3 Analyzing Media Messages Quantitative Content Analysis in Research Communication 2005 ...

262 Pages·2008·2.57 MB·English

ANALYZING MEDIA
MESSAGES
Using Quantitative Content Analysis
in Research
LEA COMMUNICATION SERIES
Jennings Bryant/Dolf Zillmann, General Editors
Selected titles in Communication Theory and Methodology Subseries
(Jennings Bryant, series advisor) include:
Berger • Planning Strategic Interaction: Attaining Goals Through
Communicative Action
Dennis/Wartella • American Communication Research: The
Remembered History
Greene • Message Production: Advances in Communication Theory
Hayes • Statistical Methods for Communication Science
Heath/Bryant • Human Communication Theory and Research:
Concepts, Contexts, and Challenges, Second Edition
Reese/Gandy/Grant • Framing Public Life; Perspectives on Media
and Our Understanding of the Social World
Salwen/Stacks • An Integrated Approach to Communication Theory
and Research
Potter • An Analysis of Thinking and Research About Qualitative
Methods
For a complete list of titles in LEA’s Communication Series, please
contact Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers at
http://www.erlbaum.com/
ANALYZING MEDIA
MESSAGES
Using Quantitative Content Analysis
in Research
Second Edition
Daniel Riffe
Ohio University
Stephen Lacy
Michigan State University
Frederick G.Fico
Michigan State University
LAWRENCE ERLBAUM ASSOCIATES, PUBLISHERS
Mahwah, New Jersey London
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to
http://www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk/.”
Copyright © 2005 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any
form, by photostat, microform, retrieval system, or any other means,
without prior written permission of the publisher.
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers
10 Industrial Avenue
Mahwah, New Jersey 07430
http://www.erlbaum.com/
Cover design by Kathryn Houghtaling Lacey
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Riffe, Daniel
Analyzing media messages: using quantitative content analysis in research/
Daniel Riffe, Stephen Lacy, Frederick G. Fico.—2nd ed.
p. cm.—(LEA communication series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8058-5297-2 (cloth: alk. paper)
ISBN 0-8058-5298-0 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Content analysis (Communication). 2. Mass media—Research—
Methodology. 3. Mass media—Statistical methods. I. Lacy, Stephen,
1948– II. Fico, Frederick. III. Title. IV. LEA’s communication
series.
P93.R54 2005
302.23′01′4–dc22 2004060652
CIP
ISBN 1-4106-1342-9 Master e-book ISBN
Daniel Riffe:
For Florence, Ted, and Eliza
Stephen Lacy:
For I.P.Byrom, N.P.Davis, and A.G.Smith
Fred Fico:
For Beverly, Benjamin, and Faith

Contents

Preface ix

1 Introduction 1
2 Defining Content Analysis as a Social Science Tool 23
3 Designing a Content Analysis 40
4 Measurement 64
5 Sampling 96
6 Reliability 123
7 Validity 160
8 Data Analysis 177
9 Computers 208

References 225
Author Index 241
Subject Index 247

Preface
We have conducted or supervised hundreds of quantitative content
analyses in our combined 60+ years as researchers, examining content
ranging from White House coverage, to portrayal of women and
minorities in advertising aimed at children, to environmental reporting
and controversial issues in local news. The content analyses have
included theses and dissertations, class projects, and funded studies and
have involved content from sources as varied as newspapers,
magazines, broadcast media, and World Wide Web sites. Some of the
projects have been descriptive, whereas others have tested directional
hypotheses or sought answers to specific research questions. Our
inquiries have been framed in theory about processes that affect content
and about the effects of content.
If conducting or supervising those content analyses has taught us
anything, it is that some problems or issues are common to virtually all
quantitative content analyses. Designing a study raises questions about
sample size and technique, about measurement and reliability, and
about data analysis that need resolving. These are fundamental
questions that must be addressed whether the researcher is a student
conducting her or his first content analysis or a veteran planning her or
his 20th, whether the content being studied is words or images, whether
it comes from an online source or a traditional source such as a
newspaper, and whether the focus is news or entertainment or
advertising.
In preparing this book and updating it for the second edition, we
have tried to address these recurring questions that content analysis
must address. Our goal was to make content analysis accessible, not
arcane, and to produce a comprehensive guide that is also
comprehensible. We hoped to accomplish the latter through clear,
concrete language and by providing numerous examples—of recent and
“classic” studies—to illustrate problems and solutions. We see the book
as a primary text for courses in content analysis, a supplemental text for
research methods courses, and a useful reference for fellow researchers
in mass communication fields, political science, and other social and
behavioral sciences.