Sociology Projects: A Students' Guide is a practical guide to project work for sociology students. It includes advice on how to choose a manageable topic, checklists, where to look for useful documents, how not to get overwhelmed by data, when to prepare and how to evaluate a questionnaire, ways of presenting your material to best effect and how to anticipate both the possibilities and the pitfalls of a sociological project.

The British post-war campaign to ban American horror comics neatly illustrates many of the pitfalls of media research. It is the first case-study used by David Barrat as he reviews this rapidly growing field of sociology. He gives a clear account of how and why sociologists have studied the media, looking in particular at the arguments about the effects of television, video, comics, newspapers, and radio on their audiences.
He explains how media organizations work, how 'news' is manufactured, and what the political and commercial constraints can be. He discusses the likely impact on new...