Research into the media aspects

Some of the research I have used in my dissertation comes from Domeneghetti’s ‘From the back page to the back door’ (2017), this research looks at the media and how sports journalists are dominated by football. This specific section of the book looks at the media effects of the Hillsborough disaster, including broadcast and print media.
In this section of the book, it looks at how the media on the time of Hillsborough represented the disaster, which helped as a researcher's could be seen to be very reliable.

source evaluation

Source Evaluation	What is the source? (Website, book, TV documentary etc.)	What have I learned from it?	Issues with reliability
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_PA7YlJAHY	BBC Documentary on TV	I have learned about how the families of the time dealt with this tragedy, the emotions they went through, how they coped, who they were told was to blame in the wake of the disaster.	Issues with reliability are that the accounts of which were used in the documentary are from the bereaved families and witness testimonies from the day, the issue with this could be that they may give a biased story of events as they were the ones involved directly. However on the counter to   this it could give quite a fair judgement of what happened on that day because they would be able to go into great depths.
The Sun’s, infamous ‘The truth’ headline	Newspaper article/headline	From this newspaper headline I have learned of the huge impact that the media had on how people saw the tragedy, especially from Rupert Murdoch’s ‘The Sun’, I have learnt that the media has a huge impact on how people think and how the media can change the way people think about a situation.	The issues with the reliability in this sense is how reliable the content of the newspaper is. We can’t wholly trust this headline/ article due to how they obtained the information and how it was proven to be false in the future also, I used this information to show the comparison between how the media represented the Hillsborough tragedy at the time and the consequences   of this from 1989.
The Sun’s ‘The Real Truth’	Newspaper article/headline	As this was posted 23 years after ‘The Truth’ headline, I gathered that the media can gain a huge influence on the people, especially one of the biggest tabloid newspapers in the United Kingdom at the time	Here you could agree that there is very low reliability due tot he sources of the headline. These sources were falsely made up by Sheffield police officers, and this was published to a huge audience with false information.
https://www.liverpoolfc.com/hillsborough/contact	Website for Hillsborough support group	From this source, I discovered the names/ages of all the supporters who tragically lost their lives. The website gives background knowledge of the support group, including how the group started and who the chairman of the comittee is, Margaret Aspinall.	This source has no issues with reliability as it is written by the founder of the committee, a parent of one of the sadly young boy James who passed away.
https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/hillsborough-shameless-smears-lies-cover-11245354	Website article by the Liverpool Echo	From this source, I first hand read the lies, and corruption that The Sun and the South Yorkshire Police had done to cover up and force a false misrepresentation of the Liverpool fans.	The issues with reliability is that there is a possibility of a potential bias as the article is coming from the supposed accused Liverpool fans, side.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQrl5ivhLYU Andy Burnham	Speech in front of the houses of commons by Andy Burnham, in front of a vast group of MP's	Andy Burnham stands in front of the Houses Of Commons with an emphatic and emotive speech. I learnt about how the ongoing case took 27 plus years to come to a verdict, even though they had all the details in front of them from the very beginning of the investigations.	Here again you could argue that the reliability is compromised as you are only hearing from on side of the tragedy and only hearing one side of what happened in the day.
Lord Justice Taylor’s Report http://www.contrast.org/hillsborough/history/taylor.shtm	The official Lord Justice Taylor's Interim Report	What I have learnt from this report is that the regulations what have been devised after this disaster will change the footballing world forever, and as heart-breaking the day on 15th April 1989, it still brings good to the football world.	High reliability as the report was made by a member of Law.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjfxugkQ2qQ	ITV news broadcast from the day of the disaster	I have learnt how quickly the media are to act on a news story as this came just hours after the event unfolded at Hillsborough. Also from this news article I have learnt that the spread of fake news even without proof can be published on Britain’s biggest news broadcaster at the time.	Essentially low reliability as the content to which they are reporting has been proven to be false information.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Sources I've used from newspapers

These newspaper headlines i have obtained from the internet from, Sheffield Star which was the local newspaper to Hillsborough. Liverpool Echo, the newspaper of the supporters who died,both of these articles were published a few days/ a week after these disaster. Two newspaper articles from The Sun, one from 1989 and one from 2012.

I would come to the conclusion that me obtaining these newspaper articles would be seen as reliable, because the newspaper headlines were the ones which were published at the time. 

However what is questionable is the reliability of the content of the newspapers, for example The Sun's 'the truth' headline, which is what i will look to establish this in my dissertation.

Meeting with my mentor

Another meeting with my mentor allowed my progress to enhance even more. In the meeting I decided to slightly tweak my dissertation title, to just looking at how the print media affected the representation of the people involved in the the disaster. I have done this as I wanted to keep my presentation linear and I found with including broadcast widened the subject area massively. Keeping the dissertation focused on print media, and for example the tabloid newspaper, 'The Sun' and how they influenced peoples decisions, represented the police, the fans at the tragedy but also as a whole at that time, and also the support group for Hillsborough. 

I have also been looking at theorists to support why and how 'The Sun' we able to present these people in this way. 

