Comm 2302 Spring 20

Reading Summary:

Content Analysis is the first step in analyzing media content.  In content analysis you will describe and research meanings in media however, the results of the description do not permit one to make inferences about the effects of the media messages. The broad idea is coders will look at manifest content and turn non quantitative data into measurable quantitative data. First there must be a sample or pool of content you want to analyze. Then there must be a unit of analysis. Next a category or theme must be chosen to help define the content. Then a coding agreement must be found which shows the common data the coders found. Next, statistical analysis puts the coding agreement into statistical terms. Lastly, the. Authors interpret their findings and discuss implications of study. 

Outside Example:

I once took an Audio Visual Productions class and part of that class was dissecting films for underlying messages. I remember watching a short film called “Model Citizen.” The film is in black and white and highlights the idea that being a “model citizen” is not being yourself, but more of a robot. In the film you have to wear a universal mask and dress like everyone else. The film depicts that society standards destroy the unique image of humans and turns them into systematic robots. I was able to figure all of this out through dissection, but on the surface the film has a happy song playing and shows the humans “smiling.”

Reading Connection:

I found that dissecting a short film and performing a content analysis are very similar. In both you take the surface level or “manifest content” and analyze it. The only difference I have seen is that in content analysis you want quantitative data as in my class all you needed was qualitative data. However, if I was a coder and I performed a content analysis on this short film I believe I would arrive at the same conclusion as I did when I dissected it. For an example some quantitative data I could produce is the number of seemingly unhappy faces behind the masks, or how many people ended up being killed. In the end they both arrive at the conclusion that this system strips humans of their happiness and uniqueness. 

Reading Summary

The chapter outlines one of the main methods used to answer questions related to media interpretation in content analysis. This process describes the interest and allows for one to draw their own inferences from the gathered facts. This technique is inherently objective, as most reasonable researchers should examine the same, trustworthy quantitative research and reach the same non-quantitative conclusion. This is because content analysis deals with manifest content, which places emphasis on the information and does not demand much interpretation and reading between the lines.

The chapter then outlines the steps toward designing a content analysis research project. To begin, researches gather their sample of data that will be used to conduct the analysis. Secondly, they must develop a unit of analysis do decide how they would like to break up the contents and analyze each unit. Next, these contents must be coded in a category scheme, meaning that each unit of analysis will be divided and separated into each area of research interest. Researchers must then reach a coding agreement where they compare agreement between their codings, usually seeking a coding reliability of at least 70% (meaning they agreed on at least 70% of decisions). Once this coding reliability is established, a statistical analysis is conducted in order to determine the validity of the hypotheses, and then an interpretation of the findings is concluded.

Outside Example

I struggled to come up with an example because my media feed tends to lack the statistical analysis of normal media such as TV or movies. However one thing I’ve seen periodically and that fascinates me is the influence of cable television over political views, in particular Fox News. This Vox article outlines how initial observations about Fox’s influence over ideologies and voting patterns was confirmed in staggering statistics. This is through their dramatically greater appeal of strong conservatives and invoking confirmation bias, as well as a greater ability to influence non-Republicans than channels like MSNBC ability to influence non-Democrats.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/9/8/16263710/fox-news-presidential-vote-study

Reading Connection

The article as well as the study attached lays out each individual step of the content analysis process. Researchers gathered relevant data on the slants of the three largest political news channels as well as viewership preferences and those correlations to voting patterns and social views. Various units of analysis and category schemes were used in order to decipher the true influence and impact of media on politics. For example, they analyzed the evolution of the ideological slants of networks, the influence of different voter groups, and those translations into voting and public opinion changes. There was a statistical analysis of each of these results, which gave merit to the interpretations and conclusions of Fox News viewership directly creating rightward shifts in viewers’ attitudes. This is also clearly a manifest content analysis, as information was placed at the center of the report in order to present an undoubtedly clear conclusion. In general, this article and study articulate how media consumption does have affects and those effects can be discovered.

Reading Summary
Content analysis is one of three methods that researchers use to discover the effects of media content. Content analysis allows for researchers to describe content, but it does not allow for inferences to be made about the effects of the content. Any description or summary must be purely objective. This is because there is a knowledge gap between the content and its effects that must be filled with context that mere analysis cannot provide. Content analysis is objective, systematic, and quantitative. Because of this, it is possible for multiple researchers to come to the same conclusion regarding a specific piece of content. Content analysis focuses on manifest content, which refers to tangible content that must be interpreted by a coder.

