Neuendorf (2010), "Content Analysis: A Methodological Primer for Gender Research"

Neuendorf (2010) is concerned that, while content analysis has been particularly popular as a method in recent years, studies employing content analysis have often used less stringent standards for reliability.

Neuendorf (2010) defines content analysis as "a summarizing, quantitative analysis of messages that relies on the scientific method, including attention to objectivity/intersubjectivity, a priori design, reliability, validity, generalizability, replicability, and hypothesis testing" (p. 277). Neuendorf (2010) specifically notes that she is referring to quantitative studies, though she acknowledges that textual analysis forms can compliment quantitative content analysis as well.

This essay outlines the process for conducting what Neuendorf (2010) sees as a sufficiently rigorous content analytic study. 

1. Preparation

Content analyses should be backed by theory. Neuendorf (2010) argues that theories about media's effects can be used to justify content analyses of texts. 

In determining the scope of a content analysis, Neuendorf (2010) urges scholars to consider stepping beyond the boundaries of the text to also consider information about either producers or consumers in concert with the data about the text.

2. Methodology

In her discussion of content analysis method, Neuendorf (2010) is clear in arguing that content analysis should employ the same parameters implemented in other quantitative studies. She specifically notes that researchers should take care in selecting their unit for analysis and in developing their sampling frames. Using rigorous standards of quantitative research is particularly important when human coders are used to collect content analysis data. Neuendorf (2010) emphasizes the importance of intercoder reliability.

3. Reporting.

Finally, Neuendorf (2010) argues that the processes implemented in data collection and analysis should be thoroughly recorded and reported so as to ensure replicability.

Rudy, Popova, and Linz (2010), "The Context of Current Content Analysis of Gender Roles"

Rudy, Popova, and Linz (2010) argue that feminist content analysis research is generally based on four broad goals.

1. To support feminist claims

Rudy, Popova, and Linz (2010) argue that a primary reason for content analysis of gender in the media is to support feminist claims that the media are biased against women. The authors argue that content analysis is a productive way of demonstrating the media's unfair portrayals of women over time.

2. To compare media with reality

Content analysis can also be used to demonstrate the differences between representations in media texts and in reality. Historically, the authors argue, media has shown limited distribution of women in terms of race, gender performance, occupation, and other factors. Research in this area may then compare current statistics of representation with historical representations in order to determine shifts in realistic gender representation.

3. To predict effects of media on audiences

Citing theorists like Bandura, Gerbner, and Goffman, the authors note that many content analyses aim to demonstrate the potential impact of imbalanced gender representation on their audiences. Rudy, Popova, and Linz (2010) argue that, since media exposure can influence audience perception and behavior, it is important to study what kinds of messages comprise the media.

4. To detect effects of media producers on media content

Since media producers are influenced by the societies in which they live, media content may reflect producers' ideological surroundings. Therefore, Rudy, Popova, and Linz (2010) explain that content analysis can be used to make assumptions about current cultural movements and perspectives. Often this type of work compares media produced by women to media produced by men in order to understand the inner workings of production.

Scheufele (1999), "Framing as a Theory of Media Effects"

Media frames as dependent variables
Scheufele (1999) notes that many studies claim the routines of journalists shape the way news is framed. Pressures on journalists and media organizations have also been blamed for limiting media frames.

Media frames as independent variables
Scheufele (1999) argues that framing works best as a media effects theory when it is applied as the independent variable. Studies that apply framing as an independent variable focus on the persuasive consequences of media framing and the way that limited frames can impact public opinion. Following Entman, Scheufele (1999) identifies five areas in which framing can impact public opinion of issues. These include judgment of importance, judgments about agency, identification with victims, choice of labels, and generalization. Media framing can also be used as an independent variable that effects individual media consumers' framing of incidents.

Scheufele (1999) proposes a model that maps framing as a process. The process involves four steps.

1. Frame building includes the development of the frame by journalists and new organizations.
2. Frame setting centralizes the audience reception and processing of the media frame.
3. Individual Effects of Framing involves the audience use of frames in their everyday interactions and understandings of society.
4. "Journalists as Audiences" focuses on journalists development of media frames based on their experiences in the culture.

Herman (1996), "The Propaganda Model Revisited"

1. The propaganda model is based on media's situation within an economic market.

Herman (1996) argues that media's primary goal is to sustain profitability. Media makers know that government and advertising institutions are a threat to profitability, and so the media must appease these powerful groups. Herman (1996) notes that this process filters the media, as issues like media ownership, advertising, and ideology work to keep certain messages off the media.