Primary and Secondary Evidence

During my research and gathering information, I managed to find a lot of secondary evidence to back up my argument. Due to the fact that I have an extensive amount of secondary research, the need for primary research was not necessary. My secondary research includes research from BBC documentaries, Lord Justice Taylor's interim report, Guardian newspaper articles, and TV broadcasts (BBC, ITV, M.E.N, LIVERPOOL STAR) from the time of the disaster.
Using secondary evidence instead of primary evidence could be seen as unreliable because of the fact that it is data which is used as a substitute to primary evidence, however who the sources are from counteract the point to make the sources reliable, for example the BBC which is one of the oldest broadcasting channels and a well established company, which would make the sources I have gathered together justifiably reliable to include in my project, just like primary evidence.

The reasons why I didn't need to include primary evidence was because there was plenty of secondary evidence circling around, especially for example interviews of the people I was looking into, to research.

How this EPQ has helped me

From starting my EPQ, it has enhanced my ability to be organised and being able to meet the deadlines I have set. For me, being organised was never a strength of mine, however what my EPQ has enabled me to do is improve my organisation, and to plan ahead to be able to meet the deadlines in time. This was something I struggled with before, and now having built on this skill i will be able to use this to my ability when i go onto university.

2nd meeting with mentor

Meeting with my mentor for the second time enabled me to take a step forward in my project. I have been able to set titles to help structure my dissertation and doing this allows my to research different areas of my question and keep everything focused on one question instead of running wild with research what isn't useful.
Given the recent news on the courts trials ongoing with the Hillsborough this makes my project a lot more interesting as it is keeping it contemporary.

Structuring my Dissertation

planning & titles for project

• introduction to the dissertation
• personal views, how i personally feel about the disaster
• Introduction to the people involved and their roles, for example David Duckenfield, JFT96 support group, The Sun and their impact, Andy Burnham. ( 250 words each )

Topic Areas

• The media perspective, including what exactly The Sun said and what impact that had on everybody in the UK How Liverpool stood against The Sun and even now to the present day. ( aim for 1000 words )
• The persistence of the JFT96 support groups, including details from the court cases won by them, what its classed as now and how far they've come to reach the verdict that they wanted to. ( 1000 words )
• The injustice and the lies that the South Yorkshire Police brought across to try and cover their own backs. - David Duckenfield (1000 words)
• How it brought the footballing community together, memorial etc.
• What actually happened on the day of the disaster
• Conclusion of the whole thing - including where it stands now, ongoing debates, the sun still being banned in liverpool.

Timeline for what to be completed

List of tasks to be completed by the end of November

•  to have my source evaluation table filled out, which looks at the strengths and the weaknesses of each source, and how reliable each source is in terms of whether it can be trusted or not.
• Written up a plan of how to structure dissertation, what to include and where.
• Start to write up Introduction and personal paragraph.

By the end of December

• Have titles for the separate sections i wish to look at 
• gather some research for each part of the areas
• Write introduction for each header

By the end of January/February

• Continue on writing up the dissertation
• Arrange which theorists are going to support the areas of representation from the sun
• Research of the news articles from 'The Sun'

By the end of March

• Aim to have majority of the dissertation completed with the time to be able to allow changes and time to reflect over my dissertation. 
• achieve to have powerpoint to present my epq started

Timeline of event and intial ideas

To move forward with my EPQ and to help me be able to organise my dissertation into what i can talk about, I'm going to set out the timeline of events from a few weeks before the disaster to the present day. This will help me get a full idea on what was published by the newspapers and when, and what each tv broadcast of the disaster said about the event and how this changed from 1989 to how Hillsborough is presented now. After I have done this I will then be able to structure my final piece by organising what i will say and where.

Epq diary

Date	What I have Achieved	What I need to do	Changes	Skills used and developed
18/10/18	I have started to look at my initial ideas and what I intend to look at. I have discussed these with my mentor and chosen on the topic of media representation on the Hillsborough disaster.	Gain some background knowledge on chosen subject, and then decide on a title.		Organisation Communication punctuality
11/11/18	I have started to do some pre – research to be allow me to starting planning for which direction I want to take my EPQ, as my topic on Hillsborough is majorly broad, the need to be structured is essential due to the amount of information around this topic, including the timeline of events from what happened onlong Hillsborough.	Take notes of which publications posted what and when		Research skills
13/11/18	Created a timeline to be completed to help achieve the deadlines at the right time to enable me being punctual and improve time management.	I need to make sure to meet each deadline to make sure I  have an even work load and reduce leaving work until the last minute.		Time management
22/11/18	Came up with titles for paragraphs and allocated them an amount of words to be able to be organised and be able to reach the word limit efficiently.	Gather research for each header, then be able to construct paragraph aims		organisation
23/11/18 – 4/1/19	Research into the news, found article from The Sun, Liverpool echo and Sheffield star. Research from a book to help	Watch broadcast media to be able to see if there’s a difference between the print media and broadcast.		Research skills
4/1/19 onwards	Starting bringing together dissertation including all the research I have researched	Reach the word limit efficiently, include all relevant detail,		Developed skills to be organised, puncutal