A Content Analysis of Content Analyses: Twenty-Five Years of Journalism Quarterly

Abstract

Examination of the increasing number of articles employing quantitative content analysis in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly showed primary focus on newsleditorial content in U S . media. Nearly half examined newspapers, and half were coauthored. Most used convenience or purposive samples. Few involved a second research method or extra-media data, explicit theoretical grounding, or research questions or hypotheses. Half reported intercoder reliability, and two-fifths used only descriptive statistics. Analysis of trends shows growth in coauthorship and reporting of reliability, and increasing emphasis on more sophisticated statistical analysis. N o parallel trend exists, however, in use of explicit hypotheseslresearch questions or theoretical grounding. ~~~Research journals, what Weaver and Wilhoit called "the nerves of a discipline,"' are a barometer of the substantive focus of scholarship and the research methods most important to the discipline. This longitudinal study examines trends in content analysis in Journalism fi Mass Communication Quarterly* (or JMCQ) over the last quarter century . Schweitzer has shown JMCQ's predominance among journals which publish the "vast majority" of mass communication re~earch.~ Why examine the use of a research method such as content analysis? Methodologystudy of research methodshelps a discipline improve. Thus, Lowry critiqued population validity of samples in communication ~tudies.~ Chase and Baran examined statistical power of tests that are used.5 Lacy and Riffe6 described "sins of omission and commission" in manuscripts reviewed for a dozen journals (including failure to report coder reliability in content analyses).More compelling as a rationale for the study is the method's widespread use. Fowler7 showed 84.1% of master's level research methods courses include content analysis, slightly more than the 78% and 73% covering experimental and survey research. Not surprisingly, WilhoitB found 21.9% of 1981-82 theses and dissertations employed content analysis (28.1% employed survey, 8.4% were experiments, and 20% were categorized as historical method). Content analysis is also well-represented in the journals. Wilhoit's9 comparison of 1978-80 Communication Abstracts data with 1944-64 data collected with Danielsonlo showed one-tenth of published mass commu-Rationale Daniel Riffe is professor in the E.W. Scripps School ofJournalism at Ohio University where Alan Freitag is a doctoral student.

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