VI. Data Collection Plan Worksheet

This worksheet is used with lesson 5

Instructions

You have been hired on a three-month research consultant contract by the organization Climate Strike Canada. “Climate Strike Canada is a network of hundreds of students, young people, activists, and allies, connecting youth climate justice organizing from coast to coast. We are united and empowered by the hope and vision we have of climate justice, and a Just Transition to a better world. We work to stop climate change, amplify each other’s voices, and coordinate actions to create change in our communities”. The organization would like you to produce a report that answers the question: How is climate justice portrayed in Canadian Media? 

Please draft a data collection plan for this project by filling out the  worksheet below.

In your plan consider to the best of your ability:

• the purpose of the research
• research rigour and quality
• practical considerations (timeline etc.)
• your ability to justify the decisions you make here

The purpose is to get you to think through designing a research project like this that is short term, at the behest of an organization, and that uses a media analysis. These sub questions listed here in italics are meant to prompt you to think more deeply about research design and the decisions that one would make when conducting this type of research project. One goal in research design would be to be able to justify the decision due make in terms of data collection and analysis to be able to explain your reasoning and the considerations.

When filling out this worksheet make decisions to the best of your ability and be as precise as possible in your answers. You can edit the worksheet to best fit your answers or research plan into it. Be decisive and be ready to justify the decisions you have made in our class. There is a section at the end of the worksheet where you can list additional consultation questions you might ask Climate Strike Canada where you can list specific questions you have as a researcher after conducting this activity completing this activity.

The purpose of this activity is as a brainstorming activity . There are not necessarily right and wrong answers and do an I do not expect you to know how to fill out this worksheet completely. The intention is that we do our best with these worksheets and then bring them to class to compare to one another.

The Worksheet

What is the research question you are aiming to answer? 

What information do you need to answer this question? 

How exactly will you search for the information/media you need to answer your research question? 

Prompts: Presumably you will have to search to find the information you need for analysis. How do you anticipate doing that? Will you use a library database? A search engine like Google? A physical search of archives? Other forms of data collection in media such as sweeping Twitter for relevant hashtags? What search terms would you employ (e.g. “Climate Justice”, “Climate Strike”, “Canada”) in order to make sure you find all of the relevant media?

What parameters will you use to determine whether or not a piece of media should be included in your data collection (consider time frame, scope and type of media in your answer)? 

Prompts: It is unlikely that you can analyze every single piece of media about Climate Justice in Canada. You will have to set some boundaries around what you decide to analyze and what you do not. For example: will you collect news media only from within a specific time. ? If So what will that time period be? Will you collect news media only from national sources? Will you consider regional or local news sources? Will you only collect data from official journalistic sources or will you consider opinion pieces published within an official news source? Will you only look at textual sources like newspapers or will you also consider visual news reports such as television news? Will you consider information from other forms of media such as social media, blogs, information published by academics or organisations, etc? 

How will you know when you have collected enough data? 

Prompts: What indicators will you use to figure out when you can stop collecting data? How many media sources or pieces of media do you intend to collect for analysis for this project? How many do you think you can analyze within the timeline of the project?

Where and how do you plan to store and organize the media you have collected for analysis?

Prompts: Where will you store these pieces of media such that they can be analyzed easily and how will you organize them? 

What are the first few steps you would do once you had collected all of this data in order to analyze it? 

Prompts: Be as specific as you like in terms of listing specific themes you might look for or actions that you would take in media analysis. We will return to this in a few days so it is OK of this portion of the worksheet is vague at the moment. 

Are there any ethical considerations to think about related to this research project? If so, what are they? 

If you could ask Climate Strike Canada three questions in order to help you better design the data collection phase of this research project, what would those three questions be? 

What are three questions or issues you would like to discuss in class tomorrow related to decision making dilemmas in data collection design?