रविवार, 21 दिसंबर 2014

दुनिया के प्रमुख आतंकवादी संगठन

अल कायदा के लड़ाके
पूरी दुनिया इस समय आतंकवाद के कहर से कराह रही है। दुनिया के अलग-अलग हिस्सों में अलग-अलग नाम से आतंकवादी संगठन निर्दोष लोगों को अपना शिकार बना रहे हैं। विडंबना यह है कि हत्या, लूट, अवैध वसूली और बलात्कार करने वाले ये सभी आतंकी संगठन धर्म की आड़ लेकर खड़े किए गए हैं। इन्होंने खुद के संगठन के ऐसे-ऐसे धार्मिक और अन्य नाम रखे हुए हैं, जिससे ये युवाओं को बरगलाकर संगठन में शामिल कर सकें।
आइए जानने की कोशिश करते हैं कि धर्म के नाम पर घोर अधर्म करने वाले कुछ प्रमुख आतंकी संगठनों के नामों का मतलब क्या है। इन नामों और इनके मतलब से हम जान सकते हैं कि ये आतंकी संगठन कितने शातिर दिमाग हैं जो खुद को सही ठहराने के लिए धर्म को कवच के रूप में इस्तेमाल करते हैं।
तालिबान
यह पश्तो भाषा का शब्द है जिसका मतलब छात्र यानी शिक्षार्थी से होता है। लेकिन यह ऐसा छात्र है जो अपनी शिक्षा पूरी करने से पहले ही अपने इलाकों की गलियों-कूचों में खून की नालियां बहाकर दुनिया को हिंसा की शिक्षा देने चल पड़ा है। यह आतंकी संगठन पूरे अफगानिस्तान में फैल चुका है और दिसंबर 1996 से दिसंबर 2001 तक वहां सरकार भी बना चुका है। इस संगठन का गठन 1994 में मोहम्मद उमर ने किया था। आज तालिबान न केवल अफगानिस्तान में कहर बरपा रहा है, बल्कि इसका विस्तार पाकिस्तान तक हो चुका है। वहां तहरीक ए तालिबान पाकिस्तान नाम से आतंकी संगठन अस्तित्व में आ चुका है। इसके खिलाफ पाकिस्तानी सेना ने अभियान चलाया हुआ है। इससे क्रुद्ध होकर इस संगठन ने 16 दिसंबर 2014 को पेशावर के आर्मी स्कूल में 132 मासूम बच्चों समेत 141 लोगों का कत्लेआम कर डाला।
अल कायदा
इसका शाब्दिक अर्थ है- द बेस। अल का अर्थ “द” है और कायदा का “बेस” यानी आधार। यह विश्वव्यापी आतंकवादी संगठन है, जिसका गठन ओसामा बिन लादेन और अब्दुल्ला आजम ने 1988-89 में कई आतंकवादियों के साथ मिलकर किया था। उसके बाद से यह संगठन दुनिया के अलग-अलग हिस्सों में भयंकर तबाही मचा चुका है। अल कायदा शब्द का अर्थ “मिलिट्री बेस” से भी लगाया जाता है। 2001 में खुद ओसामा बिन लादेन ने एक इंटरव्यू में खुलासा किया था कि रूस के खिलाफ लड़ाई के लिए उनके संगठन ने अनेक प्रशिक्षण शिविरों की स्थापना की थी। इन ट्रेनिंग कैंपों को वे लोग अल कायदा (मिलिट्री बेस) कहकर संबोधित करते थे। बस उसी के बाद से आतंकवादी संगठन को भी अल कायदा कहा जाने लगा। हालांकि ब्रिटेन के पूर्व राजनेता राबिन कुक ने लिखा है कि अल कायदा शब्द का अनुवाद “द डाटाबेस” करना चाहिए क्योंकि इसका मतलब उन कंप्यूटर फाइलों से था जिनमें उन हजारों मुजाहीदीन आतंकवादियों के ब्योरे थे, जिन्हें रूस को हराने के लिए अमेरिकी खुफिया एजेंसी सीआईए की मदद से भर्ती और प्रशिक्षित किया गया था।
आईएसआईएस
इसका शाब्दिक मतलब है इस्लामिक स्टेट इन इराक एंड सीरिया। इराक और सीरिया में इस्लामिक राज्य की स्थापना के उद्देश्य से इस आतंकी संगठन का गठन किया गया है। ध्यान देने वाली बात यह है कि आईसिस (Isis) मिस्र में बच्चे का नाम होता है। वहां इसे एक देवी से जोड़कर देखा जाता है और सभी देवियों में सबसे शक्तिशाली माना जाता है। इस तरह आईएसआईएस से, अंग्रेजी में मिलाकर बोलने से आईसिस की भी ध्वनि निकलती है, जिससे लगता है कि यह कोई पवित्र किस्म का संगठन है। आज दुनिया के सबसे खतरनाक आतंकवादी संगठन बन चुके आईएसआईएस की स्थापना इराकी नागरिक अबु बकर अल बगदादी ने अलकायदा से अलग होकर की थी।
हिज्ब उल मुजाहीदीन
इसका शाब्दिक अर्थ है- पवित्र योद्धाओं का दल, मगर संगठन के किसी भी काम का पवित्रता से कोई लेना-देना नहीं है। इसके उलट इस संगठन से जुड़े लोगों के हाथ सैकड़ों निर्दोष लोगों के खून से रंगे हुए हैं। 1985 में इस संगठन की स्थापना कश्मीरी अलगाववादी अहसान डार ने की थी। इस समय इस समूह का सरगना सैयद सलाहुद्दीन है, जो पाकिस्तान में छिपा हुआ है और वहीं से आतंकवादी गतिविधियां संचालित करता है।
जैश ए मोहम्मद
इस नाम का शाब्दिक मतलब है- मोहम्मद की सेना, मगर दुर्भाग्य से मोहम्मद की दी शिक्षाओं से इस संगठन से जुड़े लोगों का दूर-दूर तक कोई वास्ता नहीं है। यह भी कश्मीर में सक्रिय आतंकवादी संगठन है। इसे 2002 में पाकिस्तान में ऊपरी तौर पर तो प्रतिबंधित करने की घोषणा की गई थी मगर अंदरूनी तरीके से पाकिस्तान ने इसकी मदद करना जारी रखा हुआ है। इस संगठन को भारत के अलावा अमेरिका और ब्रिटेन भी आतंकवादी संगठन घोषित कर चुके हैं। इसका गठन 2000 में मौलाना मसूद अजहर ने किया था। इसे हरकत उल मुजाहीदीन नाम के आतंकवादी संगठन से अलग होकर बनाया गया था। यह वही मसूद अजहर है जिसे भारत ने 1999 में अपहृत विमान यात्रियों की रिहाई के बदले में छोड़ा था। 2001 में भारतीय संसद पर हमले का जिम्मेदार भी इसी संगठन को माना जाता है। 2002 में पाकिस्तानी राष्ट्रपति परवेज मुशर्रफ ने संगठन पर प्रतिबंध लगाया तो इसने अपना नाम बदलकर खुद्दाम उल इस्लाम रख लिया, जिसका मतलब है इस्लाम का सेवक।
