Interview. The success of an interview depends on many conditions and, first and foremost, on well-done preliminary homework. It includes getting to know the topic and the interviewee as thoroughly as possible through various sources and methods.
Press conference work.
Observation, just like an interview, is the most common way of obtaining information. It allows, firstly, to collect figurative details about people, places and events, secondly, to verify information or impressions received from other people, thirdly, to obtain evidence (testimonies) that cannot be found in other ways, fourthly, to reconstruct an event for readers, listeners, viewers.
In addition to simple observation, journalists often use so-called “participant observation,” when an editorial staff member temporarily changes jobs. The purpose is to go deeper into the heart of what is happening in any given area of human existence.
Documentary research. A document, which is information recorded in a printed or handwritten text, on magnetic tape, photographic film or videotape, is perhaps the most important tool in a journalist’s work. It is used to verify information from interviews and observations. It becomes an argument and a proof when a journalist has to prove his/her case in court. Reliance on documents makes a publication sound and protected. A professional journalist takes every opportunity to provide himself or herself with copies of the documents with which he or she has to work.
One of the main tasks one has to perform is to verify the authenticity of the document.
Sociological ways of obtaining information. Media practice sometimes uses techniques borrowed from sociology. In particular, questionnaires are used to study the opinions about the newspaper or broadcast channel, the audience’s perceptions of significant public problems, as well as to collect additional statistical material. Content analysis of texts, i.e., content analysis, is aimed at obtaining quantitative characteristics of the phenomenon, such as the frequency of the appearance of the name of one of the candidates on the newspaper page in comparison with another, the recurrence of one or another topic, etc. A Journalistic Experiment. The essence of this technique is that the journalist creates a situation that forces people to display their “preserved” qualities prior to the experiment.
Simple random selection. This method is used when it is necessary to register the natural scatter of opinions of representatives of different social groups in a survey, which reflects the scatter in the general population. The formation of equal in number quotas gives a more accurate sampling. Application of this method is expedient when the parameters of selection are known, which with high degree of probability provide observance of characteristics significant for research.
The “snowball” method. The method is a modification of sociometric survey: respondents are asked if they know any people who match certain characteristics to be included in the sample.
Two-stage sampling. Its essence is that from initially formed wide sample of respondents according to certain criteria a sub-sample is selected, which is the main object of research”.