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Show CHAPTER3 METIi ODS This dissertation employs qualitative historical research methods to examine national and local print news coverage of Utah's five national parks. 98 As historians James Davidson and Mark Lytle argue, history is not simply what happened in the past. Instead, it is the act of selecting, analyzing, interpreting, and writing about the past. 99 This chapter gives an explanation and justification of how historical evidence was selected, analyzed, and interpreted to answer the questions guiding this research. While calling for a more rigorous approach to journalism history, Mary Ann Yodclis Smith argued that journalism historians must understand that they arc writing a history, not the history ofa given topic. Understanding that there are multiple perspectives on history sheds light on a more complete, complex picture of the past. And shining a light on how journalists reported on Utah's national parks should illuminate a piece of Utah and journalism history and environmental history that stands in the shadows. While this research is an interpretation of the historical evidence - it is a Quantitative methods for this type of research might not show the nu:mce that come from what James D. Startt and Wm. David Sloan call the "unSu'l)assed rigor" of qualitative methods. The method best suited for the current research includes the interpretation and narrative associated with qualitative historical analysis James D. Startt and Wm. David Sloan, Historical Methods in Mas.f Communication (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1989), xiii. 98 99 James Davidson :md Mark Lytle, After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection, s"' ed. (New York· McGraw Hill, 2005), xv. |