लश्कर ए तैइबा
इसका शाब्दिक मतलब है खुदा की सेना, लेकिन वास्तव में यह जालिमों की सेना ही है जो केवल खून बहाना ही जानती है। इसका मतलब शुद्धता यानी पवित्रता की सेना भी निकाला जाता है, मगर संगठन के नाम और काम में जमीन-आसमान का अंतर है। यह दक्षिण एशिया का बेहद संगठित आतंकी समूह है जो अपनी गतिविधियां पाकिस्तान से संचालित करता है। इसका गठन 1990 में हाफिज सईद, अब्दुल्ला आजम और जफर इकबाल नाम के शातिर दिमाग लोगों ने किया था। इस आतंकी संगठन के अनेक प्रशिक्षण शिविर पाकिस्तान अधिकृत कश्मीर में चलते हैं। 2008 के मुंबई हमलों के लिए इसी संगठन ने अंजाम दिया था। इस संगठन पर भारत के अलावा अमेरिका, ब्रिटेन, यूरोपीय यूनियन, रूस और आस्ट्रेलिया प्रतिबंध लगा चुके हैं। औपचारिक रूप से पाकिस्तान भी इसे प्रतिबंधित कर चुका है पर भारत और दुनिया के अनेक देश मानते हैं कि पाकिस्तान की खुफिया एजेंसी आईएसआई इस आतंकी संगठन को अपना सहयोग और समर्थन जारी रखे हुए है।
बोको हराम
यह नाइजीरिया का आतंकवादी संगठन है। बोको हराम का शाब्दिक अर्थ है- पश्चिमी शिक्षा हराम है। बोको हराम का मानना है कि पश्चिमी शिक्षा बंद कर सिर्फ और सिर्फ इस्लामी शिक्षा दी जाए। इस संगठन के अनुसार लड़कियों को पढ़ने का बिल्कुल अधिकार नहीं है, इसलिए उन्हें स्कूलों में भेजना अपराध है। इस नजरिये को लोगों पर लादने के लिए बोको हराम के आतंकी लोगों की हत्या करते हैं, लड़कियों का अपहरण करते हैं और बलात्कार करते हैं। स्कूलों में छात्र-छात्राओं पर हमला करते हैं। वे गिरजाघरों और अन्य जगहों पर विस्फोट भी करते हैं जिनमें हजारों लोग अपनी जान गंवा चुके हैं। बोको हराम का गठन 2002 में धर्मगुरू मोहम्मद यूसुफ ने किया था। शुरुआत में इस संगठन ने मस्जिद और धार्मिक स्कूल बनवाए, लेकिन धीरे–धीरे यह राजनीतिक रूप से सक्रिय हुआ और फिर आतंकवादी संगठन के रूप में बदल गया। बोको हराम कहता है कि अंग्रेजी शिक्षा हराम है, मगर अब नाइजीरिया में अनेक लोग कहने लगे हैं कि यह संगठन ही हराम है।
हमास
हमास शब्द अरबी भाषा के हरकत अल-मुकावामा अल-इस्लामिया का संक्षेप रूप है। इसका मतलब है इस्लामिक प्रतिरोध आंदोलन। अरबी में हमास एक अलग शब्द भी है, जिसका मतलब “उत्साह” होता है। हमास का गठन 1987 में मिस्र और फिलस्तीन के मुसलमानों ने मिलकर किया था जिसका उद्धेश्य क्षेत्र में इसरायली प्रशासन के स्थान पर इस्लामिक शासन की स्थापना करना था। इसके सशस्त्र विभाग का गठन 1992 में हुआ था। 1993 में पहले आत्मघाती हमले के बाद से 2005 तक हमास ने इसरायली क्षेत्रों में कई आत्मघाती हमले किए। 2005 में हमास ने हिंसा से खुद को अलग किया मगर 2006 में फिर से इसरायली क्षेत्रों में रॉकेट हमले शुरू कर दिए। तब से रह-रहकर हमास और इसरायली सैनिकों के बीच संघर्ष होता है जिसमें हर बार सैकडों लोग मारे जाते हैं। ज्यादा नुकसान फिलस्तीनी लोगों का ही होता है। हमास का मतलब उत्साह है, मगर हमास से जुड़े लोग फिलस्तीन को आगे बढ़ाने में कोई उत्साह नहीं दिखाते। इसके बजाय वे इसरायल से लड़ने में ज्यादा उत्साह दिखाते हैं।
अल शबाब
यह अरबी भाषा का शब्द है जिसका शाब्दिक अर्थ है- द यूथ यानी युवा। दुर्भाग्य से ये युवा भी युवाओं जैसा कोई काम नहीं कर रहे हैं। ये युवा अपने कंधों पर समाज को आगे ले जाने की जिम्मेदारी उठाने के बजाय बंदूकें-राइफल हाथ में लेकर लोगों का खून बहा रहे हैं। अल शबाब सोमालिया, केन्या आदि देशों में सक्रिय आतंकवादी संगठन है। इस संगठन ने ही पिछले दिनों केन्या के एक मॉल में घुसकर बड़ी निर्ममता से 60 लोगों की हत्या कर दी थी। यहां बताते चलें कि बहरीन में अल शबाब नाम से एक फुटबाल क्लब भी है। कई देशों में अल शबाब नाम से सामाजिक संस्थाएं भी हैं।
आतंकवादी संगठनों की चाल भी यही है कि अपने संगठन का ऐसा नाम रखा जाए जो समाज में या तो पहले से प्रतिष्ठित हों या जिसे सुनकर किसी अच्छे उद्देश्य का अहसास होता हो। इससे उन्हें युवाओं का ब्रेन वाश करने में मदद मिलती है और वे धर्म व जिहाद के नाम पर अपने संगठन की ताकत बढ़ाने में भी सफल हो जाते हैं।

