a latest technological breakthrough would take a
longer time to reach your news desk. The Web allows you to search for
the latest information complete with graphical details. Thus, you no
longer need to literally walk to the library to check about the latest
technology.
(b) Checking the latest statistics
Statistics can help to explain a news item. The statistics may not be out in
the printed form but some government agencies are already using the
Web to publish the latest available statistics. Such statistics would have
not been available previously if we were to wait for the printed version.
(c) Searching for background information
Previously, you would be left in the lurch to find background information
about a news item. Now, with the access to almost every knowledge
available on the web, you would be able to probe an issue further.
(d) Source for informed questions
The act of asking questions requires you to be knowledgeable about a
subject. You would not know what to ask if the subject is not within your
realm of accessible knowledge. Previously without the Web, it was close
to impossible to acquire new knowledge quickly and accurately. Now, the
Web has opened up a lot of doors to virtually all forms of knowledge.
Finding information.
Checking the latest statistics.
Searching for background information.
Source for informed questions.
Mining the online databases.
(e) Mining the online databases
Many organisations are creating online digital databases to enable
researchers to do an online search without having to leave their office or
home. These databases contain huge amounts of information just waiting
for someone to dig into. Mining these databases is made easy by
digitalised search engines that are user friendly.
SEARCHING THE WEB
To do a Web search, you can use several search engines that are available.
The database usually contains each pageÊs title, URL and a brief excerpt or
description.
Some of the good search engines existing on the Web can be seen in Table 7.1.
7.4
SELF-CHECK 7.4
Who else would benefit from using the Web? Is the Web a boon or a
bane to you?
ACTIVITY 7.3
What are the uses of the Web?
A search engine is a server-based programme that allows interaction with a
proprietary searchable database of Web pages.
Table 7.1: Search Engines on the Web
Search Engine URL
AltaVista
http://www.altavista.com
Google http://www.google.com
Hotbot http://www.hotbot.com
Infoseek http://www.infoseek.com
These sites are the most popular Web sites because they serve as a gateway to
the Web. Thus, it is good net etiquette if you use a search engine with a site
nearest to you. This improves downloading time and relieves the amount of net
traffic worldwide. For example, AltaVista has mirror sites in 26 countries
including Australia, India, Brazil, Canada, Finland, New Zealand, and
Switzerland.
Of all the above search engines, the Google search engine is currently the most
popular search engine. It is unique because it offers users the opportunity to
interact using other languages besides English. If you prefer to use the Malay
language, you could change this as follows:
(a) Open the Google website in your browser. Click on the „preferences‰
option (see Figure 7.12).
Figure 7.12: The „preferences‰ option on Google
Preferences
(b) In the Interface language, choose Malay (see Figure 7.13).
Figure 7.13: Choosing the Malay language
(c) After selecting your option, click the „Save Preferences‰ button (see
Figure 7.14).
Figure 7.14: Saving the preference
7.4.1 Spider Programme
The administrator of each search engine develops and maintains its own
proprietary database. The database is developed using a programme called
spider.
Spiders roam the World Wide Web and read their pages and other information
to create entries for a proprietary database. It downloads the text to a database.
After cataloguing a specific Web page, the spiders follow links from the Web
page to other pages on the same or different site.
The spider normally returns to the same site from time to time to update the
search engine database. Updating is important because some of these web sites
may have been removed by the Web masters. If you regularly surf the Net, you
would notice that certain sites are no longer available either because they have
closed down or the documents are no longer available.
Save
Preferences
1
2
3
4
7.4.2 Conducting a Search on the Web
Even though there are several different types of search engines on the Web, all
of them use a similar interface for conducting a search. Each search engine will
ask you to type in the word you are looking for. After clicking on the „Enter‰
key on your keyboard, the search begins.
Because each search engine uses different types of Boolean connectors, we will
only discuss the most common ones. Below are the basic steps on how to use
Boolean connectors as shown in Figure 7.15.
