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J610 Advanced Quantitative Methods:
Content Analysis

Monday, 4-7, Spring 2001

JOHN RUSSIAL

311A Allen Hall 346-3750

Office hours: Mon., 11-12, Tues., 10-12, Wed. 11-12. or by appointment, or stop by the office.

E-Mail: jrussial@oregon.uoregon.edu

Web page: http://jcomm.uoregon.edu/~russial/j610/

Readings

Riffe, Lacy & Fico, Analyzing Media Messages, Lawrence Erlbaum, 1998

Shoemaker & Reese, Mediating the Message, Longman, 1991

Other materials: Other readings will be on the web and on reserve in the reading room.

Course overview

This class is designed to explore one methodological approach – quantitative content analysis – in some depth and to offer students the opportunity to perform research using this approach. What I'd like to do is focus on specific aspects of content analysis for most weeks in the term and discuss how those issues play out in your own projects. The goal is for you to produce a paper that would be appropriate to submit to an academic conference.

In studying content analysis, we'll look at such questions as, What are the strengths and weaknesses of the approach? When is the method appropriate and when isn't it? How do you design a content analysis? Much of the class will focus on the same issues one finds in general quantitative analysis courses – measurement, sampling, reliability, validity and data analysis issues.

Readings

The Riffe, Lacy & Fico text is written by three scholars who have a great deal of experience with content analysis in communications research. They have done quite a few content analyses, directed many more and written journal articles on content analysis methodology, particularly sampling. Lacy, for example, has used content analysis to address questions in his primary area, which is media management. The Shoemaker & Reese book is assigned for background – it is more or less an attempt to come up with a theory of content grounded in a variety of possible influences on media. The book is almost 10 years old, and communications research has changed quite a bit in the last decade, but I still find it valuable as a sourcebook.

Class sessions

Class meets once a week for discussion. I expect participation, and part of your grade depends on it. I'll expect you to have completed the readings by the time of the class and to be able to show your mastery of them in class discussion.

Grading

There will be no exams. Most of the required work will be short papers due throughout the term and a longer research paper. There will be 10-15-minute presentation of the longer paper in the last week of class. We'll use the model of a typical conference presentation, and students will also act as discussants.

2-3 page papers: (Critiques of content analyses--might be better than short papers--or maybe a mix)

These will be due about every two weeks. For these, I will give you a choice of questions based on readings from that period; you may pick one of these, or you may write your own question and answer it. If you plan to write your own question, I'd like to see it before you do the paper. You can, for example, e-mail me the question. Each paper will have a due date. Late papers will be accepted only in case of unavoidable circumstances, and I might require documentation of such circumstances. I've spent too much time in the media to wink at deadlines. Also, because I've spent most of my career as a copyeditor, I tend to think less of papers that are full of errors in spelling, grammar or punctuation. Make sure to proofread.

Final paper: This is the main product of the class. My hope is that you will produce a paper that you could submit, perhaps with some additional work, as a conference paper. To produce such a paper, you will need to be working on the idea throughout the term.

Your overall grade will be based on the following formula:

Short papers 25 %

Research paper 50

Presentation/discussion 10

Class participation, evaluation 15

 

My background

I consider myself both an academic and a professional . As a professional, I spent most of my career working as an editor on daily newspapers. As an academic, I examine some of the issues I observed in practice as a professional. I study newsroom technology and organizational change, primarily from sociological and management perspectives, with an underlying aim of examining and critiquing media performance and quality. Several of my published papers have been content analyses.

Academic dishonesty

Portions of the work for this class may be done in teams; most will be done as individuals. I expect you to follow accepted practice on citation of the work of others. Relevant passages in the Student Conduct Code are in the Time Schedule of Classes.

 

Tentative schedule

Besides readings from the books, I will assign other materials – most of them journal articles. I plan to put them on reserve, or, if they are available online, provide links to Web pages.

Week 1: April 2

Introduction

Content analysis overview.

Strengths and limitations; practical aspects

Week 2: April 9 – Content analysis and communications research and theory

Readings: Fico et. al, Chapters 1&2

Shoemaker & Reese (2-4)

Week 3: April 16 – Designing content studies

Riffe, Chapter 3

Shoemaker & Reese (5)--individual influences on content

Kaiser Foundation "Sex on TV" study–available on the Web at http://www.kff.org/content/2001/3087/

Zoch and Turk, "Women Making News...," in JQ Winter '98, 762-775 (on reserve)

Week 4: April 23 – Measurement issues

Riffe, Chapter 4

Shoemaker & Reese (6) – influence of routines

Russial, "Topic Team Performance: A Content Study," Newspaper Research Journal, (1997) Winter/Spring, 126-144.

Sex on TV study again for measurement

Kim Sheehan, "Re-Weaving the Web: Integrating print and Online Communications" (on reserve and on the web)

 

Week 5: April 30 – Sampling

Riffe, Chapter 5

Shoemaker & Reese (7) – organizational influence

Riffe, Aust, Lacy, "The Effectiveness of Random, Consecutive Day and Constructed Week Sampling in Newspaper Content Analysis, Journalism Quarterly, Vol. 70, No. 1, Spring '93, 133-139.

 

Week 6: May 7 – Reliability and validity

Riffe, Chapters 6,7

Shoemaker & Reese (8)-- extra-media influences

Copies of reliability and coding sections from Holsti, Krippendorf texts (on reserve)

Sex on TV -- reliability section

Topic Team performance..." Coding section


Week 7: May 14 – Data analysis

Riffe, Chapters 8,9

Shoemaker & Reese (9) – influences of ideology

Copy of Chapter from Stempel and Westley text on data analysis (on reserve)

 

Week 8: May 21 – Writing and critiquing issues

Readings to critique (TBA)


Week 9: May 28 – No class: Memorial Day holiday


Week 10: June 2 – Presentation and discussion of papers