Methodology chapter dissertation
The Tour de Yorkshire press campaign was done with the goal to create attention and media exposure for the event as it was held for the very first time. The purpose of this dissertation is to discover how exactly the campaign managed to create attention and what techniques were used to achieve that. The methods used to do that will be explained further on in this chapter. Within the comprehensive question of how the Tour de Yorkshire campaign was conducted a couple of sub-research questions emerged and these will also be further investigated in this dissertation. These include the question of whether the public is in a way manipulated by the creation of attention and media exposure. The idea of manipulation
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Weaver, Motion and Roper (2006) describe that as a form of manipulation that aims at changing the emotions and behaviours towards the issue- in this case the Tour de Yorkshire. In order to do that, the method of rhetorical analysis will be used. This can be combined with Public Relations theories about agenda settings and active/latent publics and therefore offers a good starting point. It might also be interesting to see if the language within the press releases changes over the period of the six-month, meaning that the use of emotional words might grow as the actual event comes closer. Titscher, et al. (2000) describe seven criteria under which a text can be examined. That involves aspects such as its coherence but also its acceptability. The idea that a text has to be accepted by the receiver can be traced back to Habermas (Burkart on Habermas 2007) and his theory about the ideal speech situation, which will among others provide a framework for this dissertation.
Furthermore there will be a general textual analysis combined with a content analysis that will focus on identifying personal viewpoints or any self-interest that might be evident in the texts. That for example includes statements that praise the work for the successful completion of the Tour de France as it was done by the same campaign