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eqpvckp"vjg"ocvgtkcn"{qw"ctg"ugctejkpi"hqt0"Gzcorng<"
" Wug"Pcvkqpcn"Wpkqp"qh"Lqwtpcnkuvu"cpf"pqv"PWL"
"""""""""""Wug"vjgug""eqppgevqtu<"CPF."QT."PQV0"Gzcorng<"
Pgy"Geqpqoke"Rqnke{"CPF"Ocjcvjkt"Oqjcocf"
Chtkec"QT"Uchctk"
Ocnc{ukc"PQV"Ocnc{"
Wug"vjg"yknfectf"ejctcevgt<"A"Vjku"ku"wughwn"kh"{qw"ctg"pqv"
uwtg"qh"vjg"urgnnkpi"qh"uqogvjkpi0"Gzcorng<"
ocpcigt"qt"ocpcig"dgeqogu"ocpciA"
Fq" pqv" wug" uvqr" yqtfu<" c." cp." d{." htqo." ku." qh." qt." pqv."
vjg."vq."ykvj0"Vjg"ugctej"gpikpg"yknn"kipqtg"vjgo0"
Figure 7.15: The basic steps in using the Boolean connectors
META SEARCH ENGINES
7.5
SELF-CHECK 7.5
Why do different search engines yield different results? Why
canÊt one search engine display all the results that are available on
the internet?
If you have surfed the Web before, you will notice that all search engines will
display all documents that have the words you are looking for. For example if
you are looking for „National Union of Journalists‰ using the Google Search
Engine, you will notice that the search result indicates there are approximately
383,000 documents that have those words.
As with most search engines, the Google Search Engine displays only ten
documents at a time. You would have spent a considerable amount of time
surfing and reading each document before finding something that was relevant
to your needs.
You would also notice that different search engines yield different types of
results. Thus, you would think that it is necessary to repeat the same search
using different search engines. Such tendencies are common if you have
searched the Web before. This is because each search engine varies in its
contents, features, accuracy, and retrieval technologies.
To overcome such problems, programmers have developed meta search engines.
Meta search engines perform simultaneous multi-thread searches of all major
search engines. Using meta search engines is no different from any other search
engines.
As with any search engine, you will submit a request to a meta search engine.
You do not have to worry because the meta search engine uses a similar
interface with most of the other search engines. The meta search engine will
send the request to several search engines simultaneously and organise the
responses into a single and readable report.
Some of the more popular meta search engines are shown in Table 7.2.
Search Engine URL
Metacrawler
http://www.metacrawler.com
Monster
Crawler
http://www.monstercrawler.com
Dogpile http://www.dogpile.com
1blink http://www.1blink.com
Excited http://www.excite.com
Without these meta search engines, you would have to submit your request to
more than one search engine. Meta search engines play a substantial role in
internet search due to the overwhelming size of the Web. The number of Web
pages is continuously increasing every day and nobody has an exact count on
the number of Web pages available.
BOOKMARKING OF WEBSITES
Every individual who has been on the web has a set of his or her favourite sites.
We usually bookmark those sites that we are interested in. In other words, the
selection of websites is very personal and private in nature. Those sites that you
would consider as valuable, would not be valuable to another person. Your
preferences would determine the types of sites deemed important to you.
When creating your bookmark list, you should take into consideration several
factors so that only those sites that are of direct benefit to you are bookmarked.
Below is a list of questions proposed by Reavy (2001) that will help you in
determining whether to bookmark a particular website. The questions are:
(a) Where are you located?
Reporters and journalists are usually interested in covering events within
their own locality. You would want to bookmark important sites within a
60-kilometer radius of your working area.
7.6
ACTIVITY 7.4
Why is it important to consider environmental factors in an
organisationÊs buying decisions?
(b) What beats do you cover?
Your reporting beat should determine which sites are most important. If
you are on the police beat, you would want to bookmark sites of the
police department.
(c) What kinds of reference materials do you need access to?
