ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book aims to bring together many of the research skills needed by the modern journalist. So the journalist as researcher must not only establish and verify information but also decide which content is most recent, most pertinent and interesting to their particular audience. Traditional print journalists work in publications which vary from trade papers serving highly knowledgeable niche audiences, through newspapers, to mass-market magazines and high-end political journals. Radio audiences are recorded and analysed by Radio Joint Audio Research (RAJAR). These values are relatively easy to identify and explain, but the way they work together is incredibly complex and they each form an interrelated factor for the journalist to consider when researching a story. This is the point where the researcher considers how ideas and themes can be drawn from the data and what their research material might mean.
