Media Research On The World War II

A focus group can be defined as a group interview- centered on a specific topic and facilitated and co-ordinated by a moderator or facilitator- which seeks to generate primarily qualitative data, by capitalizing on the interaction that occurs within the group setting. The idea behind the focus group method is that group processes can help people to explore and clarify their views in ways that be less easily accessible in a one to one interview. While the focus group opens up exciting analytical possibilities, it also gives rise to a number of potentially problematic issues in this respect.

This method is applicable to my study because it allows the group of students the freedom to share their experiences, understanding and beliefs of the topic being presented. Focus groups are an asset to my research design because these groups work best for topics people could talk about with one another in their daily lives but do not. Focus groups are not always appropriate for highly sensitive and personal topics to be shared with strangers. However, for the purposes of my research the racially sensitive issues will be open to discussion because the focus group will only have African American students (Merriam,

Flexible and inexpensive, focus groups consist of six to ten participants (Hartman, 2004, p. 408). Additionally, a moderator guides the discussion among its panel members that allows researchers to observe real-time verbal responses and nonverbal cues (Hartman, 2004, p. 402; Cooper & Schindler, 2014, p. 160). Focus groups moderators also have the ability to introduce new ideas to gain a greater understanding of concerns from respondents (Hartman, 2004, p. 402). However, a concern with focus group is the lack of anonymity due to the face-to-face participation.

This article represents a focus group type of qualitative research. According to Qualitative Research Consultants Association (2015), in focus group qualitative research, a group of individuals who share a need, life circumstance, or habit relevant to the research issue(s) at hand are led in a discussion by a modulator. The focus group discussions often include between two to ten respondents, and are often held face to face. They can also be conducted remotely through videoconferencing, teleconferencing, or

Focus group: a small interview of people who are brought together to discuss a particular topic.

Focus group is a group interview. The group is made up of people with the same characteristics and ask them questions about something or someone. The response they give will be recorded and use as reference when making a decision.

Jemma, the researcher and focus group moderator, has structured the discussion in the following way: to start with, Jemma provides a frame of reference for the focus group referring to the aim of her research, and summarizes the pre-formulated research questions that serve as openings to obtain such feedback (Nel, Romm, & Tlale, 2015). Focus groups are seen as providing a unique data source, and tend to emphasise their value in exploring participants’ knowledge and experiences and in helping to understand not only what people think, but also why they think the way they do (Greenwood, Ellmers, & Holley, 2014).

Bloor, Michael, Jane Frankland, Michelle Thomas, and Kate Robson. (2001). Focus Groups in Social Research.

The video if part four of a six part series published by the University of Derby, known as, Advanced Qualitative Methods, created to inform students of the advantages and drawbacks of conducting a focus group. The video features, Fiona Holland, Senior Lecturer Psychology, and James Elander, Head of Center for Psychological Research, both from the University of Derby, representing both the benefits and limitations of focus groups. The main benefits of focus groups are the amount of data collected at one time compared to an individual interview, and the ability to compare results from different demographic groups. The limitations

What is a focus group? A focus group “is a panel of 6 to 10 participants led by a trained moderator, who meet for 90 minutes to two hours” (Cooper& Schindler, 2014). The focus group we conducted had 8 participants, who were willing to answer questions and discuss the different aspects of adding a salon into their local Target store. Before starting the focus group, all 8 participants knew the background of the discussion. To start off the focus group we did an introduction. The introduction questions included which age bracket they were in, where they were from, what best described their work experience and what best describes their income level.

The researcher felt that was the nature of focus group but to a larger degree a behavior of human nature, especially in groups where the participants know each other and work together. Therefore to head off a loss of control of the groups the participants were asked to rate topics that were popular in similar focus groups (Levy, Mandell and Schultz 2009; Pellicano et al. 2014). The strategy was used to integrate the topics into the focus groups that participants

Thank you for your participation. Your participation is voluntary and the statements made in the focus group interview have no relationship to or influence on your current or future study or your work and responsibilities. Your participation in this study will be kept confidential by the researcher.

When group dynamics work well, the partakers work together with the researcher, taking the investigation in new and frequently unanticipated directions. They are also good for giving a lot of the participants the courage to speak, especially for those who may not feel confident enough to speak in a one – to – one interview (Kitzinger, 1995). However, focus group methodology has its limits. The focus collection depends heavily on supported discussion to harvest results; therefore, the enablement of the dialogue is critical. The worth of the discussion rests upon the skill of the mediator, who should be well qualified and preferably distant from the target populace, yet not linked with the researchers (Leung and Savithiri 2009). From the groups, words and expressions were extracted for coding into groups of meaning and themes were then

There are advantages and disadvantages to using focus groups. Advantages are that focus groups can be used to collect in-depth information about delicate subject matters in the efforts to develop health services, health interventions, or to improve care. Focus groups can also encourage participants that would be silent to voice their opinions. Another advantage of focus groups leads to some “hidden” or “unexpected” information that may be very valuable and have major implications for developing health programs that are appropriate to the target population (Focus Groups, pg. 91). Disadvantages of focus groups include: 1) prevalence cannot be stated; focus groups give details about the variety of views only and 2) since focus groups use a

Carson et al (2001, p.114) refers to focus groups as “A research technique that collects data through group interaction on a topic or topics”. They also suggest that the central distinctive characteristic of focus groups is group interaction, which generates a mass of data, which would be