Stephen Lacy

The Effectiveness of Random, Consecutive Day and Constructed Week Sampling in Newspaper Content Analysis.

This study compares 20 sets each of samples of four different sizes (n=7, 14, 21 and 28) using simple random, constructed week and consecutive day samples of newspaper content. Comparisons of sample efficiency, based on the percentage of sample means in each set of 20 falling within one or two standard errors of the population mean, show the superiority of constructed week sampling.

Sampling Error and Selecting Intercoder Reliability Samples for Nominal Content Categories.

This study views intercoder reliability as a sampling problem. It develops a formula for generating sample sizes needed to have valid reliability estimates. It also suggests steps for reporting reliability. The resulting sample sizes will permit a known degree of confidence that the agreement in a sample of items is representative of the pattern that would occur if all content items were coded by all coders.

Sample Size for Newspaper Content Analysis in Multi-Year Studies

This study examines the most efficient method of sampling content from five years of daily newspaper editions. Selecting nine constructed weeks (nine issues from a Monday, nine from a Tuesday, etc.) from five years is more efficient than the ten constructed weeks—two from each year—suggested by previous research on populations of a years newspaper content. This rule holds provided the variables being measured do not have large variances.

Issues and Best Practices in Content Analysis

This article discusses three issues concerning content analysis method and ends with a list of best practices in conducting and reporting content analysis projects. Issues addressed include the use of search and databases for sampling, the differences between content analysis and algorithmic text analysis, and which reliability coefficients should be calculated and reported. The “Best Practices” section provides steps to produce reliable and valid content analysis data and the appropriate reporting of those steps so the project can be properly evaluated and replicated.

Competition, Circulation and Advertising

This article reviews academic literature about the impact of competition on newspaper circulation and advertising. It suggests some principles about competition and the long-run performance of daily circulation newspapers.

Fairness and Balance in the Prestige Press

A comparison of nine prestige newspapers, such as the New York Times and Washington Post, and a sample of large circulation, but less prestigious, newspapers finds prestige newspapers are more likely to cover both sides of community controversy, with better balanced news. Newspapers demonstrating best balance were the Times, Post, and St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Findings are presented in the context of the social responsibility theory of the press.

CITIZEN JOURNALISM SITES AS INFORMATION SUBSTITUTES AND COMPLEMENTS FOR UNITED STATES NEWSPAPER COVERAGE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

A content analysis of 48 citizen journalism sites, 86 weekly newspapers and 138 daily newspapers indicates that citizen journalism sites differed enough in six local government content attributes to conclude that citizen journalism sites are, at best, imperfect information substitutes for most newspapers. However, the data also indicate that some large-city citizen journalism sites complement newspapers by increasing the number of news stories and the amount of opinion available about local government. The results also found differences between citizen news sites and citizen blog sites. Few citizen journalism sites outside of large metropolitan cities covered local government.

The Effects of Public Ownership and Newspaper Competition on the Financial Performance of Newspaper Corporations: A Replication and Extension

This study supports the conclusions of a 1993 study by Blankenburg and Ozanich that the degree of public ownership affects the financial performance of media groups. High levels of stock ownership outside the media group result in increased returns to stockholders. The current study included competition as an independent variable and found that groups had lower operating margins and spent a greater percentage of revenues on expenses when a higher percentage of newspapers faced newspaper competition. Overall, the impact of public ownership was slightly greater than that of competition.

Sample Size in Content Analysis of Weekly News Magazines

This study explores a variety of approaches to deciding sample size in analyzing magazine content. Having tested random samples of size six, eight, ten, twelve, fourteen, and sixteen issues, the authors show that a monthly stratified sample of twelve issues is the most efficient method for inferring to a years issues.

The Effectiveness of Simple and Stratified Random Sampling in Broadcast News Content Analysis

A comparison of simple random, monthly stratified and quarterly/weekly stratified sampling in content analyses of television news used annual “populations” of network newscasts. Different samples were drawn and sample statistics compared with annual parameters. Based on percentages of samples that included population means within one or two standard errors, the most efficient technique was two random days per month.