ABSTRACT

This chapter reveals under what circumstances web surveys can be an alternative in studies of journalists and audiences, and what factors must be taken into account to achieve representative, generalizable data of significance to the research field of digital journalism studies. It discusses different ways of finding the right sample of respondents, both in the area of journalists and among their audiences. The chapter examines both the benefits and flaws of web surveys when studying digital journalism. In general, the benefits present the strongest features of web surveys; they are cheap, easy to handle, and save time. The main purpose of conducting surveys is to find answers to questions with the highest data quality possible. When surveying journalists with a web survey method, it is nearly impossible to select a random sample of individuals accessing the net. It is thus common to rely on self-selection by respondents or simply put a survey questionnaire on a web page.