JMC 1100 1st Edition Lecture 5 Media Uses and Effects Social Scientific Methods Content Analysis and Surveys Polls Last time I Radio takes center stage a War of the worlds freaks everyone out Limited effects theories dominated social science Opinion leaders and 2 step flow direct our media II III Today I II III The research methods of social science Content Analysis Surveys a How to do them well Content Analysis I Describes the nature of particular content a Helps scientists identify specific types of content and before they can find effects II Two types a Manifest Material that actually appears b Latent reinterpretation of media message Manifest vs Latent Examples I When is a Power Drill a Power Drill a Depends on how it is advertised Benefits of Content Analysis 1 It is objective a Same standards for all content in our particular study b Removes threat of bias analysis 2 It is Systematic a Uses consistent and clear rules and procedures for coding all study content i Established rules so we can CODE the content 3 It is Quantitative a Content coded through numbers of timers an event or situation occurs i Based on number that they see b Allows for statistical tests analysis to understand nature of content How to do Content Analysis These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute 1 Define your study content and how to code it a Defining a character 2 Choose content websites movies etc 3 Start counting basically a South Park Ship High in Transit i 160 times of the word Shit b Sucker Punch Male Fantasy vs Female Exploitation i Male fantasy image 43 ii Female exploitation 22 1 Most were both Surveys and polls II III IV Most familiar method Helps researches uncover personal feelings and public opinion about content and issues Key allows researches to begin to connect content to effects a Content analysis has nothing to do with effects Why do they matter I They reflect our opinion current opinions II Results influence our future attitudes behaviors and knowledge How do we conduct a survey I II First we must establish who we will talk to we need a sample Sample vs Population a Pull out a few people to represent a population Sample Samples I Goal is to make inferences to a Larger population b Other time periods c Other locations and societies Sampling Techniques II Random Sample a Each subject in the population has an equal chance of being selected into the sample i Example National Election Survey III Non Random Sampling a There is not an equal chance of being selected i Example TV call in polls Internet Surveys American Idol etc Polls and Surveys I II Random sampling allows us to estimate where the real response would lie if we could survey everyone a Theoretically representative of population b For non random sampling we cant tell accuracy Problems with non random samples a Systematic bias b Surveys that use non probability sample are not scientific usually III In order to calculate margin of error we need to use random sampling techniques Margin of Error MOE I Measures of polls precision a Range of the possible poll results II Margin of error is the difference between the sample and the actual a Goal bigger sample smaller MOE Establishing Survey Techniques I Cross sectional survey a Occurs at a single point in time and involves a single sample II Longitudinal survey a Samples collected over time b Trend study looks for patterns c Panel study i Same people different times Developing Questionnaire I II Question wording a Open ended questions i What types of shows do you watch on television 1 Pro answers exhaustive 2 Con takes a long time requires coding b Close Ended Questions i On a scale of 1 to10 how much do like medical shows on television 1 Pro greater uniformity easily processed 2 Con Answer categories must be exhaustive Types to avoid a Leading Questions i Like most students do you think dogs should be allowed in classrooms b Push Polling i Would you vote for John Smith if you knew he was a Cyclone Fan 1 Based on falsity c Double barreled questions i Do you think dogs AND cats should be allowed in the classroom ii How well do you think that president Obama and Sec of State John Kerry are doing their jobs Conclusions I II Content analysis is great but wont gives us effects Surveys and polls give us public opinion and a possible sense of media effects