Outside Example
My example is of the common phrase “correlation does not imply causation.” During the reading, I was reminded of a site that graphed the correlation between events with seemingly no relation to one another. Though the number of people who drown in pools and the number of films Nicolas Cage appeared in are heavily correlated, they do not actually effect each other in any way. I hope.

Reading Connection
In the reading, it is repeated several times that content analysis cannot make any inferences about the data. This is because the analysis alone is not enough to work off of. If you were to interpret the data in the graph above, you might be led to believe that Nicolas Cage has a devout cult following that sacrifice themselves so that he may continue to make movies. Obviously this is not the case. This silly example goes to show that researchers should never try to interpret the data of content analysis without performing more tests.

Summary

Content analysis is used to describe media phenomenons with precision and is a way to analyze media affects. Content analysis describes media content in a systematic and rigorous way. While it can establish trends associated with certain media, it does not establish a cause/effect relationship between media and certain behaviors. Content Analysis uses a sample to analyze, a unit analysis to define the content, categories to further describe the media, coding rleiability to identify the significance of their findings, and then, finally, interpret their findings into statistics.

Example

My connection to the reading is the idea that an increase in school shootings is directly related to violent video games. There has been an increase in school shootings in the last decade and many news sources accused violent video games of being the reason for this. Everytime there was another shooting there would be a resurgence of stories questioning the affect of video games on children’s brains.

Connection

The idea that the increase in school shootings are being caused by the popularity of violent video games was eventually disproven through a study that used content analysis. Content analysis was used to study video games with violent content and then compared them to people’s violent tendencies.

Summary:

The chapter first discusses the differences between quantitative and qualitative research. While quantitative research is based on statistics and objective data, qualitative research is interpretive, showcasing a “variety of values, meanings and truths” (4). Qualitative researchers use a variety of different methodologies based on their research question(s), their theoretical framework and historical context relating to their topic. Qualitative methods emerged following a rejection of mass communication as a quantitative social science. Scholars such as Neil Postman suggested that the study of human feelings and behavior should not be considered a science given the difficulty in showing cause-and-effect relationships. The debate over our understanding of the communication process began in the 19th century with the transmission and ritual views of communication. The transmission view considers communication as a process of “sending, transmitting and delivering information in order to control others” while the ritual view underscores the role of the audience in creating meaning. When doing textual analysis, researchers evaluate the multiple meanings found within the text and try to understand how language helps us construct our social realities (make sense of our lives). Siegfried Kracauer, a German sociologist and critical theorist, is credited with the development of textual analysis. Criticizing quantitative content analysis (basing the importance of a concept or idea on how many times it appears in the text) as “incomplete” and “inaccurate analysis”, Kracauer suggested that a text should be considered in its entirety, including its surface and underlying meanings (194). To analyze a text, a researcher may study semiotics (the study of signs that exist in our social lives) to understand how we create meaning, examining both the connotative and denotative meanings of a sign. 

Personal Example: 

One example I thought of while reading the chapter was my parent’s frustration with today’s slang. As the youngest member of the family, the language I use varies greatly from what my parents are accustomed to. Using phrases such as “There’s beef in the friend group.” in conversation or over text with them is difficult as they 1) don’t understand what I’m saying and/or 2) take what I’m saying completely literally. 

Connection to Reading:

Here, the role of semiotics in deciphering the slang of today is clear. A sign (word or phrase) is the product of the relationship between the signifier (physical letters, shapes, sounds) and the signified (idea characterized by the word, shape or sound). The meanings of a signifier and a signed are established through a culture’s ideas, codes and conventions. It is therefore often difficult for my elders to understand current slang as they lack contextual knowledge, having grown up in a different time, place and culture.

Reading Summary

Content analysis, surveys and experiments are three methods to discover the effects of media content. The reading describes content analysis and surveys as being the most effective. According to the reading, content analysis is the basis of any attempt to decipher the effect of media content. Why? They argue that through content analysis, one is able to describe the phenomenon and discover what content is present that might be tied with several effects. To truly analyze content, one must be aware that it is an objective, systematic and quantitative process. This means that because there is no specific set of rules to decipher the effect of the media, there will be more than one person making same inferences about the effect. The way that researchers derive to the effect is simple: by tallying up their observations. Here is where manifest and latent content become important because they are forms of interpretation of the observations made. Manifest is a superficial way of interpreting information whereas latent is the opposite; the researcher needs to ‘read between the lines’ to interpret the information. To summarize, researchers find a unit of analysis (the focal point: media) and break it down into categories which they tally up to then share with others and have a coding agreement which results in statistical analysis (where the researchers calculate data about the media based on the tallies shared). Once all this information is gathered, then the interpretation methods can be put to use and the researchers create a theory about the media effect. To finalize their research, the researchers support or deny their theories by conducting surveys or performing experiments.