Mainstream media allow debates over issues only within a narrow parameter which is determined by market value.

2. Herman (1996) also uses this essay to argue that the propaganda model has been unfairly targeted for critique. He believes that the model remains significant and important, citing then current issues of NAFTA and the creation of the internet as important applications of the model.

Morley (1996), "Postmodernism: The Rough Guide"

Morley (1996) attempts to settle debates over what post-modernism is and what it might mean for critical analysis. He is primarily interested in problematizing major claims about post-modernism.

1. Our current focus on post-modernism may be about anxiety. If modernism has been characterized largely by imperialism, then postmodernism may signal a shift away from Western domination. Furthermore, there are economic aspects to this uneasiness. Changes in government and industrial structure signal a move away from welfare politics and into decentralization and deregulation.

2. Postmodernism is often discussed in terms that make it seem more like anti-modernism. In some instances, claims of postmodernism negate themselves by being too fervently against modernism and rationality. For example, Morley (1996) mocks the idea of definitively saying we can't know anything for certain. When such a statement is made definitively, it undoes itself.

3. Media is involved in the conception of the postmodern because our culture is increasingly saturated with media. Morley (1996) notes that many of the fears about postmodern media seem exaggerated. Morley (1996) is particularly critical of the idea that our world is made up only of spectacles with no meaning behind them and the argument that we accept information so passively as to mitigate its possible propaganda effects.

Morley (1996) does note a reversal in some forms of media, though. He is particularly (though briefly) interested in the way media has tended to dictate real events rather than simply communicating them. Reagan's bombing of Libya, for example, was scheduled around television news schedules rather than military timing.

Jenkins (1988), "Fan Writing as Textual Poaching"

Jenkins (1988) uses this essay to outline his concept of textual "poachers." Leaning on de Certeau's concept of "making do," Jenkins (1988) argues that Star Trek fans are neither dupes nor social rejects. Instead, he examines fan fiction written by female fans of the series to argue that these women take pieces of the text and repurpose them to suit their needs.

1. Jenkins (1988) argues that women are more likely to renegotiate stories through fan fiction authorship because the stories are male-centric. These women see themselves as fixing problems with the story that oppress the female characters they enjoy. Furthermore, Jenkins (1988) found that women used Star Trek's female characters to craft imagery of balancing work life and social life.

2. Jenkins (1988) is also concerned with what he calls the "moral economy" of fan fiction. He is clear that fan fiction authors feel ownership and loyalty toward the original text. As such, not every reworking of the story is accepted by other fan fiction authors. It is important to fan fiction authors that stories remain consistent with the industry-produced text. Rather than attempting to harm the text, fans are protective of the text's integrity.

Newcomb (1984), "On the Dialogic Aspects of Mass Communication"

In this essay, Newcomb (1984) explores the failure of cultural studies to fully account for media's impact on social relations. Specifically, he addresses the use of hegemony to explain the ways audiences and texts interact. Newcomb (1984) notes that hegemony is a useful concept in its flexibility. However, the flexibility of the term also means that hegemony stretches unpredictably. To discussions of media hegemony, Newcomb (1984) proposes a theory of dialogic media.

1. Using Volosinov's theory of language as practice, Newcomb (1984) argues that texts are constantly shifting.

Newcomb (1984) argues that the shifting nature of language is a result of its real meaning as a form of practice. Language is embedded with historical and cultural meanings that only take hold when put into the practice of social interaction. Newcomb (1984) uses this insight to critique approaches to media studies. For Newcomb (1984), the shifting nature of language makes it unfit for study through static theories.

2. Bakhtin's dialogic communication model further allows Newcomb (1984) to situate media's shifting language as part of a dialogue.

Each stage of media production and consumption is a negotiation. Newcomb (1984) argues that television production is a constant site of negotiation, as writers, producers, distributors, censors, and others struggle over narratives. This negotiation continues as the audience negotiates texts and the meanings in texts. Newcomb (1984) notes that this occurs not only at the level of individual television episodes and series, but also in the viewers' consumption of other media and nonmedia communication.

3. Newcomb (1984) uses these insights to propose two major forms of media studies -- diagonal strips and ethnographic methods.

First, Newcomb (1984) argues that media should be studied in "diagonal strips." Newcomb (1984) expands Williams' (1976) concept of television flow, arguing that as viewers change channels, alternate between recorded and live television, and skip commercials they are effectively renegotiating the text itself. The media scholar should therefore focus on real strips of television in the order they are consumed by viewers.