शनिवार, 20 दिसंबर 2014

भारत में हाल में हुए कुछ बड़े आतंकवादी हमले

भारत में हाल में हुए कुछ बड़े आतंकवादी हमले
मुम्बई, १३ जून २०११ : तीन स्थानों पर बम विस्फोट. बीस से अधिक मृत तथा सैकड़ों घायल.
फरवरी, 2010: महाराष्ट्र के पुणे शहर की मशहूर जर्मन बेकरी को आतंकवादियों ने निशाना बनाया. इसमें 16 लोग मारे गए, जिनमें से काफी विदेशी भी थे। एक बार फिर इंडियन मुजाहिदीन को जिम्मेदार ठहराया गया।
मुंबई, 26 नवम्बर 2008 : भारत की आर्थिक राजधानी मुंबई में आतंकवादियों ने घुसकर तीन दिनों तक दहशत फैलाई. पांचसितारा होटलों और रेल्वे स्टेशन पर हुए बम धमाकों में 166 लोग मारे गए। भारत के ब्लैक कैट कमांडो की कार्रवाई में पाकिस्तानी नागरिक आमिर अजमल कसाब को छोड़ कर सारे आतंकवादी मारे गए। हमले की साजिश पाकिस्तान में रचे जाने की पुष्टि हुई.
असम, 30 अक्टूबर 2008 : असम में 18 आतंकवादी हमलों में कम से कम 77 लोग मारे गए और सौ से ज्यादा लोग घायल हो गए।
इंफाल, 21 अक्टूबर 2008 : मणिपुर पुलिस कमांडो परिसर के नजदीक शक्तिशाली विस्फोट में 17 लोग मारे गए।
मालेगाँव (महाराष्ट्र), 29 सितंबर 2008 : भीड़भाड़ वाले बाजार में मोटरसाइकिल में रखे विस्फोटकों के विस्फोट होने से पाँच लोगों की मौत।
मोदासा (गुजरात), 29 सितंबर 2008 : एक मस्जिद के नजदीक कम तीव्रता वाले बम विस्फोट में एक की मौत, कई घायल।
नई दिल्ली, 27 सितंबर 2008 : महरौली के भीड़भाड़ वाले बाजार में बम फेंकने से तीन लोगों की मौत।
नई दिल्ली, 13 सितंबर 2008 : शहर के विभिन्न हिस्सों में छह बम विस्फोटों में 26 लोगों की मौत।
अहमदाबाद, 26 जुलाई 2008 : दो घंटे से कम समय के भीतर 20 बम विस्फोटों में 57 लोगों की मौत।
बेंगलुरु, 25 जुलाई 2008 : कम तीव्रता के बम विस्फोट में एक व्यक्ति की मौत।
जयपुर, 13 मई 2008 : सिलसिलेवार बम विस्फोट में 68 लोगों की मौत।
रामपुर, जनवरी 2008 : रामपुर में सीआरपीएफ शिविर पर आतंकवादी हमले में आठ की मौत।
अजमेर, अक्टूबर 2007 : राजस्थान के अजमेर शरीफ में रमजान के समय दरगाह के अंदर विस्फोट में दो की मौत।
हैदराबाद, अगस्त 2007 : हैदराबाद में आतंकवादी हमले में 30 की मौत, 60 घायल।
हैदराबाद, मई 2007 : हैदराबाद की मक्का मस्जिद में विस्फोट में 11 की मौत।
फरवरी 2007 : भारत से पाकिस्तान जाने वाली ट्रेन में दो बम विस्फोटों में कम से कम 66 यात्री जल मरे, जिनमें अधिकतर पाकिस्तानी थे।
मालेगाँव, सितंबर 2006 : मालेगाँव के एक मस्जिद में दोहरे बम विस्फोट में 30 लोगों की मौत और सौ लोग घायल।
मुंबई, जुलाई 2006 : मुंबई की ट्रेनों में सात बम विस्फोटों में 200 से ज्यादा लोगों की मौत और 700 अन्य घायल।
वाराणसी, मार्च 2006 : वाराणसी के एक मंदिर और रेलवे स्टेशन पर दोहरे बम विस्फोट में 20 लोगों की मौत।
अक्टूबर 2005 : दीवाली से एक दिन पहले नई दिल्ली के व्यस्त बाजारों में तीन बम विस्फोटों में 62 लोगों की मौत और सैकड़ों लोग घायल।