Sometimes while working on a story, you would want access to certain
critical information to be included in your story. In such circumstances,
you ought to bookmark sites that contain relevant information such as
Bank Negara or the Department of Statistics.
(d) Who are your competitors?
Most newspapers or electronic media organisations maintain their own
websites. You ought to bookmark these sites to allow you to closely watch
what your competitors are doing.
(e) How do you like to search the Web?
The Web contains millions of sites and in all probability, you would
regularly use one or two particular websites. These are the websites that
you ought to bookmark.
Some of the websites that you ought to bookmark would be:
Your favourite search engine
Your online dictionary and thesaurus
Your organisationÊs homepage
Your rivalÊs homepage(s)
Your web mail homepage(s)
7.6.1 How to Bookmark a Website?
It is easy to bookmark a particular website. Both Netscape Navigator and
Microsoft Internet Explorer come with a handy bookmark tool. In this scenario,
you will want to bookmark the Google website.
With Internet Explorer, to bookmark the Google website, take the following
steps:
1. Open the website in your browser (see Figure 7.16).
Figure 7.16: The Google browser
2. Click on the Menu „Favorites‰. Choose the „Add to Favorites ‰ (see
Figure 7.17).
Figure 7.17: Choosing the option „Add to Favorites‰
3. A dialogue box will appear that reads „Internet Explorer will add this
page to your Favorites list‰, you just need to click OK or hit the Enter key
(see Figure 7.18).
Figure 7.18: Click „OK‰ to favourite
The website will be added to the list of your favourite websites. The next time
you would like to surf the particular website, you should once again click on
the „Favorites‰ and click on the name of the site that you had bookmarked
earlier. You should make it a habit of deleting websites that you no longer have
any use for. If you do not do this and keep adding new bookmarks, you would
soon find that you have a long list of „favorites‰ sites.
The World Wide Web makes it easy for reporters and journalists alike to
find information.
Information is now at everybodyÊs fingertips, provided that he or she is
connected to the Web or Internet.
The Web contains all kinds of information; you would have to determine
your purpose before surfing.
To surf the Web without a specific purpose would be a waste of time and
resources.
Bates, R. J. (2002). The Internet. Blacklick, OH, USA: McGraw-Hill Professional.
SELF-CHECK 7.6
What is a meta search engine?
INTRODUCTION
The media library or more fondly called „the morgue‰ is where you would begin
if you were to write news. The library would keep a collection of all news
cuttings covered by a media organisation. If you begin your search in the media
library, it will indicate what has already been written about a topic.
With more and more media organisations creating and maintaining online
libraries, you may no longer find frayed and yellowed clippings stored at these
libraries. Some organisations still maintain the old clippings because the cost of
converting everything into digital form is exorbitant. The discussion of this topic
goes beyond your media library search. We will explore how to conduct a library
search.
Topic 8 The Library
By the end of this topic, you should be able to:
1. Discuss the purpose of doing a library search;
2. Explain two major systems of cataloguing library materials;
3. Conduct a library search; and
60 Find information at the library.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
PURPOSE OF LIBRARY SEARCH
Do you go to the library to read a book or research a topic? If you answered yes
to both questions, I suggest you think again. Gaston and Smith (1988) outlined
two main purposes of going and doing a search at a library which can be seen in
Figure 8.1.
Figure 8.1: Two main purposes of going to the library
These are basically the two things that we do when we are at the library.
We may be physically browsing through the card catalogue for the title of a book
or searching the online database for a certain article of interest or even reading
several magazines or newspapers, but what we are doing is asking, as well as
answering questions. Professionals are trained to continuously update their
knowledge. Why? They do that to be conscious of vital unanswered questions
that have bearing on their work.
Is there any other place better to do this than by going to the library? All too
often, reporters rely a great deal on the media library. They search the media
library for unanswered questions. They want to know what questions have been
asked and answered to. Do they stop here? Efficient and effective reporters
extend their search beyond the media library especially if they are working on an
in-depth piece.
8.1
ACTIVITY 8.1
You have been to libraries before. What is the main purpose for
going to the library?
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Visit http://www.bl.uk/collections/newspapers.html to learn more about The
British LibraryÊs Newspaper collections, the national archive collections in the
United Kingdom of British and overseas newspapers. Does Malaysia have its
own Newspaper Library?
The quest for questions and answers may lead reporters to public libraries or
even libraries at universities. They may even end up in archives to dig for even
more questions and answers. Getting more questions than answers is better
because it jogs your mind to think and you are always on your feet.
Figure 8.2 displays a picture of the National Library of Malaysia.
Figure 8.2: The National Library of Malaysia
Source: http://kualalumpurcityguide.com/382/national-library-of-malaysiaperpustakaan-
negara-malaysia/
8.1.1 Library Collection
In the real world, physical university libraries contain collections of books on a
myriad of subject matters. The library collection can be divided into print, audio
and video, and online databases.
SELF-CHECK 8.1
What are the two main purposes of doing a library search?
8.1.2 Organising Your Search
If you go to a library without a purpose you will end nowhere. This is because
the library contains far too much information than what we can hope to consume
in our lifetime. If you go without a purpose it is likened to going to a shopping
complex without a clear idea of what to buy.
In the end, you would be buying something else that you did not really need. In
the library, you would have ended up reading something else and gone astray.
Thus, purpose is important and should be guided by our needs. We should be
very selective in choosing the materials that we want to be exposed to. Being
selective is not bad if you know your purpose.
A sense of purpose will allow you to organise your search well. Even if your
search is minimal, you would still want to organise it in order to maximise the
use of your time.
LIBRARY SYSTEM OF CATALOGUING
Upon entering a library, you will notice that everything is neatly arranged.
Everything is catalogued and numbered to allow for easy access and to expedite
arrangement of materials. All of this is possible because all libraries use a
particular system of cataloguing all available materials in its collection. There are
two systems of cataloguing being used by libraries worldwide which are shown
in Figure 8.3.
8.2
Printed documents are made up of books, journals, government and agency
reports.
Audio and video materials come in various formats, shapes and sizes. Audio
and video materials are now currently produced on digital format, while
those in analogues are still being treasured.
Online databases now allow you to venture beyond the physical boundary of
time and space.
Figure 8.3: Two systems of cataloguing
(a) The Dewey Decimal System
The system is named after its creator: Melvil Dewey. The system divides all
possible areas of knowledge into ten major areas.
Each of them is then assigned a range of 100 numbers as shown in Figure
8.4 below.
Figure 8.4: The ten major areas according to the Dewey Decimal System
Each of these large classes of numbers can be further divided into an array of
ten numbers to form subclasses. The breakdown allows for specialised range of
knowledge within each subclass. Each subclass can be further subdivided by
adding decimals to accommodate almost any conceivable subject matter.
Below (Figure 8.5) is the example of the Dewey Decimal system. The
underlined digits in the following example demonstrate the notational
hierarchy in the Dewey Decimal System. To further understand the system,
visit http://www.oclc.org/dewey/about/:
Figure 8.5: An example of the Dewey Decimal System
(b) The Library of Congress System
This system created by the Library of Congress uses call numbers that begin
with one or two letters and followed by a whole range of numbers from 1-
9999. The Library of Congress numbers can have the decimal extension and
sometimes, the year of publication is included in the call numbers.
The major classifications according to the Library of Congress system are as
listed in Figure 8.6.
Figure 8.6: The major classifications according to the Library of Congress
Below is the example of a sample call number used in The Library of
Congress system (refer to Figure 8.7).
Figure 8.7: Sample call number
Try to search for other websites that will help to explain further on The
Library of Congress System. Whether a library is using the Dewey Decimal
system or the Library of Congress system of cataloguing, you should be able
to locate a material if you follow the guidelines below:
QE 534.2 B64
Iwkfgnkpgu"nqecvkpi"ocvgtkcnu"
Consider each symbol as important, whether it is a number or
letter in capital or lower case.
Read all the symbols in the order it appears, regardless of whether
they are letters or numbers.
Start with the first line and read each line from left to right.
All the materials in the library would be shelved in numerical
order.
When the call number includes letters, each library material with
the same number would be shelved alphabetically.
After going through this section and if you still have problem locating a material
in the library, get the help of the librarian at the help desk. Librarians are trained
professionals and most library users seldom seek the help of these professionals.
A book may be temporarily taken out of circulation for repair or a new binding,
etc. The librarian may even help you to loan the materials through interlibrary
facilities.
ACTIVITY 8.2
1. Do you know what the sample call number in Figure 8.7 stands
for and what subject it represents in The Library of Congress
System? To get the answer, visit
http://www.info.library.yorku.ca/yorkline/lc/lc.html.
2. Which system of cataloguing is being used by the National Library
of Malaysia? You might get the answer by visiting
http://www.pnm.my/.
SELF-CHECK 8.2
What are the two cataloguing systems used by libraries worldwide?
CONDUCTING A LIBRARY SEARCH
In conducting an efficient library search, we should be aware of our limitations.
For reporters and journalists alike, time is the most limiting factor for doing
library search. They are restricted in the amount of time that can be allocated for
conducting the search.
8.3.1 Choose a Topic
With time limitation in mind, journalists must determine and narrow down a
research topic that can be researched within the least amount of time. Such
provisions would mean that when they choose a topic area, it will have to be
within their personal range of knowledge. Choosing a topic beyond oneÊs area of
knowledge will only create unnecessary setbacks to the research. In all
probability, the search will be incomplete and lacking in the depth and breadth
necessary to allow for a full grasp of the researched phenomenon.
Starting a search on a topic that you have zero knowledge of, would mean that
you are engaging yourself in a long and time consuming process. Even though
the rewards are great but with limited time, you will not be able to have total
grasp of the subject matter. Thus, you should do a research topic on a subject that
has interested or fascinated you for a long time. You should allocate enough time
to obtain the necessary materials, to read, and then to evaluate their usefulness.
8.3
SELF-CHECK 8.3
Which one do you think will help you better in conducting your
search in the library; a topic that is very broad or a topic that is
very narrow and specific?
Figure 8.8: The Time magazine
If you have no idea what to research for, you could begin by browsing current
periodicals such as Time (see Figure 8.8), Far Eastern Economic Review or other
magazines of interest. The idea could be further developed if you read the
general topic in an encyclopaedia. The Encyclopaedia Britannica is a good place
to find background information about a particular topic. From a general topic,
you would have to narrow down to specifics. This is to allow for better
management of your resources and time.
You should avoid pitfalls such as too broad or too narrow a topic. If you choose a
topic that is too broad, you may be overwhelmed with the amount of information
available. Too narrow a topic, and you would find that there is not enough
material in the area that you are researching. For example, you are interested in
researching culture but the topic is considered too broad.
To focus on your research area, below in Figure 8.9 is a set of six questions to
help you limit your research focus.
Figure 8.9: The six questions to help limit focus during research
If you had answered all the above questions sincerely, you would have a clear
understanding of your research topic. Clarity is important because it will guide
you along the research process. The problem with the research process is that
you will need to adjust the topic from time to time. Adjustment is necessary as
your knowledge about a research topic improves. If you are clear on what you
want to study, you will be able to stay on track and not be easily swayed by
„new‰ information you may uncover along the way.
8.3.2 Literature Search
After developing and selecting a viable research topic, there are four steps (as in
8.10) in doing the literature search. The steps are:
Figure 8.10: The four steps in literature search
(a) Identifying search terms
This involves coming up with keywords that are relevant to our research
topic. We will use the keywords to locate information that is available
whether in printed and electronic forms. You should begin with a handful
of search terms that are relevant to your research topic. Keywords are
actually search terms that describe your topic.
