Precision Journalism: A Reporter's Introduction to Social Science Methods [Paperback]

Philip Meyer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2002 | ISBN-10: 0742510883 | ISBN-13: 978-0742510883 | Edition: Fourth Edition

Philip Meyer's work in precision journalism established a new and ongoing trend-the use by reporters of social science research techniques to increase the depth and accuracy of major stories. In this fully updated, fourth edition of the classic Precision Journalism (known as The New Precision Journalism in its third edition), Meyer shows journalists and students of journalism how to use new technology to analyze data and provide more precise information in easier-to-understand forms. New to this edition are an overview of the use of theory and science in journalism; game theory applications; introductions to lurking variables and multiple and logistic regression; and developments in election surveys. Key topics retained and updated include elements of data analysis; the use of statistics, computers, surveys, and experiments; database applications; and the politics of precision journalism. This accessible book is an important resource for working journalists and an indispensable text for all journalism majors.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Precision Journalism is a must-read for journalists intending to do in-depth reporting in the 21st century--whether it involves polling, data analysis, or understanding complex reports. This updated edition clearly explains social science methods and how to effectively use them to increase the accuracy and credibility of news stories. (Brant Houston )

Precision Journalism is the mother ship from which most other books on computer-assisted journalism were launched. Philip Meyer not only encouraged journalists to learn social science methods three decades ago, but he also provided a clear, user-friendly book to get them started. Now in its fourth edition, Precision Journalism continues to be an important resource in the arsenal of tools available to journalism educators, students, and practitioners. (Kawamoto, Kevin )

In his professional mode, Meyer leads readers into becoming as comfortable with numbers as with words--data analysis, basic statistical procedures, constructing and interpreting surveys, using databases, and much more. At the same time he warns working journalists not to get too comfortable with numbers. (Columbia Journalism Review )

Philip Meyer's vision of 'precision journalism' as a standard of excellence for our profession is sharper than ever in this thoroughly updated and expanded edition of his classic book. (Stephen K. Doig )

About the Author

Philip Meyer is the Knight Chair in Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers; Fourth Edition edition (May 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0742510883
• ISBN-13: 978-0742510883
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #400,349 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Philip Meyer (1930- ) began his newspaper career as a carrier for the Clay Center (Kansas) Dispatch in 1943. He still porches his neighbors' newspapers when he finds them thrown carelessly at the curb. He majored in journalism at Kansas State and was editor of the daily Collegian his final semester in 1952. After serving two years in the Navy, he joined the Topeka Daily Capital as assistant state editor and met his wife there. She had a part-time job writing wedding stories, and she wrote their wedding story in 1956.
Their wedding trip took them to Chapel Hill, N.C., where they remained while Meyer worked on his M.A. in political science. In 1958, the Miami Herald hired him to be its education writer, and he covered Florida's first court-ordered school desegregation. In 1962, he was posted to the Knight Newspapers Washington Bureau as correspondent for the Herald's sister paper, the Akron Beacon Journal. He won a Nieman fellowship to Harvard with the help of his bureau chief, Edwin A. Lahey, who had been a member of the first class of Nieman fellows in 1938. At Harvard, he studied the quantitative methods in social science that he had avoided in graduate school. He applied those methods while on loan to the Detroit Free Press to help cover the 1967 riot in that city. The use of survey research to discover the underlying causes of the riot was one factor in the awarding of the Pulitzer Prize for local general reporting to the staff of the Free Press.
The civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s and 1970s offered more opportunities for demonstrating the journalistic application of social science methods, and the Russell Sage Foundation supported the writing of his first book, Precision Journalism, published in 1973. In 1978, Meyer turned his attention to newspaper marketing problems and joined the corporate headquarters of what by then was Knight Ridder Newspapers. Chapel Hill lured him back with a Kenan professorship in 1981, and he became the school's first Knight Chair in Journalism professor a few years later.
Professor Meyer retired in 2008 and started writing a memoir that was published in 2012 as Paper Route: Finding My Way to Precision Journalism.