Video and Multimedia

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Video Links
The Persuaders
Influencing opinions is big business and a great deal of money is spent on attempts to shape consumers’ attitudes. Elaborate and sophisticated marketing campaigns are not limited to brands and products; they are increasingly part of American politics. This program examines how the techniques of the advertising and marketing industries are used in the political arena.

Revisiting the ‘Crack Babies’ Epidemic That Was Not
This video is part of a New York Times series that revisits old news stories. In the 1980s, there were numerous reports about the ways in which a woman’s use of crack cocaine during pregnancy would damage the developing fetus. The research on which these claims were based was seriously flawed. This video updates the news story and highlights not only the importance of conducting good research but the ways in which scientists and journalists shape our understanding of reality.

Audio Links
This American Life 328: What I Learned From Television
This program addresses the role of television in the lives of everyday people. It includes stories of how we watch television and what the images do to our understandings of the world around us. From a general sense of who we are and how we relate to others to such divergent topics as Thanksgiving and sexuality, the program explores the function of television in defining the world around us.

This American Life 88: Numbers
Numbers lie. Numbers cover over complicated feelings and ambiguous situations. This program is about quantifying data that is hard to quantify. Several people presented in this episode, including Andrea, Alex, Jerry, and Will, attempt to quantify things such as love and productivity in private and family relationships.

Web Links
ASA’s Code of Ethics
The American Sociological Association’s (ASA’s) Code of Ethics sets forth the principles and ethical standards that underlie sociologists’ professional responsibilities and conduct. These principles and standards should be used as guidelines when examining everyday professional activities. They constitute normative statements for sociologists and provide guidance on issues that sociologists may encounter in their professional work [self-characterization].

American Evaluation Association
One way to use a degree in sociology and do research is to become a program evaluator. Program evaluation is a form of applied social science research. The American Evaluation Association is the professional home for evaluators in the United States. The website has career information, professional guiding principles and other resources.

ICPSR
The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) is a repository for many of the most important data sets used by sociologists in their research. The ICPSR website has a search utility that can help you locate a data set that meets your needs.

NORC
Perhaps the single most used source of data for sociological analysis is the General Social Survey (GSS), an annual survey of a representative sample of Americans conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago.