JMC 1100 1st Edition Lecture 5Media Uses and Effects. Social Scientific Methods: Content Analysis and Surveys/PollsLast timeI. Radio takes center stagea. War of the worlds freaks everyone outII. Limited effects theories dominated social scienceIII. Opinion leaders and 2-step flow direct our mediaTodayI. The research methods of social scienceII. Content AnalysisIII. Surveysa. How to do them wellContent AnalysisI. Describes the nature of particular contenta. Helps scientists identify specific types of content and before they can find effectsII. Two typesa. Manifest- Material that actually appearsb. Latent- reinterpretation of media messageManifest vs. Latent ExamplesI. When is a Power Drill a Power Drill?a. Depends on how it is advertised? Benefits of Content Analysis1. It is objectivea. Same standards for all content in our particular studyb. Removes threat of bias analysis2. It is Systematica. Uses consistent and clear rules and procedures for coding all study contenti. Established rules, so we can CODE the content3. It is Quantitativea. Content “coded” through numbers of timers an event or situation occursi. Based on number that they seeb. Allows for statistical tests analysis to understand nature of contentHow to do Content AnalysisThese 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 ita. Defining a character2. Choose content (websites, movies, etc.)3. Start counting (basically…)a. South Park- “Ship High in Transit”i. 160 + times of the word Shitb. Sucker Punch- Male Fantasy vs. Female Exploitationi. Male fantasy image: 43ii. Female exploitation: 221. Most were bothSurveys and polls II. Most familiar methodIII. Helps researches uncover personal feelings and public opinion about content and issuesIV. Key: allows researches to begin to connect content to effectsa. Content analysis has nothing to do with effectsWhy do they matter?I. They reflect our opinion current opinionsII. Results influence our future attitudes, behaviors, and knowledgeHow do we conduct a surveyI. First, we must establish who we will talk to ….we need a sampleII. Sample vs. Populationa. Pull out a few people to represent a population = SampleSamplesI. Goal is to make inferences toa. Larger populationb. Other time periodsc. Other locations and societiesSampling TechniquesII. Random Samplea. Each subject in the population has an equal chance of being selected into the samplei. Example: National Election SurveyIII. Non Random Samplinga. There is not an equal chance of being selectedi. Example: TV call-in polls, Internet Surveys, American Idol, etc.Polls and SurveysI. Random sampling allows us to estimate where the real response would lie if we could survey everyonea. Theoretically representative of populationb. For non random sampling we cant tell accuracyII. Problems with non random samplesa. Systematic biasb. Surveys that use non probability sample are not scientific usuallyIII. In order to calculate margin of error we need to use random sampling techniquesMargin of Error (MOE)I. Measures of polls precisiona. Range of the possible poll resultsII. Margin of error is the difference between the sample and the actuala. Goal bigger sample =smaller MOEEstablishing Survey TechniquesI. Cross sectional surveya. Occurs at a single point in time and involves a single sampleII. Longitudinal surveya. Samples collected over timeb. Trend study- looks for patternsc. Panel studyi. Same people/ different timesDeveloping QuestionnaireI. Question wordinga. Open ended questionsi. What types of shows do you watch on television 1. Pro: answers exhaustive2. Con: takes a long time requires codingb. Close Ended Questionsi. On a scale of 1 to10 how much do like medical shows on television1. Pro: greater uniformity easily processed2. Con: Answer categories must be exhaustiveII. Types to avoida. Leading Questionsi. Like most students do you think dogs should be allowed in classroomsb. Push Pollingi. Would you vote for John Smith if you knew he was a Cyclone Fan1. Based on falsity c. Double- barreled questionsi. Do you think dogs AND cats should be allowed in the classroomii. How well do you think that president Obama and Sec of State John Kerry are doing their jobs?ConclusionsI. Content analysis is great but wont gives us effectsII. Surveys and polls give us public opinion and a possible sense of media