Second, Newcomb (1984) argues that media scholars should employ ethnographic models. This allows researchers to observe the ways that viewers make sense of television through conversation with one another.

Grossberg (1984), "Strategies of Marxist Cultural Interpretation"

Grossberg (1984) aims to clarify debates about where Marxist cultural interpretation is and should be. He argues that the purpose of Marxist interpretation should be to describe and intervene into texts' function in culture and society. Specifically, Marxist analysts should look at how texts function in the real, concrete lives of human beings to recreate power relations.

Under this umbrella, Grossberg (1984) sees two broad questions:

1. The politics of textuality -- By "politics of textuality," Grossberg (1984) describes the changing meaning of "text" for scholars from a variety of perspectives. Debates about texts depend on where the critic sees the text originating in the cycle of communication as well as how the critic views the roles of encoding and decoding.

2. The problematic of cultural studies -- Grossberg (1984) uses "the problematic of cultural studies" to describe the relationship between society and culture. The politics of texts are defined in part by where society ends and culture begins, as well as how the two interact with one another. Grossberg (1984) notes that lived experience may also be a part of this equation for some critics.

Hall (1980), "Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse"

Hall (1980) argued that media discourse should be understood as a series of moments including production, distribution, and reproduction.  Each of these moments happens independently of the others, so that no single moment can control the others.

1. Production, Distribution, and Reproduction
The production moment represents circulation in Hall's (1980) model. At this point, television is coded discourse rooted in material instruments and ideological social relations.
The moment of distribution or consumption involves the audience translating the discourse into social understanding.
In Hall's (1980) reproduction moment, the social understanding produced through the reading of the discourse is acted out, naturalized, and internalized.
This cycle repeats, so that audiences are involved in a feedback loop with producers.

2. Encoding
In the encoding process, Hall (1980) argues, television producers create a narrative that fits within the ideological social relations present in the society. Narrative rules and established form must be accounted for so that the message can be communicated to others.

Hall (1980) argued that encoding was always at work, but he argues that understanding the process of encoding is valuable to understanding the process of media.

3. Decoding
The audiences uses personal knowledge of cultural codes to understand the message constructed in the production moment. Hall (1980) argues that there may be asymmetry in the encoding and decoding processes, due to things like power asymmetry between the encoder and the decoder and disagreement between the code and the referent.

4. "Selective Perception" Theory -- or "viewer positions"
Since all visual codes contain various connotations, there is always room for multiple readings. Hall's (1980) essay is perhaps most famous for his introduction of three "viewer positions."
From the dominant-hegemonic position, viewers accept the message within the intended ideological frame.
The negotiated position involves acceptance of some dominant messages and rejection of others. Viewers in this position often find ways of justifying some angles while arguing with others.
Finally, the oppositional position involves the viewer decoding from outside of hegemony. In this position, the viewer contests the ideological frame necessary for decoding the message from the dominant perspective.

Meyrowitz (2003), "Canonic anti-text: Marshall McLuhan’s understanding media"

As Meyrowitz (2003) points out, McLuhan’s work has been dismissed by many scholars for a variety of reasons. Among contemporaries of Understanding Media, objections often focused on McLuhan’s (1964) dismissal of content studies, an area that dominated media research of the time. Meyrowitz (2003) also points out the nonconventional argumentative strategies McLuhan (1964) employed in his arguments. McLuhan (1964) believed that most scholarly research was based on a faulty assumption that all reasoning must be linear, and as Meyrowitz (2003) points out, he attempted to break the rules in terms of normative scholarly structure and organization.

McLuhan’s (1964) concept of the “global media” illustrates his construction of history in three parts.
1. First, as Meyrowitz (2003) explains, McLuhan (1964) described a period of oral culture in which ideas were spread through speech. This period was invested in interactions with others and was particularly suited to sensory experiences like hearing.
2. Next, in Meyrowitz’s (2003) summary, McLuhan (1964) described a literary cultural period in which society gathered ideas through text. This shift to print media influenced individuals to reshape the world based on the form of text. Just as print media is linear and heavily structured, societies began to build communities in grids, for example.
3. Finally, Meyrowitz (2003) argues, McLuhan (1964) described a period based in electronic media, including television, film, and radio. This period is what McLuhan (1964) saw as a “global village” or a return to the nonlinear interactivity of his oral cultural tradition. In the global village, humans participated in each others’ lives in a way that drew on sensory experience and interaction.

