Dialectical Spaces in the Global Public Sphere: Media Memories across Generations

Review 18th Feb 2009
Posted by: SallyLouise on Wed, 18 Feb 09 20:34:22 +0000

This is a really interesting international research project with a very ambitious remit.  Reading about the experiences of the media in the lives of the different generations and communities is fascinating.  I found it particularly interesting how media moved through the generations – being an important social phenomenon for the oldest cohort to being a more personal and isolated experience for the youngest.  The international geographical differences are also very interesting and I particularly like the way national and international media events were used in the fieldwork.  It would be interesting to know more about how the events were chosen.

I think more could have been done to explain the methodological approach to the study and made clearer links between the theory and methods used.  Is it really possible to make generalisations relating to the theory based on a few personal accounts?  It is also not made totally clear the numbers involved (how many groups per country?  How many participants in each group?) and how the participants were recruited to the study – do they all know each other?  Are they all from the same socio-economic background? It would also be interesting to know how validity was maintained in terms of the translation of the focus groups.  Could also have benefited from a discussion about some of the restrictions in using qualitative data, i.e. the difficulties in generalising from a small sample and how you could address these issues.  Areas for further study from this research could be highlighted, for instance.

It is interesting to get a perspective of the US and UK from other countries, and not just an introspective US/UK centred piece of research.  It is important that the experiences of people internationally are recognised, which this piece of research does very well.