TO DO, 11'5

1
TO DO, 11.5

• Matthew West a devotional video by Dr. Ebersole
• Turn in Chapter 8 quiz, folder up front
• Pick up In-class assessment quiz , up front
• Handout, chapter 8, up front
• Handout, Message in the Music, Top 77 Songs Is
  your favorite song on the list?
• In-class Discuss Content Analysis (FM Radio
  article, Gender Conversion article review
  these)
• Remember to check Bb Gradebook it is up-to-date
• RQ/H returned before I leave for NCA next week.
• On wed of next week, when Im in Chicago, well
  do a podcast followed by a quiz
• Dr. B with us this Wed, Message in the Music
• Dr. E with us on Mon, Nov. 12, for Reality TV
  article. Your Bb discussion is preparing you for
  his visit

2
What have you done?

• Read Reinard (chapter 8)
• Read POR (several articles)
• Took Reinard Quiz (chapter 8)
• Took in-class Quiz (chapter 8)
• Listened to podcasts (2)

3
Making Communication Knowledge Claims

Producers Process
Messages
Uses/Effects
Processes of message production, transmission,
and meaning making
Functions and effects of messages opinions,
beliefs, attitudes
Content or form of the communication messages
Contexts and Levels
Individual, dyad, group or societal levels
e.g., News agencies, dyad, organization
e.g., family talk, tv content and how it portrays
Black/White relations
e.g., anti-smoking ads, why people watch RTV
4
Content Analysis
Q. Church Bulletins? Q. Comments in the
suggestion box? Q. Conversational Analysis?
(dyad, group) Q. Eavesdropping (male/male
male/female)
To MONITOR content Q. Stereotypes against
Hispanics/Asians? Q. Portrayal of Religious
people on TV? Q. How gender roles are portrayed?
Power? Q. Violence in cartoons? Q. Comparisons?
(Internet Home pages) Q. CCM Cds? CWM? Jesus
Merchandise?
Making Inferences by systematically identifying
characteristics in a text
1. A form of textual analysis
2. Where? Politics, TV, newspapers
MESSAGES IN TEXTS!
3. When do we use it?
To Characterize Communication in Mass Media
In non-traditional settings
4. Advantages/Disadvantages (Krippendorf, 1980)
Advantages
Disadvantages

• Unobtrusive

No cause-effect

• Accepts unstructured material

Sampling

• Studies the data in context

Generalization

• Massive amounts of data

5
TO DO, 11.7

• Devotional Dr. Metts
• Handout up front (Questions Dr. B will ask you)
• Quizzes in Return folder up front for chapter 7
  8 quizzes
• Turn in abstract no. 1, up front, if you have it
  if not, before 5 pm in my box
• Reminder I need the full text of the article so
  I can verify your answers
• RQ/H returned before I leave for NCA next week.
• I may ask for more of the article from some of
  you if what you gave me isnt sufficient to
  determine if you answered correctly (check Bb
  announcements for more details)
• In-class Before Dr. B arrives at 315, well
  finish up the slide we started and chat about the
  Gender Conversion piece for a few minutes.
• Dr. E with us on Mon, Nov. 12, for Reality TV
  article. Your Bb discussion is preparing you for
  his visit.
• On Wed of next week, when Im in Chicago, well
  do a podcast followed by a quiz.
• Last Elluminate Live test session is Thursday,
  11.8, at 8-9 am. If you cant make it for the
  reasons announced in Bb, see me after class.
• Reminder if you have a question about a quiz
  question, no problem. Circle the question no. you
  want to challenge, and send me an email
  explaining why you should get the point.

6
Content Analysis Procedures
E.gs (1) Presence or absence of objects within
a physical unit (versus theunit itself) (2)
link words to referents of times positive
words in articles about President Bush appear
E.g. Patterns of ideas or treatments
(stereotypes) (1) Racial stereotypes in TV
sitcoms (2) Sexist stereotypes in The Roseanne
Show (3) Violence on TV (4) Types of editorials
in SAU paper
E.gs (1) of books written about a
particular field communication during different
time periods pages articles inches (2)
of TV shows involving minorities as lead
characters in 1970, 80, 90 2000.
E.gs (1) counting words (or symbols) of
times the word pro-life appears in a
speech. (2) counting of times communism
or free speech appears in a newspaper article

• E.g.s
• Statements made or argument units
• Arguments used by the President forgoing into
  Iraq
• Statements made by sources usedin an article

