Researchware

Nicholas Philip Cloke selected HyperRESEARCH for his Honors Dissertation in Public Relations for the Bournemouth Media School of Bournemouth University. With the subject being "Confidence and willingness: An investigation into police-media relations" the research is relevant to law enforcement and media reporters everywhere.

Nicholas writes in the abstract, "This paper investigates police-media relations within Dorset Police. It considers the influence of demographic and experiential factors on the levels of confidence in the media and willingness to engage with the media exhibited by individual police officers and staff. Results of an electronically-distributed questionnaire with 355 respondents are used to gauge the effect of broad demographic features on confidence and willingness, whilst eleven semi-structured interviews are evaluated using critical incident analysis to identify the impact of personal experiences on the future thoughts and behaviours of police personnel. Quantitative questionnaire data is analysed and triangulated with qualitative analysis from the interviews. Results show that the variables of confidence in the media and willingness to engage with the media are intrinsically linked. The rank of police officers and the level of media training received by respondents are identified as the only demographic features to significantly influence confidence and willingness, whilst the experiential factors, such as how Dorset Police is portrayed in the media and interviewees’ personal experiences of working with the media, are shown to have a large impact on confidence and willingness levels. It is concluded that personal experiential features influence willingness and confidence much more than broad demographic factors."

You may download the full PDF of the dissertation here.