Methodology
In my thesis I utilized the quantitative content analysis method. There are many definitions of this research method from different authors. Most of the definitions include similar principles. The research should be systematical, objective, quantitative and replicable. Daniel Riff introduced in his book the major definition and compiled their aspects into his own. He says:
“Quantitative content analysis is the systematic and replicable examination of symbols of communication, which have been assigned numeric values according to valid measurement rules, and the analysis of relationships involving those values using statistical methods, to describe the communication, draw inferences about its meaning, or infer from the communication
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Research question no. 1: What were the most written about topic in articles related to the invasion to Iraq?
Research question no. 2: What type of sources the journalists used?
Hypotheses no. 1: The journalists were accused of marginalizing voices against the war. Therefore, my hypothesis is that there will be significantly more sources advocating the opinions of the Bush administration than criticizing it. Similarly, most of the articles will be biased towards the Bush administration.
The universe in question and selection of an appropriate sample from the population.
For my quantitative analysis I have chosen two major newspapers: The New York Times and The Washington Post. These two titles are considered as so called prestigious or elite newspapers. This type mass media is often held to higher standards of journalism because they can utilize more resources. Noam Chomsky also uses term agenda-setting media. “The elite media set a framework within which others operate.” Other non-elite media take over their topics, or often whole stories and articles. Most of their reading public are “people who are wealthy or part of what is sometimes called the political class… political managers, business managers (like corporate executives or that sort of thing), doctoral managers
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The study on television news used more categories. However, some of them were very similar and the amount of articles in each would be too small. Therefore, I decided to reduce the number of the categories and create more general ones. That means, for example, that I combined all stories about military planning or strategy; all stories about current situation in Iraq (life of ordinary people, opposition, airstrikes and sanctions); all articles about foreign country or views of foreigners composed another category. All the categories are listed below:
1 = Debate over invasion 10 = Reconstruction plans / Post-war Iraq
2 = Military planning / strategy 11 = Terrorism / Al-Qaeda
3 = Speech by official (American or Iraqi) or prominent citizen 12 = First Gulf war / History
4 = Domestic politics 13 = Protests / Rallies
5 = International views / Impact on allies 14= Public Opinion
6 = UN resolution / meeting 15= Costs of war
7 = Situation in Iraq 16 = Other
8 = Weapons