Outside Example

Technology is a highly admired platform for the younger crowd but an enemy for many adults such as parents and the elderly. Whenever I talk to my grandma about how to use an iPhone, she always says something along the lines of “Those things hurt your brain” or “your eyes” and so on. For older generations, phones do not seem as beneficial or necessary as they are for younger generations. Parents have often grounded kids for spending way too much time with technology and the consequence is usually taking away such technology in whatever form it comes in. Many argue that technology has ruined the way of a healthy life. For example, I’ve heard my mom say that the number of kids playing outside has declined to the extent that they don’t even get to meet their neighbors and also that today, kids meet friends via social media or video games instead of face-to-face communication. There is also a high number of depression in teenagers due to not meeting the standards of social media. Yet, these are only inferences made by the older generations based on observations they make but there is much more research, possibly in the form of surveys and experiments, needed to be made in order to prove these inferences.

Reading Connection

My example was technology and the negative effects that older generations think it has on the future. The reading talks about how in order to discover the effects of media content, one has to go through a series of steps which older generations have taken to uncover that technology has a negative effect on the brain, lifestyle and even posture of future generations. Yet, the younger generations are also conducting the same research to prove that technology has a positive effect. Both sides make excellent arguments with sufficient evidence which leads one back to the question “how can we discover the effect of technology?” To me, it seems like an endless debate. There is enough evidence such as: teenagers falling to depression due to seeing unachievable bodies on social media or kids spending hours on video games instead of doing their chores or playing outside that prove the negative effects of technology. Yet, questions can be asked such as, “how is the environment at home?” “Is the internet use limited?” “Are parents checking up on chores?” And more. When arguing the other side of the positive effects of technology, similar questions can be asked to argue the position. Here is where the scientific method that the reading shares is useful because it says that when a group of people share the same coding agreement, there has to be statistical evidence to support their sides. This statistical evidence can come in the form of surveys and experiments which have been done in today’s world but the debate still seems to be endless as technology seems to have both negative and positive effects. Yet, one can argue that technology used to not be needed in the past and now, it is crucial to the lives of newer generations.

Reading Summary:

In “What is Realism, Really,” Smith describes the concept of realism and how it sounds simple, but is actually deceivingly complicated. The author begins the chapter by debating the notion that realism is a simple term. Although many view realism by comparing real life to film and television, Smith instead argues that we should view realism as the ways in which the media makers utilize techniques in order to try to make their media appear more realistic to the audience. Smith acknowledges that it is extremely difficult to achieve realism, especially when trying to turn a real event that happened over a long period of time into a short film. On the same note, Smith believes that realism varies in different scenes and moments of films and shouldn’t be viewed with an “All or None” approach. Techniques such as the “dramatic look” and the “documentary look” of film are utilized by media makers to try to showcase realism in their media. Also, Smith discusses how media makers use spontaneity in their films to mirror the inconsistent real world filled with unexpected events. 

Outside Example:

One of my favorite shows of all time is the 24 series starring Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer. I remember watching this show during a long drive from the L.A. area to my hometown in Northern California. Throughout the trip I was able to get almost halfway through the first season. Most of the time when I go on a long drive like that I am eager to get out of the car when we arrive back home. But in this case, I was so hooked on the series that I stayed in the car for an additional 3 episodes (This was when I was using CDs and the little TV in the car, so I couldn’t just take my phone with me and keep watching the show inside). The show features a clock that ticks in real time and each season is based on a 24 hour clock. Essentially, each episode is an hour and the season conveys one whole day. The day is action packed and Jack Bauer often describes it as the “craziest day of his life” throughout the show. 