STEP 1 Defining Population/Selecting Texts
Sample or Census?
If sample, is it representative? Size?
STEP 2 Determining Units of Analysis
(Krippendorf, 1980)
Physical
Syntactical
Referential
Propositional
Thematic
STEP 3 Developing Content Categories
Form
STEP 4 The Coding of Units
Independent Observations
Train coders
STEP 5 Analyzing the Data
Qualitativecoding
Quantitativecoding
7
Filling a Gap in Research
Gender Differences in Communication
Studies of Religious Conversion
Gender Differences in Communication of Religious
Conversion
8
Mapping Known to Unknown
Gender Differences in Communication
Studies of Religious Conversion
Gender Differences in Communication of Religious
Conversion
RQ - What is the relationship between gender and
the way one shares his/her religious (Christian)
conversion story/narrative?
9
Content Analysis Procedures
Content of Contemporary Praise and Worship Songs
STEP 1 Selecting Texts
Top 25 lists from CCLI from 1989 to 2005
Compared Top 25 from 1989- 2005 and found 77
songs in common
STEP 2 Units of Analysis (What are you
counting?)
Syntactical (words, phrases)
Thematic
STEP 3 Content Categories (Where
do you put it?)
Leitourgia
Koinonia
Kerygma
STEP 4 Coding the Units
2 coders, trained, tested agreement on 10 of
songs, then divided all 77
STEP 5 Analyzing the Data
10
Content Analysis Procedures
What content is currently available on the WWW
sites of FM radio stations?
STEP 1 Selecting Texts
List of all FM stations with websites? Make list
exhaustive
Randomly select from list? 407 potential, out of
4000 (365 final)
STEP 2 Units of Analysis What it is you are
counting . . .
Syntactical units
Referential Units
STEP 3 Content Categories Where you
put it after you count . . .
Station Contact
Station Information
News / Entertainment
Other Features
STEP 4 Coding the Units
STEP 5 Analyzing the Data
Training of Coders ?
Reliability Coefficients ?
11
Gender Conversion?
12
Content Analysis Procedures
How is the press covering President G.W. Bushs
recent foreign policy initiatives with
Afghanistan (negative bias)
SAMPLE all stories written by the New York
Times and Washington Post during the week of
December 2 - 12.
13
Press Coverage of Political Candidates
Intercoder/Interrater Reliability
Q. Is there liberal bias in the press' coverage
as it relates to photos of the candidates
involved in the 2006 Michigan Gubernatorial
Election?
Design The photos were evaluated along 5
measures. Each received a positive/negative/neutra
l rating along each of the following criteria
Viewer/Coder 1
Viewer/Coder 2
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Content Analysis Procedures
Coding the Units
Name of Sitcom________ Episode
________ Network __________ Number of African
American Characters? Caucasian? Hispanic?
_____ Number of positive stereotypes _____
Number of negative stereotypes _____
VIEW EACH EPISODE AND EVALUATE ALONG THE
FOLLOWING
15
(No Transcript)
16
Potter Article FM Stations
http//www.wlir.com/home.asp
17
Content Analysis
ORIGINS

• 18th century, Swedish scholars counted the
  number of religious symbols contained in a
  collection of 90 hymns to see whether they were
  preaching against the church (Dovring, 1954-1955)

• 19th century, end of 19th century, scholars
  conducted quantitative content analyses of
  newspapers, e.g., counting the number of various
  types of articles in New York newspapers, showed
  shift in content from religious, scientific
  matters to gossip, sports and scandals

• McDiarmid (1937) content-analyzed presidential
  inaugural addresses in terms of the number of
  symbols used to promote national identity.

• WWII researchers content analyzed music played
  on German radio to detect troop movement (Wimmer
  Dominick, 1987)

18
Content Analysis Procedures
Racial stereotypes of African Americans portrayed
in television sitcoms on major television
broadcast networks
STEP 1 Selecting Texts
List of all sitcoms on networks? Which ones? What
is a sitcom?
Randomly select from each network? From total
number of episodes?
STEP 2 Units of Analysis What it is you are
counting . . .
Thematic units (stereotypes)
Physical Units
STEP 3 Content Categories Where you
put it after you count . . .
Violence
Trust
Rich
Family Ties
STEP 4 Coding the Units
STEP 5 Analyzing the Data
Training of Coders ?
Reliability Coefficients ?