The keywords have to be broad enough so that you would uncover all the
relevant materials. However, it should not be too broad that it bogs you
down trying to sort through the mountain of information. In developing
keywords for your research topic, you should ask yourself these questions:
(i) What are the related concepts?
(ii) What concepts are synonymous to it?
Related and synonymous concepts are important because different
organisations categorise topics differently. Some organisations categorise
information using the Library of Congress subject headings while others
may classify their materials using the Dewey Decimal system.
With the expanded keywords, you would begin your research with a good
source. In most likelihood, a good research source is a book that is
constantly being referred to by researchers in a particular area. From here,
you would build a list of related materials by looking through the subject
index.
For example, your research topic is on the „History of Malacca.‰
Your keywords that are relevant to the research topic might be
„Melaka‰, „Malacca‰, „Malaysian History‰, „Kesultanan Melayu Melaka‰,
„Parameswara‰, „Hang Tuah‰, etc.
(b) Locating sources in the library
The vast amount of material deposited in a university library would
overwhelm a novice researcher. The advent of online databases and online
cataloguing of library materials has allowed researchers to greatly expedite
their research process. These online databases come with a preinstalled
search engine that allows you to search for the relevant materials. One of
the examples of online databases used in the Library is OPAC (online
public access catalogue) system.
To conduct a comprehensive search of all the materials in a library, your
working knowledge of Boolean connectors will come in handy.
Below are some of the most common Boolean connectors:
ACTIVITY 8.3
Think of one research topic and the keywords that are related to it.
For more information on how to use the search engine effectively,
visit http://home.sprintmail.com/~debflanagan/engines.html
AND use this term if you are locating two ideas simultaneously.
Documents that contain both words will be retrieved. The word „AND‰
narrows down your research term.
OR use this term if you want to broaden your search. Documents that
have either one of the words will be retrieved. The word „OR‰ is good
for searching synonyms.
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urgekhke""rjtcug0
(c) Evaluating relevant information
While conducting your research, you will come across two sources of
information:
(i) Primary Sources
Primary sources of information are evidence left behind by
participants or observers. They may include published, unpublished
documents, visual documents and artefacts, and oral traditions or oral
histories.
Published documents are books, magazines, newspapers, government
documents, non-government reports and others. Unpublished
documents come in various shapes and types. These may include
personal letters, diaries, journals, wills, deeds, business
correspondences, minutes of board meetings, research and
development files, etc. Visual documents and artefacts include
photographs, paintings, films and other types of artwork. Oral
traditions are spoken words from people with firsthand knowledge of
historical events.
Figure 8.10 shows two of the artefacts found in the Neolithic era. The
artefacts are examples of primary sources.
ACTIVITY 8.4
1. Visit www.pnm.com.my and click to the link captioned
Sistem Katalog Awam dalam Talian (OPAC). Here, one can
have the chance of using the OPAC system of the National
Library of Malaysia.
2. How about Open University Malaysia's Library? Does it use
the OPAC system?
Figure 8.10: Artefacts from the Neolithic era
Source: http://www.arkeolog.netteyim.net/arkeo/caglar/neo.htm
(ii) Secondary Sources
Secondary sources of information are materials that interpret or
analyse historical events. Secondary sources of information may
include textbooks, journal articles, and websites. Whether the
materials are gathered from primary or secondary sources, you will be
required to evaluate those collected materials.
Evaluating the materials using these criteria:
(d) Using the information effectively
In order to use the information effectively, you will need to cite the
materials according to the prescribed citation standard. There are many
types of citation styles that you can use. Two commonly used citation styles
are:
Only one style of citing materials should be used. This is to allow
consistency and prevent unnecessary confusion. It is also to allow you to
find the necessary information again, should the need arise. You should file
a proper list of all relevant information so that you can retrieve it later.
