Content Analysis
36059Homework Exercise #6: Unobtrusive Research/Content Analysis Submit your typed lab report via Blackboard before class and bring a copy of your report with you to class to write notes on in preparation for the final exam. This lab is designed to provide you with a small amount of hands-on experience with content analysis. Your task is to design a quantitative content analysis project that will allow you to make statements regarding the relative social status of men and women in contemporary U.S. society. Specifically, you want to the theoretical claim that men are higher status than women in the U.S. Examples of higher status might include indications that men are generally assumed to be more competent, more worthy of esteem and prestige, more valued members of society, more influential, or that their ideas, contributions and opinions are more correct or more highly valued. There are many other indicators of status differences. To examine this hypothesis, you will design a quantitative content analysis project studying the meaning of “gendered” cultural artifacts. Your lab report should completely address each of the following: 1. Describe the social artifact that you have chosen to content analyze in terms of gender and status. Why did you select this artifact? Provide a clear and strong justification for using this particular artifact to investigate this research question. 2. Sampling design: Describe in detail a sampling plan appropriate for generating a valid description of the status of men versus women in contemporary U.S. society. Identify the units of analysis and observation, the population (i.e., sampling universe), sampling frame (i.e., list of elements from which you actually select your sample), and describe exactly how you would select your sample (i.e., the sampling design and how you would implement it to select the particular cases that would be included in your sample). You do NOT need to actually select a sample; just describe how you would do it. 3. Operationalization (coding scheme) and Hypotheses: a. Describe exactly how you will measure gender and status for each unit of observation, and if necessary, how you will aggregate those into measures for each unit of analysis. Provide enough detail so that any other student in the class could replicate your measurement without asking for clarification (e.g., instructions and examples for counting and the base of your percentages; instructions and examples of magnitude estimation questions; etc.). Did you choose to focus on manifest or latent content, or both, and why? b. State an empirical hypothesis that could be used to test the theoretical claim that men are higher status than women in your project. c. Describe how you would determine if/how much the genders differ in terms of status. 4. Application of Coding Scheme (pre-test): Apply your coding scheme to two examples of the social artifact you have chosen to analyze (e.g., two episodes of TV shows). Note that you do not need to choose them according to your sampling plan, they can just be convenient examples to pretest your coding scheme. Describe the data for these two cases and whether they are consistent with the research hypothesis. 5. Assessment of Measurement and Conclusions: a. What would be the most appropriate method for assessing the reliability and validity of your coding scheme (i.e., of your measures)? Describe how you would
SOC 242 Methods of Social Research Prof. Younts
know whether your measure(s) are reliable and/or valid according to these assessments. b. If, after completing this project, you found support for the hypothesis, would you be able to conclude that gender causes status? Why or why not? PLEASE make sure you discuss how well this study meets each of the three criteria of causality.
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