use textual approaches to objectively and systematically identify specified features of media texts via a coding frame of carefully chosen questions and ways of valuing what is found through them.
The stages in content analysis consist of:
- Establishing your hypothesis/research question
- Defining your object of analysis
- Defining categories (these should be unambiguous, such that different researchers at different times using the same categories would code the texts in exactly the same way)
- Creating a coding sheet
- Collecting data
- Counting the manifest or ‘open’, ‘apparent’ meanings in the text
- Highlighting repeated processes of representation that might help structure beliefs and feelings
- Presenting (calculating percentages) and interpreting your findings
- Discussing your findings
You might want to examine, for example, whether media conglomerates use their own media outlets to
promote their media products. For example, CNN’s coverage of movies was content analyzed by Jung and Kim (2011) to examine differences based on ownership. The researchers conducted a content analysis to answer the following research questions:
RQ 1: Did CNN increase the amount of coverage of Time Warner’s movies after the merger compared to before the merger?
RQ 2: Did CNN reduce the amount of coverage of other companies’ movies after the merger compared to before the merger?
RQ 3: Did CNN have more coverage of Time Warner’s movies than other companies’ after the merger?
(See: A clash of journalism and ownership: CNN’s movie coverage).
You might also want to explore how often the word ‘immigrant’ is used to mean the same as ‘asylum seeker’ in a sample of newspapers, or you might want to examine if a Bond movie meets the four pivotal movie preferences of millennials: authenticity, creativity, diversity and ability to relate with a movie content, etc…
Requirements:
- The research paper will be six pages long, double space, and font 12. The “Works Cited” page is additional;
- The study must contain an abstract, introduction, purpose of the study, significance of the study, questions of the study, literature review and theoretical framework, method, findings, discussion and conclusion.
- A minimum of 6-9 credible sources that I approve by searching in the AUD library resources and the internet;
- Documentation of the sources that you used in APA style in-text and at the end in the “Works Cited” page;
- Write in paragraph format and full sentences; be as specific and always justify your position, claims, and statements.
- The evaluation of your paper will be based on a provided rubric;
- Enclose your sources with your paper; include ONLY the ones that you used;