The scientific method has become a valuable tool to produce accurate and useful data in mass media research. This annex focuses solely on the scientific approach and forms the fundamental basis for media content analysis in Army Public Affairs. The goal of Public Affairs media research is to provide the methodology to support situational assessment, planning and decision-making that is fast, inexpensive, reliable and valid. The application of scientific methodologies to media research by Public Affairs personnel accomplishes this goal. Five basic characteristics, or tenets, distinguish the scientific method from the other methods of research.
Science tries to rule out eccentricities of judgment by researchers.
When a study is undertaken, explicit rules and procedures are constructed and the researcher is bound by them, letting the chips fall where they may. Objectivity also requires that scientific research deal with facts rather than interpretations of facts. Science is empirical. Researchers are concerned with a world that is knowable and potentially measurable. Analysts must be able to perceive, understand, and classify what they study and reject nonsensical explanations of events.