Western Sydney University Critical Review 2 Cannabis

Critical Review 2- 30%: 1200 words, Quantitative- due – 8th May 2020,
Summary of your Assignment based on Learning Guide/ Marking Rubric and Some Frequently Asked Questions- FAQs
Word count- Plus/minus 10% tolerance allowed from 1200 words. Published within the last 10 years- 2010 onwards only, overseas media/ related research report is fine too- if it is quantitative and post 2010
Here students are reviewing the media reporting of the quantitative research as well as the original research being reported. The CR2 is not an essay- so there is no need for introduction/conclusion. Intext references and reference list required. You need 5 scholarly resources. Also, please make sure you reference your media article and related research report/journal article where necessary. So you may have 6-7 references in total including media article and related research report/journal article .
Step 1
Find a media article (news paper report, magazine article, television/radio transcript) that has reported some published quantitative research
Relevant to your study of discipline (policing, criminology etc.)
Not used in class room discussions

Step 2
Must find out the original published quantitative research cited in the media article. Original published research could be a journal or research report (avoid thesis/dissertations/media releases/annual reports)

Some key points to note here
• Important hint – original quantitative research report / journal article needs to be published earlier than media article. Also, authors of media article and journal article/ research report from which statistics are drawn should have different authors. What the CR2 task essentially is asking you to do is to discuss the information media article has taken from a published research report/journal article. They may not use all information form the published research report/ journal article.

• Media Releases are usually developed and distributed by the organisation/institution who conducted the research, not by journalists or media organisations. So stay away from them, same is true with conversation articles .

• It is good to stay away from complicated annual reports- as you may struggle to evaluate them.

• Students are only required to review one of the media articles (either print or video; either print or audio etc). So for example, in the class activity, you only discuss the ABC news video and NOT the SMH article that is attached.

• Thesis/ Dissertations are student works submitted to University- we don’t use them for this task

Step 3- write a 1200 word critical review

How do you write? You don’t have to copy and paste like the question and answer model. You could give headings, please be guided by marking rubric too
Headings- You can give meaningful headings- Discussion of Media Article, Evaluation of journal article/research report, Alternate methods etc.
Review must include-
1. Discussion of Media Article – (Reference media article and related research report/journal article only in this section)- 10 marks
Discuss how media article has used the published research by covering the points below:

• What information/data did they use from the published research and why?
• What message is the media article trying to communicate?
• Has any data/information of the published research not been included in the media article?
• Why do you think this information has been excluded ? Does the author provide justification?
• Has the media article provided adequate insights into the published research?

NB: Please do make sure you highlight any key statistics, percentages the media article is using from quantitative research report/journal article. Also, if your media article is using information from many reports, please focus on one dominant research report/journal article. Otherwise, you will struggle with the task.

2. Evaluate the strengths and limitations of the original published research from which media article has used the statistics from – (Use 5 scholarly references here- make sure to reference your published research too)- 7 marks
Your evaluation should make reference to the points below:
• the research question
• the research method ( e.g. Sampling- how did they collect samples, sample size, procedures= detailed data collection methods, confidentiality, analysis)
• the results- did they present the findings clearly, how did they present the findings?
• whether or not the strengths and limitations you identified were addressed in the media article

3. Propose alternate methods of data collection and/or analysis that could address the limitations of the original published research (4 marks)
Here make sure you propose an alternate quantitative method that addresses the limitations of the research report/journal article you have selected.

Please make sure the argument here is well justified/ supported by a scholarly resource/ resources. This scholarly resource could be part of the 5 you are asked to include.

Library Searching Tips: These are some suggestions from library. You may want to try these

Library Tips: Searching for a Media Source: Search a multi-newspaper database, newspaper index or magazine index/database (from the ‘News and Newspapers Subject Guide’):

Multidisciplinary Sources:
The Sydney Morning Herald [SMH Online]
The Age [Melbourne]
The Guardian [Australian Edition]
The Australian Herald-Sun Australia & New Zealand Newsstream (note: searching within this database will pick up articles published by smaller newspapers. There is no way to exclude smaller newspapers from search results. Studies mentioned in these sources may sometimes be difficult to trace.)

You can also search the following sources: CNN, BBC News etc. Any media article from any country should be fine.

An example search: study OR “quantitative study” OR “numerical study” OR “quantitative research” OR “statistical study” OR “empirical study” OR “survey” OR “longitudinal study”