METHODS, METAPHORS, AND MEDIA RESEARCH - THE USES OF TELEVISION IN POLITICAL CONVERSATION

The purpose in this article is threefold: to make explicit the implici t metaphors underlying mainstream public-opinion research and their re lationships to the methodologies employed, to offer an alternative ''c onversational'' metaphor for the relationship between television and p ublic opinion, and to present some findings from the authors' initial attempts to investigate empirically this relationship. First the autho rs argue that most public-opinion research results from, and reinforce s, an implicit metaphor of citizens as ''political consumers'' and med ia messages as ''hypodermic injections.'' The authors then present an alternative metaphor that emphasizes the role of discourse in the form ation of public opinions and that conceptualizes television and viewer s as participants in an ongoing ''conversation.'' The third section di scusses focus groups as a means of observing this conversation. The au thors describe their own focus group project and present some initial findings that support the usefulness both of focus groups as a method of inquiry and of their conversational metaphor.