Connection:

I see the running clock as a technique to make the TV show appear more realistic. However, I think it strays from realism when you think about all the crazy things that happen to him in one day and just how unrealistic it would be for that to occur in real life. It makes me think about a class discussion we had about how 98% of our life is boring and wouldn’t be worth watching in the form of entertainment. For example, no one would care to watch us sitting on a couch watching a movie. However, 2% of our life is the really exciting stuff and that’s what the media focuses on. The only issue with this is that it seems kind of unrealistic to have entire shows and seasons based only on the 2%. As Smith discussed in this chapter, even with all these techniques, it is still very difficult for TV shows and movies to incorporate realism in their media, especially considering how keen audiences are to detecting when a show feels unrealistic and inauthentic. 

Content analysis is important to researchers so that they can describe the content of the communication output they are researching. However, one can’t draw conclusions from this content analysis. Manifest content is content that is shallow and on the surface. Latent content is content that might be more difficult to see and a researcher might have to look between the lines. Researchers decided to do a study to see the amount of lyrics referencing drugs and alcohol in popular songs. Within a study to analyze content, the sample is very important, because it needs to be a correct insight into the world scientists are trying to analyze. For this example, researchers used the Billboard top charts for songs to study. The study found that from these popular songs, 1/3 had explicit references to drugs and alcohol, and the majority of them mention the positive sides to drugs more frequently than the negative consequences. 77% of rap songs have references to drugs while pop songs only have references to drugs 9% of the time. Based off these findings Primack and his colleagues concluded that high schoolers are exposed to approximately 84 references to substances per day.

Reading this reminded me of growing up and hearing my first rap songs and being opened to that world. I had heard music before, but never really paid attention. I remember the first rap song I paid attention to was Stronger by Kanye West. The song came out in 2007 so I was 7. I remember it was just so different from everything else I’d heard. It also had curse words in it. That was my first experience hearing words like that in a song.

From there I have become so desensitized to curse words in rap songs that I don’t realize how dirty some of them are until I play them around adults or my parents. Like there are some lyrics. Like Bandz Make Her Dance from Juicy J – “She make that ass clap dancing like she on a d— / Bring it back I threw a stack that’s a lucky bitch / Up and down she’s going she’s sliding on that pole”. Listening to that with parents around is not fun.

Reading Summary

Quantitative research tends to be “systematic, precise and accurate” as it tries to determine validity, reliability, objectivity and truth of certain variables. It attempts to isolate and analyze the relationship between different variables using numbers and numerical correlations. Quantitative is sometimes favored over Qualitative as numbers tend to be more reliable. Qualitative traits include being “interdisciplinary, interpretive, political and theoretical in nature”. It attempts to create a sense of the larger ideas of human relationships. Qualitative research is not “objective data to be quantified, but meaningful relations to be interpreted”. Qualitative researchers consider the diversity of meanings and values created in media. They focus more on the relationships that exist within the media and society. Choosing which method is based on the questions researchers wish to ask. In the media, qualitative research looks to understand and develop meaning behind traditions, contexts, usages and meanings of words, concepts and ideas. Language is the basis of any human interaction and it is through the idea of language that the meanings of our social realities are constructed. Language does significantly more than just describe our lives, it helps to create social realities. Rather than just analyzing the language used in a text or the accuracy of that language, qualitative researchers look at the social practices, representations, assumptions and stories about our lives that are revealed in such texts.

Outside Example

The movie, “A Thousand Words” is a film about a literary agent who is not afraid to stretch the truth to get various book deals. One night, he discovers a tree in his backyard and for every word that he speaks, a leaf will fall off of the tree. When the tree runs out of leaves, the tree will perish, as will he. He gets told that he has to fix his relationships in order to be able to speak freely again and lift the curse of the tree, so he goes and fixes all relationships that have been screwed up in his life, and as soon as he fixes his last one, the curse is lifted and he is able to speak freely again.

Reading Connection

“A Thousand Words” relates back to the idea that language is the basis of any human interaction. The power of words is extremely important in qualitative research and textual analysis. Qualitative research is based off words and the meanings behind them and it’s not as simple as quantitative research where numbers don’t lie. In the movie, the main character lies to gets what he wants and that eventually comes back to screw him over and he ends up having to limit his language to what really matters. Quantitative researchers have to believe that people will tell the truth in order to get accurate data and under the assumption that most people lie to get what they want, quantitative research can sometimes not be very reliable. Without language, quantitative research also would not be available, nothing really would be available as there would be no civilization without language. Humans have adapted language in a way to manipulate others and use it as a bargaining chip, and in scientific research, it can be hard to distinguish between manipulative words and the truth.

Content Analysis Project details

Glenn Sparks (2013) “Analyzing content” in Media Effects Research: A Basic Overview. 2013.