[00:58.04]NATALIE:Dave, I'm worried about our case study.
[01:02.07]I've done a bit of reading, but I'm not sure what's involved in actually writing a case study — I missed the lecture where Dr Baker talked us through it.
[01:11.68]DAVE:OK, well it's quite straightforward.
[01:14.66] We've got our focus - that's tourism at the Horton Castle site.
[01:20.30] And you said you'd done some reading about it.
[01:23.70]NATALIE:Yes, I found some articles and made notes of the main points.
[01:28.16]DAVE:Did you remember to keep a record of where you got the information from?
[01:32.37]NATALIE:Sure. I know what a pain it is when you forget that.
[01:35.74]DAVE:OK. so we can compare what we've read.
[01:39.37] Then we have to decide on a particular problem or need at our site.
[01:45.77] And then think about who we're going to interview to get more information.
[01:50.58]NATALIE:OK. So who'd that be?
[01:53.87] The people who work there?
[01:56.11] And presumably some of the tourists too?
[01:59.14]DAVE:Yes, both those groups.
[02:01.52]So we'll have to go to the sites to do that, I suppose.
[02:05.62] But we might also do some of our interviewing away from the sites -
[02:10.60] we could even contact some people here in the city, like administrators involved in overseeing tourism.
[02:18.19]NATALIE:OK. So we'll need to think about our interview questions and fix times and places for the meetings.
[02:26.49] It's all going to take a lot of time.
[02:29.32]DAVE:Mmm. And if we can, we should ask our interviewees if they can bring along some numerical data that we can add to support our findings.
[02:38.98]NATALIE:And photographs?
[02:40.73]DAVE:I think we have plenty of those already.
[02:43.60] But Dr Baker also said we have to establish with our interviewees whether we can identify them in our case study, or whether they want to be anonymous.
[02:55.02]NATALIE:Oh, I wouldn't have thought of that.
[02:58.29] OK, once we've got all this information, I suppose we have to analyse it.
[03:03.93]DAVE:Yes, put it all together and choose what's relevant to the problem we're focusing on, and analyse that carefully to find out if we can identify any trends or regularities there.
[03:18.01] That's the main thing at this stage, rather than concentrating on details or lots of facts.
[03:25.01]NATALIE:OK. And then once we've analysed that, what next?
[03:29.66]DAVE:Well, then we need to think about what we do with the data we've selected to make it as clear as possible to our readers.
[03:37.65] Things like graphs, or tables, or charts...
[03:41.91]NATALIE:Right.
[03:42.59]DAVE:Then the case study itself is mostly quite standard; we begin by presenting the problem, and giving some background, then go through the main sections, but the thing that surprised me is that in a normal report we'd end with some suggestions to deal with the problem or need we identified.
[04:04.53] But in a case study we end up with a question or a series of questions to our readers.
[04:11.14] And they decide what ought to be done.
[04:13.44]NATALIE:Oh, I hadn't realised that.
[05:03.75]NATALIE:So basically, the problem we're addressing in our case study of the Horton Castle site is why so few tourists are visiting it.
[05:14.54]And we'll find out more from our interviews, but I did find one report on the internet that suggested that one reason might be because as far as transport goes, access is difficult.
[05:26.45]DAVE:I read that too, but that report was actually written ten years ago, when the road there was really bad, but that's been improved now.
[05:36.56] And I think there's plenty of fascinating stuff there for a really good day out.
[05:42.62] But you'd never realise it from the castle website - maybe that's the problem.
[05:47.88]NATALIE:Yes, it's really dry and boring.
[05:51.16]DAVE:I read somewhere a suggestion that what the castle needs is a visitor centre.
[05:56.55] So we could have a look for some information about that on the internet.
[06:01.61] What would we need to know?
[06:04.02]NATALIE:Well, who'd use it for a start?
[06:07.31] It'd be good to know what categories the visitors fell into too, like school parties or retired people, but I think we'd have to talk to staff to get that information.
[06:18.49]DAVE:OK. And as we're thinking of suggesting a visitor centre we'd also have to look at potential problems.
[06:25.70] I mean, obviously it wouldn't be cheap to set up.
[06:29.41]NATALIE:No, but it could be a really good investment.
[06:32.65] And as it's on a historical site it'd need to get special planning permission, I expect.
[06:38.42]That might be hard.
[06:39.91]DAVE:Right, especially as the only possible place for it would be at the entrance, and that's right in front of the castle.
[06:47.46]NATALIE:Mmm.
[06:48.32]DAVE:But it could be a good thing for the town of Horton.
[06:51.82] At present it's a bit of a ghost town.
[06:55.37] Once they've left school and got any skills or qualifications.
[06:59.80] The young people all get out as fast as they can to get jobs in the city.
[07:04.78] And the only people left are children and those who've retired.
[07:09.11]NATALIE:Right. Something else we could investigate would be the potential damage that tourists might cause to the castle site, I mean their environmental impact.
[07:20.19] At present the tourists can just wander round wherever they want, but if numbers increase,there might have to be some restrictions, like sticking to marked ways.
[07:30.95] And there'd need to be guides and wardens around to make sure these were enforced.
[07:36.02]DAVE:Yes, we could look at that too. OK, well ...