शनिवार, 13 दिसंबर 2014

Qualitative and quantitative analysis in mass media




INTRODUCTION
In this assignment I will explain the advantages and disadvantages of qualitative and quantitative research and give relative examples relating them to the mass media.
Quantitative Research is research that is collected and data that is absolute, for example numerical data and it is usually displayed in graphs and tallies, so that it can be compeered in as unbiased and quick way, therefore one advantage of quantitative research is that the research is unable to be bias and it is very easy and quick to read, so it is very good to use for presentations.
Advantages of Quantitative research is that the results are easily analyzed and easy to compare against other data; this comes useful when magazine company wants to know how much more popular or unpopular a competing magazine is, because the research is statistically reliable it gives the company a good indication of whose selling the most issues. For example a magazine such as ‘India Today’ will want to know how well their competitors are doing such as ‘Outlook’.
Qualitative research is research that requires a more in-depth response, it allows you to ask personal question and collect more data on people, this is best used in T.V shows when they get the personal response from viewers, It allows them to find out about how some people feel about a certain story line and weather they think it will be appropriate, for example, Eastenders regularly like to know whose watching their program and what they think about it and the current story line.
 Qualitative of research is easily accessible, this is useful for companies who need to access the information easily and quickly, this works out well for the film industries when they ask people coming out of the cinema weather they thought the film was any good.
DISCOURSE ON QUANTITATIVE VS QUALITATIVE IN MASS MEDIA
Debates on qualitative versus quantitative research have reached their peak and today qualitative research is accepted as a normal set of approaches among others. Media research has long been dominated by quantitative methods and contributed much to their development in the whole field of social sciences. Today, sociology, education and also, in part, communication science make wide use of qualitative methods. In general, it is not always clear what is meant by qualitative research. Often it is associated with data gathering by ethnography and open interviewing as opposed to standardized surveys. It is important to note that qualitative methodology consists of data collection and data analysis. There has been much development in general methodology, strongly connected to epistemological considerations on how it is possible to perceive reality. Methods of data collection are also very developed; most difficulties are connected to rules for qualitative data analysis.
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
Qualitative Research is primarily exploratory research.  It is used to gain an understanding of underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations. It provides insights into the problem or helps to develop ideas or hypotheses for potential quantitative research. Qualitative Research is also used to uncover trends in thought and opinions, and dive deeper into the problem. Qualitative data collection methods vary using unstructured or semi-structured techniques. Some common methods include focus groups (group discussions), individual interviews, and participation/observations. The sample size is typically small, and respondents are selected to fulfill a given quota.
The qualitative tradition in mass communication research may have been relatively slow in developing its contributions to the field in the form of journals, conferences, textbooks, and handbooks, at least compared to mainstream quantitative work. This has been due, in part, to factors of social history, as already noted: the dominant social construction of reality for a long time has remained quantitative, not least among the sociopolitical agents and institutions that confer legitimacy and funding on science, thus creating a structural bias against qualitative studies


Three types of Qualitative methods
TABLE 6.1
COMPARISON OF QUALITATIVE METHODS
METHOD
STUDY FOCUS
ANALYTIC FOCUS
DISCIPLINES
Ethnography
culture/cultural group
describe a culture/cultural group
Cultural Anthropology
Grounded Theory
cultural groups
generate theory about a basic social process
Sociology/ Symbolic Interaction/ Criminology
Phenomenology
individual experience
discern the essence of the lived experience
Philosophy/ Psychology/ Sociology



Approach of Qualitative Research
n  Qualitative research – different assumptions/ approach than quantitative research
n  Emphasis on seeing the world from the eyes of the participants
n  Strive to make sense of phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them
n  Holistic emphasis – studying the person, group, culture in the natural setting

Step in quantitative research

Quantitative (Linear)
↓ Define a Research Problem/Question
Review the Literature
Formulate Hypothesis or Refine Question
Make Operational Definitions
Design or Select Instruments for Data
Obtain Ethical Approval
Collect Data
Analyze Data
Interpret Findings – Refer to Literature Again
Determine Implications – Draw Conclusions

Core Activities in Qualitative Research
                      Qualitative approaches on:
    1. Literature review
    2. Explicating researcher’s beliefs
    3. Role of participants: subject or informant?
    4. Selection of participants
    5. Setting for data collection
    6. Approach to data analysis
    7. Saturation

Data Collection Methods in Qualitative Studies in mass media
n  Three data collection strategies introduced:
1.      Participant observation
2.      In-depth interviews
3.      Focus group interviews
n  Qualitative researchers may combine more than one method

Methods of Evaluating Qualitative Research in mass media
n  Developing standards of quality Lincoln and Guba’s classic work shed light on how to assess truth in a qualitative report
n  Offered four alternate tests of quality that reflect the assumptions of the qualitative paradigm:
·         Credibility
·         Dependability
·         Transferability
·         Confirmability 
Advantages and Limitations
n  Focus on the whole of the human experience and the meanings ascribed to them by participants
n  They provide the researcher with deep insights that would not be possible using quantitative methods
n  The major strength of qualitative work is the validity of the data it produces
n  Participants true reality is likely to be reflected
n  Major limitation is its perceived lack of objectivity and generalizability
n  Researchers become the research tools and may lack objectivity
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH

Quantitative Research is used to quantify the problem by way of generating numerical data or data that can be transformed into useable statistics. It is used to quantify attitudes, opinions, behaviors, and other defined variables – and generalize results from a larger sample population. Quantitative Research uses measurable data to formulate facts and uncover patterns in research. Quantitative data collection methods are much more structured than Qualitative data collection methods. Quantitative data collection methods include various forms of surveys – online surveys, paper surveys, mobile surveys and kiosk surveys, face-to-face interviews, telephone interviews, longitudinal studies, website interceptors, online polls, and systematic observations.

Burns & Grove (1987)
“... a formal, objective, systematic process in which numerical data are utilized to obtain information about the world" and "a research method which is used to describe and test relationships and to examine cause-and-effect relationships".
Types
n  Experimental
n  Survey
n  Meta-Analysis
n  Quantitative Case Study
n  Applied Behavior Analysis
n  Longitudinal
Approach of Quantitative Research
n  Empirical Verification through observation or experimentation
n  Ruling out simple explanations prior to adopting complex ones
n  Cause-Effect
n  Probability of response
n  Replication of response

Step in quantitative research




Pros of Quantitative Research

n  Clear interpretations
n  Make sense of and organize perceptions
n  Careful scrutiny (logical, sequential, controlled)
n  Reduce researcher bias
n  Results may be understood by individuals in other disciplines

Cons of Quantitative Research
However the information collected in a Quantitative method doesn’t give you additional information for example the emotions, motives, feelings and opinions of the subject are not taken into account.
Another disadvantage may be that the data would need regularly updating so this could lead into spending more money, for example a T.V show would need to do test each week to find out the amount of ratings they have and compeer them with previous data collected to see if the popularity of the programme is increasing or decreasing, and depending on the ratings they receive would play a major part in determining the out-come of the show.

n  Can not assist in understanding issues in which basic variables have not been identified or clarified
n  Only  1 or 2 questions can be studied at a time, rather than the whole of an event or experience
n  Complex issues (emotional response, personal values, etc.) can not always be reduced to numbers

Example of Quantitative research in mass media
If a research project used a survey to assess the impact of English  language mass media on how NRI  immigrants in the New Delhi area adapt to their new environment. In addition to mass media use, the survey also took into account cultural preferences, language fluency, and demographics as possible predictors of cultural adaptation NRI immigrants in a large and multicultural metropolitan area of the India . Hypotheses were tested by using bivariate correlations to determine the relationships between the independent (language, media use, demographics) and dependent (cultural adaptation) variables. In addition, a discussion of intercultural communication and some characteristics of the Non Residential Indian community are provided.

CONCLUSION
Qualitative research, one of the two primary approaches to the conduct of social science research, is a superior means for conducting meaningful research mass media.  The numerous advantages of qualitative methods provide a depth of understanding of mass media system and processing that far exceeds that offered by detached, statistical analyses.  Because of the differences in the data, how data is collected and analyzed, and what the data and analyses are able to tell us about our subjects of study, the knowledge gained through qualitative investigations is more informative, richer and offers enhanced understandings compared to that which can be obtained via quantitative research.
The superiority of qualitative research arises from the core differences in what qualitative and quantitative research are, and what they are able to contribute to bodies of knowledge vents, people, interactions, settings/cultures and experience.  As one leading proponent of qualitative methods has explained, “Quality refers to the what, how, when, and where of a thing – its essence and ambience.  Qualitative research thus refers to the meanings, concepts, definitions, characteristics, metaphors, symbols, and descriptions of things.” (Berg, 2007, p. 3).  Notice that what is missing from this definition is the “amount” or quantity of whatever it is that is being studied.  The number, or numerical descriptions of things and their relationships is not The focus of qualitative research, that is the focus of the “other” form of social science research: 
quantitative methods. Quantitative research is typically considered to be the more “scientific” approach to doing social science.  The focus is on using specific definitions and carefully operationalizing what particular concepts and variables mean.   Qualitative research methods provide more emphasis on interpretation and providing consumers with complete views, looking at contexts, environmental immersions and a depth of understanding of concepts So, why should social scientists use qualitative methods?  What is the benefit of such an approach to the study ofmass media?  In simple terms, qualitative methods are about gaining true understandings of the social aspects of how crime occurs and how the agents, structures and processes of responding to crime operate in c ulturall y-grounded contexts.  Qualitative methods provide a depth of understanding of issues that is not possible through the use of quantitative, statistically-based investigations.  Qualitative methods are the approach that Centralizes and places primary value on complete understandings, and how people (the social aspect of our discipline) understand, experience and operate within milieus that are dynamic, and social in their foundation and structure.







