frbleus1-7, Exercise 3: Sources for testing whether 1998 changed attitudes

Model answer (check the details):

1. Opinion polls over time (for example surveys of attitudes to immigration, repeated before and after 1998). Can show: changes in stated views. Cannot show: reasons, or behaviour.
2. Election results (for example the National Front vote in 1997, 2002 and later). Can show: political support. Cannot show: the effect of one event among many.
3. Discrimination data (testing studies of job applications, housing and policing). Can show: whether conditions changed. Cannot show: attitudes directly.
4. Academic studies by sociologists and historians of the team's reception. Can show: careful analysis and context. Cannot show: everything, and they reflect the authors' views.
5. Press and television coverage from 1998 and later. Can show: how the event was framed and how that changed. Cannot show: what ordinary people thought.
6. Interviews and oral histories with fans and with residents of the suburbs. Can show: personal experience. Cannot show: how typical it is.

Best approach: use several kinds together, and state the period for each.

Care: do not treat one poll or one memorable quotation as representing the whole country.