McLuhan (1964), "The Medium is the Message"

1. Medium is the message

McLuhan (1964) argues that changes in media format structure and restructure society. When societies transitioned from spoken communication to written communication, for example, McLuhan (1964) argues that the grid-like structure of printed text influenced societies to reorganize villages into similarly grid-like structures with houses arranged along streets and around city blocks.

McLuhan (1964) believed that the temptation to argue differences within a medium distracted us from the larger issue of the media itself. For example, he asserted that arguments about differences between television shows distracted us from the way that television as a medium was restructuring our society as a "global village."

The "global village" concept is McLuhan's (1964) reference to the way that television showed us things happening around the world while distancing us from things happening in our own geographic neighborhood.

2. Media as extension

McLuhan (1964) saw media technologies as extensions of the human body.  Light, for example, extends the eyes, and radio extends the voice. With every extension, we gain something and lose something else. The invention of radio, for example, might render some forms of print media obsolete.

3. Rear-view mirror

McLuhan (1964) argued that most people understand the present as though looking through a rear-view mirror. In other words, most of society uses the past to interpret the present and future. Artists are able to innovate because they do not employ this rear-view perspective. Instead, they are able to look ahead to the future which allows them to create fresh and new ideas.

4. Hot and cool media

McLuhan (1964) divides media technologies into hot and cool. Hot media, he argues, saturates the consumer with information and discourages participation. Film, for example, is a hot medium because it is consumed in high-definition, saturates primarily one sense (the visual), and does not leave room for the viewer to contribute to the communication. Cool media, on the other hand, communications through less saturated communication and generally allows for other activities or participation. The telephone, for example, contributes sound to the user, but requires that the user participate in the production of that sound. McLuhan (1964) classified television as cool media, because (at least in 1964) its image was grain and low-resolution and it allowed users to do other things while it played in the background. This distinction between “hot” and “cool” dictates which types of content are suitable for that particular medium. “Hot” media created more passive consumers than “cool” media.

Peters (2003), "The Subtlety of Horkheimer and Adorno"

The larger argument of The Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944), according to Peters (2003), explains the transition from enlightenment as a way of rationalizing and predicting the world to enlightenment as a way of restricting and controlling certain groups of people. "The Culture Industry" is a chapter in this work that explains media’s role in "soft domination," or convincing the mass audience to subscribe to docility and passivity. 

1. "Escapist entertainment escapes from the task of genuine escape" (p. 68-69). 

Importantly, as Peters (2003) points out, Horkheimer and Adorno (1944) do not simply argue that the audience is duped; instead, they see consumers as "active agents in their own duping" (p. 64). For Peters (2003), Horkheimer and Adorno (1944) conceptualize the audience as active in two ways: they actively assert energy in escaping into texts and they are active enough to represent a threat to the powerful in the first place.

2. "The Culture Industry" offers a subtler and more nuanced critique of mass media than other Frankfurt School contributions. Specifically, Peters (2003) sees “The Culture Industry” as a simultaneous indictment of media domination and an optimistic hope for mass cultural freedom.

3. Horkheimer and Adorno (1944) are often misunderstood for two primary reasons. 

a. First, "The Culture Industry" is oddly structured and seemingly incomplete, with argumentative fragments scattered throughout the essay but never authoritatively unified into a consistent thought. 

b. Second, Horkheimer and Adorno (1944) write from a particular cultural location as Europeans relocated in 1940s Los Angeles. As such, Peters (2003) argues, they often include shorthand commentary about American culture which not only seem to presume a European audience, but which also feel scattered and abbreviated. 

Horkheimer and Adorno (1944), "The Culture Industry"

Horkheimer and Adorno (1944) argue that mass dissemination of art led to top-down control of consumers by producers. Coining the phrase "the culture industry" to describe the standardization of cultural forms through mass media, they argue that industrial society creates in workers a desire for escapism.

Workers are drawn to what they call "light art" as a way of escaping.

Producers appropriate mass social needs in order to provide something for everyone. In so doing, the industry's mass escapism appeases consumers, rendering us passive and unwilling to rebel against even the harshest economic circumstances.

This happens on two levels: not only did the mass culture industry destroy truths that didn't fit into its vision of culture, it also represented those truths as deception.

Radway (1984), "Readers and their romances"

Radway (1984) uses interviews, focus groups, and ethnographic research to examine a group of women's uses of romance novels. He research was conducted in a town she calls "Smithton," and much of her work was facilitated through the group's leader, "Dot." Though Radway (1984) admits that she expected to make an argument about the harmfully gendered messsages of romance novels, instead she found that the books were surprisingly liberating in some ways.