REFERENCES


शुक्रवार, 12 दिसंबर 2014

Writing styles in New Media



INTRODUCTION

Writing style refers to the manner in which an author chooses to write to his or her audience. A style reveals both the writer's personality and voice, but it also shows how he or she perceives the audience. The choice of a conceptual writing style molds the Writing style refers to the manner in which an author chooses to write to his or her audience. A style reveals both the writer's personality and voice, but it also shows how he or she perceives the audience. The choice of a conceptual writing style molds the overall character of the work. This occurs through changes in syntactical structure, parsing prose, adding diction, and organizing figures of thought into usable frameworks. Overall character of the work. This occurs through changes in syntactical structure, parsing prose, adding diction, and organizing figures of thought into usable frameworks.

A writer’s style is what sets his or her writing apart and makes it unique. Style is the way writing is dressed up  to fit the specific context, purpose, or audience. Word choice, sentence fluency, and the writer’s voice — all contribute to the style of a piece of writing. How a writer chooses words and structures sentences to achieve a certain effect is also an element of style. When Thomas Paine wrote “These are the times that try men’s souls,” he arranged his words to convey a sense of urgency and desperation. Had he written “These are bad times,” it’s likely he wouldn’t have made such an impact!

Style is usually considered to be the province of literary writers. But journalists  have distinctive styles, and they need to know how to vary their styles to fit different audiences. For example, the first-person narrative style of a popular magazine like National Geographic is quite different from the objective, third-person expository style of a research journal like Scientific American, even though both are written for informational purposes.

Writing for the Web and the writing for traditional print media is quite different. Web users do not merely read online content, they interact with it, because unlike print media, online media are not static or one-way, or at least they shouldn’t be. Hypertext allows this interaction, or “reading,” to be non-hierarchical and non-linear, more like entering a matrix and moving around within it than reading left to right, line by line. “Writers of hypertext . . . might be described as the designers and builders of an information ‘space’ to be explored by their readers,”






WRITING STYLE OF NEW MEDIA AND CONCISION, TONE & NUANCE


 When we write on new media, our natural ability to express ourselves may remind us that writing per se isn’t always the problem. Formal academic writing for an audience that seems both inscrutable and implacable can easily undermine our confidence. An opportunity to write more freely—with less anxiety about audience—can be a great reminder of our own writing ability. Similarly, blogging allows us to find smaller topics and articulate what we want to say about them in a compact format.

But is there also a relationship between new media and the act of composition at the sentence level? Using social media often means learning to use language in a somewhat different way: our register is different; our vocabulary is different; our grammar may even be different. We embrace certain forms of informality (because Twitter). We develop a store of short words—‘apt’ is particularly handy when space is tight—and a greater appreciation of strong verbs. We treat grammar in ways that we daren’t in our academic writing; that is, we assume a sympathetic audience who will know what we mean even when we bend the rules. Even though we don’t turn around and write these terse but friendly sentences in our academic writing, the process of writing on new media can give us great insight into the boundaries of a strong sentence.Even in the more spacious confines of a blog, our style may be affected by the fact that a blog post is written in a compressed time frame

CONCISION

The first thing that will come to anyone’s mind when we think of writing on social media is brevity. Trying to say something in less than 140 characters, for instance, requires that we bring a whole new level of attention to concision. Even if we don’t always use those strategies in our everyday writing, we are forced to notice the potency of concision. If you regularly write extremely short sentences, you are inevitably honing your brevity skills. In doing so, you are bound to experience some of the benefits of limitation. Sometimes we will encounter the limits of limitation—i.e., the point at which something can’t be any shorter—but we will also learn the value of expressing ourselves in fewer words than we thought possible.

TONE

One of the best ways to understand the role of tone in writing is by having to shift that tone. Academic prose isn’t necessarily good or bad writing, but it is very particular in its tone. New media writing, on the other hand, can give us a sense of a different style of writing and thereby help us see the distinct contours of a piece of academic writing.  While people worry that the unique demands of Twitter or the text message will undermine writing ability, it seems entirely possible that the experience of writing in multiple registers will actually strengthen writing overall.


NUANCE

Short-form writing is also a great reminder of the importance of doing justice to ambiguity. For instance, I find that Twitter is great for sharing things that I like, but not so good for those things about which I have significant reservations. Without room for caveats, we are left without an easy way to disagree respectfully. Think about your average statement of scholarly reservation: “While I found the decision to highlight X extremely helpful, I was ultimately troubled by the reliance upon traditional categories of Y.” That’s 145 characters, even without actual content. So I don’t share that link; Twitter becomes for me a place to talk about the things I actively like or that I like enough to forego qualification. The limits of social media writing thus confirm one of the great strengths of academic writing: the creation of a space expansive enough to contain both agreement and disagreement

Overall, composing text for  new media is instructive for our non-social media writing. By writing things that are more direct or casual or polemical, we are better able to understand how those qualities may or may not operate within our formal academic prose.


