1. Analysing Journalism Research and the EIS
Week 11

2. Aims To review the range of methods available
To provide ideas for critical evaluation
To focus on question construction

3. Quantitative and Qualitative methods
Questionnaires
Semi-structured
Interviews
Observation
Content analysis
Semiology
Focus Groups
Secondary and institutional research

4. Analysing texts: quantitative content analysis
First used by the forerunner of the CIA to monitor Nazi speeches
Rests on assumption frequency = significance
Rooted in social science and positivist traditions
Reality assumed to be observable on the surface of texts
Content analysis will measure the frequency of certain ‘elements’ in texts or in other words….
Units of enumeration
Words, headlines, themes, sources, pictures,
Roles (in dramas), etc. …
can all be counted.

5. Analysing texts: quantitative content Analysis
Content analysis usually employs a coding schedule
Like a questionnaire but applied to texts
Example:
Coding Schedule Crime News content analysis
Paper ….. Date… Position of story in paper: front page
inside page
back page
Type of crime: murder, robbery, theft, assault, car crime, criminal damage, not bringing your library books back, etc.
Sources quoted: senior police, police, public, victims, criminals, etc.

6. Coding Schedule Crime News content analysis
Paper ….. Date… Position of story in paper: front page
inside page
back page
Type of crime: murder, robbery, theft, assault, car crime, criminal damage, not bringing your library books back, etc.
Sources quoted: senior police, police, public, victims, criminals, etc.

7. A real example

8. Critical evaluation Reveals quantitative patterns
Effective for measuring change in patterns in texts over time
Reliability?
yes
Validity ?
Well that depends on the theoretical and methodological position adopted!
Is everything important about a text countable?
What might not be countable?
The relationship between symbols (signs) and the effect of their combination

9. 1931 Public Enemy
It’s not how many acts of violence but the relationship between key scenes….
Angels with Dirty Faces 1938

10. Qualitative textual analysis
Semiology
Discourse analysis
Genre analysis
Narrative analysis
Search for underlying relationships between elements in the text
Meaning generated by structures below the surface of the text
Not quantifiable

11. Critical evaluation
Good for research questions that focus on ideology and processes of social construction in texts
Reliability?
Very dependent upon researcher’s interpretation therefore low
Validity
Well that depends …. See previous slides. Is it frequency or underlying meaning that is most crucial to the project?

12. Interviewing A range of strategies Structured interviewing
More quantitative (like a questionnaire) with the same questions asked in exactly the same way in each interview
Allows quantitative data to be generated
More qualitative (like a conversation ) with more

13. Interviewing Semi or unstructured interviewing
More qualitative (like a conversation ) with more flexibility about how questions are asked and answers given
Each approach has advantages and disadvantages

14. Interviewing
Structured interviewing higher in reliability (checkability)
But may not allow interviews to really explain how they feel
Semi-structured or unstructured interviewing gives interviewees the chance to explain in their own words more fully but is lower in reliability
Interviewer Bias is a key issue for all interviewing

15. Question Formulation Getting the question right involves:
Keeping it simple
Making sure it is “do-able”
Being clear about whether it is quantitative or qualitative
Over to you!

16. Other possible methods
Focus groups (group interviews)
Documentary and library based research
What methodologies might you use?