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Football League coverage in newspapers

Hi all,

I am currently writing a paper discussing the different ways newspapers cover the Football League. As part of the research I have set up a questionnaire that I hope some of you can answer.

I chose Brentford as a case study as over the past five years they have been in Leagues Two, one and Championship so good for comparison

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QGMQDXL

Many thanks for any responses.

Comments

  • I gave up on the survey. It's not very well constructed.
  • Alex I would suggest that you start the questionnaire again. You start with a premise that we look to papers for FL news and I certainly don't so your first three questions are irrelevant. I suspect that a vast majority do not look to any paper for FL news, but would if it was improved, if you cover this in the questionnaire, I am sorry most will be put off before you get there. Of course a lot depends on what information you want out of it.
  • I only answered half of the questions as everytine my answer was FLP. When you already have a paper every Sunday just designated to Football league news and reports it makes every other paper irrelevant.

    Plus I rarely buy a national newspaper these days.
  • I have done it but the questions are quite strangely set out.
  • edited May 2015
    As Kap says the premise is wrong, I think you need to look at it again. I take a paper, (the Times, which Jeeves presses for me and places on my breakfast tray) but not for football league news. For news of my club I check the internet.

    As I only really care about CAFC I am not particularly bothered with the rest of the football league, other than the same passing interest I have with the Premier or any other football news.
  • Gave up I'm afraid.
  • I took the survey and apparently I'm 23% gay, did I fill it out correctly?
  • Oh dear.
    Hello @AlexC.
    I'm sorry, but I'm afraid that really wasn't much use.
    Some tips for making a questionnaire:

    Keep it clear. Your questions are a bit bizarre and are all over the place.

    Avoid repetition. The first three questions are essentially the same.

    Avoid asking for a written or typed response - people can't be bothered. If it's really necessary, maybe ask a universally relevant question like like 'who's your favourite team?' but apart from that, stick to tick boxes only.

    Don't assume you know your audience - As examples, you assume that your audience gives a shit which paper they read. You don't acknowledge that newspapers may no longer be a primary source of information for many and you assume there is a shared view that tabloid and broadsheet papers follow a formula when it comes to football reporting.

    Avoid leading questions - the "Tabloid v Broadsheet" section is an example.

    Cover your bases. If you leave out an option, someone will find it - that is, ensure that every possible answer is covered by your options. However, don't allow too many options to end up in 'Other'.

    Avoid overlaps (To be fair, you didn't do this.)

    Avoid questions that alienate. A huge issue is that you've used Brentford as an example, but you are asking fans of other clubs about Brentford's coverage. Who's really going to have noticed other than Brentford fans? Fans will only have a view relevant to their own interests, so Charlton fans might be able to compare League 1 to the Championship and Cardiff fans could compare to Premier League coverage. Maybe filtering into which divisions people are interested in would resolve this? One way around this is to allow your public to skip questions if not relevant or, even better, format the questionnaire to skip some questions based on answers to previous questions (but I don't know if survey monkey has that capability!)


    Sorry to be so negative, but I'm trying to give constructive criticism, and any data you get from that survey will be at best useless and at worst utterly misleading.
    Setting questions is a tricky business, you need to take time to get it right.
    Consider some of the comments on this thread. People aren't saying these things to be mean, they're letting you know it doesn't work. Use the feedback.

    Good luck.
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