WHY NEW MEDIA WRITING IS DIFFERENT

People don't read information on the Web in the same way as they read printed material. Print content allows us to 'control' the reader. We can write from introduction to conclusion and carefully build arguments. We know what they've read previously, and what they're going to read next. We can present information in a logical sequence, supported by peripheral cues.

Web users skim content, they ignore details to read content faster, they even modify ingrained left-right viewing habits in order to drill down more quickly. There have been a lot of usability studies done over the years, the most extensive of which were conducted by Dr Jakob Nielsen, and Stanford University/Poynter Institute. All the reams of information produced by the Sun Microsystems/Jakob Nielsen usability tests, and the Stanford University/Poynter Institute eye tracking studies, boil down to a few basic facts:

  • Web users generally ignore extraneous graphics.

  • 79% of users scan the page instead of reading word for word, focusing on headlines, summaries and captions.

  • Web readers are three times more likely than newspaper readers to limit in-depth reading to short paragraphs.

  • Of those Web users who do read the entire page, most only absorb 75% of the content.


Reasons for this behavior include:

  • Reading from a computer monitor is 25% slower than reading from print.

  • Reading from a computer monitor increases eye strain and fatigue.

  • Web users often scan centre-left-right, instead of left-right.

Dr Nielsen also developed a number of content-oriented conclusions:

  • Web users are active, not passive. If a quick scan doesn't show them the information they need, they won't spend time searching for it.

  • The longer the text, the less likely Web users are to read it.

  • The longer the text, the faster Web users will skim the scannable elements (headlines, summaries, and captions) - if they scan the page at all.

  • Web users don't believe hype. Any claim needs to be backed up by facts.


WRITING STYLES THAT ARE GENERALLY USED


There are four types of writing tyles that are generally used and seen in new media and traditional media. There are many sub-types of writing which may fall in any of those categories.

1. Expository Writing:

Expository writing is a subject-oriented writing style, in which the main focus of the author is to tell you about a given topic or subject, and leave out his personal opinions. He furnishes you with relevant facts and figures and does not include his opinions. This is one of the most common type of writing styles, which you always see in text books and usually “How – to” articles, in which the author tells you about a given subject, as how to do something.


Key Points:

  • Expository writing usually explains something in a process

  • Expository writing is often equipped with facts and figures

  • Expository writing is usually in a logical order and sequence


2. Descriptive writing:

Descriptive writing is a style of writing which focuses on describing a character, an event or a place in great details. It is sometimes poetic in nature in which the author is specifying the details of the event rather than just the information of that event happened.

Example:

In descriptive writing, the author will not just say: “The vampire killed his lover”

He will change the sentence, focusing on more details and descriptions, like: “The red-eyed, bloody vampire, flushed his rusty teeth into the soft skin of his lover, and ended her life.”

Key Points:

  • It is often poetic in nature

  • It describes places, people, events, situations or locations in a highly-detailed manner.

  • The author visualizes you what he sees, hears, tastes, smells and feels.

3. Persuasive Writing:

Persuasive writing, unlike ‘Expository Writing’, contains the opinions, biasness and justification of the author. Persuasive writing is a type of writing which contains justifications and reasons to make someone believe on the point the writer is talking about. Persuasive writing is for persuading and convincing on your point of view. It is often used in complain letters, when you provide reasons and justifications for your complaint; other copywriting texts, T.V commercials, affiliate marketing pitches etc. are all different types of persuasive writing, where author is persuading and convincing you on something he wants you to do and/or believe.


Key Points:

  • Persuasive writing is equipped with reasons, arguments and justifications

  • In persuasive writing, the author takes a stand and asks you to believe his point of view.

  • If often asks for a call or an action from the readers.



4. Narrative Writing:

Narrative writing is a type of writing in which the author places himself as the character and narrates you to the story. Novels, short stories, novellas, poetry, biographies can all fall in the narrative writing style. Simply, narrative writing is an art to describe a story. It answers the question: “What happened then?”

Key Points:

  • In narrative writing, a person, being a narrative, tells a story or event.

  • Narrative writing has characters and dialogues in it.

  • Narrative writing has definite and logical beginnings, intervals and endings.

  • Narrative writing often has situations like disputes, conflicts, actions, motivational events, problems and their solutions.


NEW MEDIA WRITING VS PRINT WRITING


The first thing to keep in mind is that writing for an online medium is night-and-day different from writing for print. Why? Take a moment to think about the core functionality of a print publication. Once an article is printed and circulated, it becomes a product that may be read by the people who might come across a physical copy of it. That publication is now a finite moment in time; the publication doesn’t live or breathe because it’s in a physical form. Readership is dependent upon when the article is released to ensure the highest amount of readers and whatever happens when it hits the secondary market. Publishers can guess how many people might read your article by their circulation numbers, but there really isn’t a definitive way to track who read it and who didn’t.