The mistake that most people do while doing a search at the library is
failing to keep proper records. In the end, they do not know where to find
something that they had earlier read. Since they want to use the materials,
they have to search for it again. This is a huge waste of time.
The American Psychological Association or the APA Format
Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations
by Kate Turabian
ACTIVITY 8.5
To learn more about the APA Format and the Manual for Writers of
Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations by Kate Turabia, visit the
following websites.
(a) http://www.docstyles.com/apacrib.htm
(b) http://www.bridgew.edu/Library/turabian.htm
You can also do your own search using the search engines such as
Yahoo, Google, Altavista, etc, on the APA Format and „Manual for
Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations by Kate
Turabian‰.
SELF-CHECK 8.3
What are the six questions that allow you to focus on your
research area?
FINDING INFORMATION AT LIBRARIES
Do all the libraries keep the same collection of books? Libraries have large
amounts of materials that we certainly do not know where to start to find the
necessary information. All too often, we assume that the materials are
unavailable or have yet to be published because we cannot find them. Actually,
there exist various sources of information that could be helpful at the library if
you know where to look for them. Some of these sources of information give you
the research information that you are seeking. Others will often direct you to the
sources.
For general information, you should seek the following sources of information
(refer to Table 8.1).
Table 8.1: Sources of Information for General Types of Information
Sources Explanation
Encyclopaedia There are many types of general encyclopaedia published and most
libraries have either the Encyclopaedia Britannica or the Americana
Encyclopedia. These encyclopaedias contain information on almost
all subjects and should be a good place to begin a search.
WhoÊs Who Basic information about prominent people in all fields of information.
Their accomplishments, published credits and important dates are
given.
Newspaper and
Magazine
Indexes
Some libraries make their own index of these materials. Seek the
help of the librarian at the readerÊs desk to enquire if the library you
are in has one.
Books in Print Published in volumes according to subjects, authors, and titles.
Miscellaneous
directories
An assortment of directories may be shelved in the reference section
of the library. These directories usually contain names, addresses,
phone numbers, positions and other critical information about
experts that can help you with your research.
Newspapers Back issues of local newspapers are usually available either in paper
copies or microfilm.
Library
catalogue files
The subject listings in the library catalogue files should present a
listing of books on the topic that you are interested to write about.
Reference
services
Some libraries offer this service to its users. All you need to do is to
call the reference librarian and the person will retrieve the necessary
information for you.
8.4
Statistical
abstracts and
yearbooks
Government agencies publish different types of abstracts or
collections of data annually and they are required by law to deposit
these materials at selected public libraries. These books contain a
wealth of information about various types of statistics from
demographic to economic indicators.
Government
pamphlets
Government agencies churn out numerous pamphlets that may offer
statistics and information for issue-related articles.
Parliamentary
minutes
The law section of all university libraries keeps minutes of both
houses of parliament. These minutes are a must for hot and political
issues.
Almanacs A few publishers publish inexpensive paperback almanacs that
contain useful information and statistics. These almanacs along with
a dictionary, atlas and desk encyclopaedia are essential reference
materials for writers and reporters alike.
Annual reports Public listed corporations publish annual reports and make these
reports available to the public. These reports contain financial
information, listing of officers and various transactions of a preceding
year.
ACTIVITY 8.6
1. Visit Open University MalaysiaÊs digital Library. Search the
library collection using the keywords below:
(a) Encyclopaedia
(b) WhoÊs Who
(c) Newspaper and Magazine Indexes
(d) Books in Print
(e) Directories
(f) Statistical abstracts and yearbooks
(g) Almanacs
(h) Annual Reports
2. Are you satisfied with the result? If not, you might want to visit
the National Library of Malaysia or your respective State Library
for more collections of the materials above.
We have discussed the two main purposes of doing a library search, asking
questions and answering questions.
For the search to be successful, it has to be guided by our purpose.
We have to decide on what, where and when to investigate a particular
search topic.
To ensure success, we must be able to narrow down the topic so that we are
able to manage it, given our limitations.
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