1. Women used romance novel reading as a way of escaping from their daily lives.

Radway (1984) argues that romance novel reading allowed women to bracket off portions of their day in which they were not responsible for care of others. Though romance novels contain somewhat normative gender roles, the way readers used these novels allowed them to circumvent some oppressive gender roles in their own lives.

2. Readers likes and dislikes shaped the continued production of available literature.

Radway's (1984) interactions with Dot let her to confirm Hall's (1980) theory that audience members formed a feedback loop with producers. Radway (1984) learned that Dot corresponded with romance novel publishers, and that the publishers took her ideas seriously. Dot was therefore able to shape which authors and types of books were published, based on her reader's circle's particular tastes. In many cases, these specifications included gendered elements, including the type of sexual encounter and the level of violence that could be tolerated by readers.

Gray (2005), "Where Have All the Black Shows Gone?"

Gray (2005) discusses representations of Black characters, arguing that shows that prominently feature Black characters are often isolated and contained by industry practices.

1. Television representation is limited by structure of distribution

Gray (2005) argues that the conglomeration of media outlets influences representations of Black characters by standardizing and limiting the ways Black characters can be portrayed. Since deregulatory acts like the 1996 Telecommunications Act consolidates representational power to only a privileged few companies, there is little room for non-dominant markets to develop.

2. Conglomerate networks use stereotypical and niche programming to appear progressive

Television programming that includes representations of Black characters is often segregated and contained within the conglomerate television industry structure. Gray (2005) notes that television representations of Black characters are often limited to narrowly defined domains like sports and certain types of musical performance. This gives networks the illusion of representing Black populations, even though mainstream television shows include very little Black representation.

3. Since these representations are so shallow, they only strengthen historical representations of American Blackness

Fiske (1987), Television Culture

Fiske's (1987) Television Culture is often noted as germinal text in the development of a television studies perspective (e.g. Gray and Lotz, 2012). Fiske (1987) is concerned with the ideological messages of television programming. Though Television Culture focuses most specifically on television programming, Fiske (1987) draws from the cultural studies tradition that puts media in a cycle of production. Therefore, Fiske (1987) understands television as a system of codes that the audience uses to navigate culture. This understanding of television leads Fiske (1987) to propose a three-part perspective on television studies.

An important contribution of Television Culture is Fiske's (1987) concept of television codes. For Fiske (1987), television's producers work to standardize the television program product in order to make their messages clear. This can happen at a narrative level, in which certain visual or aural messages have meaning based on cultural story-telling norms. For example, a woman in a black dress and pointy black hat may symbolize a witch for American audiences familiar with this common cultural depiction. Such imagery is standardized based on the circulation of this symbol in things like children's books, movies, Halloween costumes, and other television media. Television codes also include technological aspects like camera shots, lighting, and music cues. For example, the horror genre often employs swelling music just before a victim is attacked by a villain. This standardization across the genre communicates a preferred reading to viewers. As audiences grow more familiar with the genre, they are likely to understand that this technical cue points to the demise of the victim character. In order to maintain profitability, Fiske (1987) argues, television producers use and reuse this type of television code. The result is standardization across television programming. Fiske (1987) notes that television production is controlled by a relatively small segment of the population, and this group is likely to standardize television codes in a way that benefits their own ideological interests.

Though much of Television Culture focuses on television programming, Fiske (1987) also believed that the audience played an active role in consumption. The television audience does not have access to the same level of power and resources as television producers. Fiske (1987) therefore believed that the television audience struggled to make meanings within the codes offered to them by producers. To illustrate this idea, Fiske (1987) used de Certeau's concept of "making do." Fiske (1987) argued that television audiences used certain aspects of television codes to understand their roles in society, but that they also had the power to discard or contest ideas they did not find useful or acceptable. Television audiences could not make their own television media. Audiences therefore use television texts provided to cobble together meanings that they find acceptable.

Through Fiske's (1987) examination of television codes and audience readings of these codes, he propose three areas of study for television scholars. First, he emphasized the importance of the television text as a storytelling agent. He therefore saw television programs as an important focus for television studies. Second, Fiske (1987) believed that television codes were created through repetition across all television programming texts. Therefore, he encouraged television scholars to examine television texts as they related to one another. Finally, Fiske (1987) believed that the audience's readings of these texts were important to understanding their meaning in the culture. Fiske's (1987) concept of television studies therefore included a study of audience reception.

1. Television codes -- Industry has more resources

2. Industry in conversation with audience -- making do

3. Areas television studies should consider -- programs, programs' interaction with other media, audience reading practice