On the web, not only can a publisher track how many people have read your article, they can also see how many visits it receives, where the visitors originate from, etc. over a long period of time. For this reason, some consider web-based works to live and breathe online. Articles that you may have written two years ago have the ability to become popular again on the web, simply because of how the web functions. Unlike a print publication, mistakes can also be fixed instantly or articles can be changed, which is why some publications have rushed to produce timely content without having all the facts.

In many cases, writing for print allows you to have more freedom and more flexibility with your writing style because you are writing for a captive audience. When you write for the web, you are trying to capture members of a much larger audience.

Because of how the web functions, when you write an article for the web, search engine optimization (SEO) is a key factor in attracting what are known as “organic” visitors. When applied to writing, SEO refers to a process in which the writer will use specific keywords in a particular order on the page in the hopes that the search engines will “pick up” the article and rank it higher in the search results. If I was writing an article related to alien abductions, for example, I might entitle my post simply as “new media writing vs print media?” A potential visitor would then type in that keyword or phrase into a search engine, find your link, and read the article. This visitor didn’t know about the publication that I was hired to write for nor did they know that I had written the article; they were attracted to my writing based on keywords within it. This type of writing affects your writing style because in many ways it limits creativity and word choice in order to achieve the highest amount of readability possible while retaining the overall theme of the article.

Many, if not all, online content providers know about search engine optimization and how powerful well-created content can help lift a site in the search engine rankings to attract visitors. This content, however, doesn’t come “free,” which is why there is such a huge need for good content written with SEO in mind. SEO is one of the reasons why there are places online that want your writing; many companies are looking for good, keyword-driven articles that they can use on their website. Some of you may feel that SEO isn’t really important all the time; in my experiences, SEO is a component of your online writing toolkit but it isn’t the only one.

In the print world, content is often written with a particular goal in mind, but those goals are often limited by how expensive it is to print that publication and how many people the content might reach. If you think about it, billboards are a great example of how a message needs to be crafted very carefully in order to send the right signal to the right people in a short amount of time. Most print publications also need to generate enough income to cover their base costs, too, which affects how they make decisions.

On the web, content can have the same goals that print publications do. In many cases, ad-supported publications want “eyeballs on the page,” so the writing may be inflammatory in order to attract readers that they can show through their web analytics package to their advertisers. In other scenarios, a business simply wants to have a professional presence online that ranks for specific keywords or they need relevant content on their site because they know that’s how they’ll attract and retain visitors.





STRUCTURE OF NEW MEDIA CONTENT

Content needs to be structured differently for the Web, because the average Web reader scans the first few headings/paragraphs to decide if the content is what they need - and traditional content structure puts the most important information at the bottom of the page.

In general the data presentation (pyramid) format, that is:

Introduction > Details > Conclusion

The Web, on the other hand, needs what's called an 'inverted' pyramid structure:

Conclusion > Explanation > Details

The inverted pyramid structure ensures that readers see the most important information first. This helps readers scan the page and decide if they want to read in-depth and - if they do leave - at least they'll have read the key points.

pyramid.gif






CONCLUSION

Writing for the new media is a totally different experience from writing for the print media, whether we discuss here essays, press releases, marketing content, technical material, or journalistic articles. The core difference between the media lie in the properties of the media as electronic and dynamic - webbish, vs. static and portable - print on paper.


Naturally, the characteristics of each medium and its limitations impose some rules on the writer, and the designer of text and visual image. Such characteristics also dictate some methods of work, styles, and tools. The two media, online and print, also address the readers, who likewise, live by the standards of the media, in a very different fashion.

The printed format is usually limited by size, and thus, usually contains more text, describing and explaining the theme, with little emphasis on visuals. Whereas a web post, embedded with hyperlinks, allows the writer to compose a concise description, and demonstrate the idea with a strong visual image that can spare thousand words and add a significant impact.

Nonetheless, hyperlinks do not limit the text, as much as they serve as content dividers, or organization utilities. Through using hyperlinks, the text can be better divided into topics, sub topics, and sub sections. The division is thus, modular, and pretty much thematic. The readers are active in selecting the content to read, and they are the ones to decide on the reading order, not the writer. In this way, the presented theme can be more understandable—compared with the printed text that is usually used to convey all the bunch of information in a linear fashion.

One of the most prominent advantages of web writing compared with print writing is the interactivity with the readers that the media imparts. Allowing the readers/users to select options, vote, fill in info, submit content—affects the writing style and the visual presentation a great deal. That said, wherever the readers become involved in the content and the features that the site promotes—the text changes according to their selection, and sometimes also dynamically, during runtime. Such a thing would be impossible using static print.

Writing for the web and for the print requires different tools for handling text and images. The printed medium usually uses desktop editing tools, such as MS Word, and desktop publishing tools such as Freehand, InDesign, and Illustrator or Photoshop for image treatment; while web design can be created with different writing and editing tools (similar to print) or use Photoshop for image treatment-- however with no need to page and layout the text or format it physically on paper, another big plus.

Despite the great added values of new media writing over print writing, print writing is still considered a more "formal/official" choice, and therefore, it is the current standard in “serious” publications of books, scientific articles, academic essays, and legal publications. The printed result/product is permanent, less suspect to changes or amendments, and not less important, portable. Whereas, web text and visuals are more dynamic, changeable, updateable, durable for life, and more and more portable as well, thanks to handheld mobile devices, notebook PCs, PDAs, Tablets, iPhones, i-Pads and the like.




















REFERNCES