Reference no: EM133462226

In this mini-study, you will practice conducting a content analysis. Review the readings and lecture material from Unit 7 with a particular focus on content analysis.

Select a sociology topic, concept, or research question. You can use the same topic/question from previous assignments, literature review, or develop a new question. Make sure this is a question/topic you could study using the content analysis design. After selecting a topic, determine what type of content you will be analyzing. Think about the guidelines for selecting cases for comparison. Some ideas include examining the content within a genre of films, a TV series, types of advertisements, articles from particular news sources, or magazine covers. The medium you select for analysis should connect to the research topic/question. Please ask the instructor if you have any questions about the selection process or would like to get feedback on your ideas.

Once the topic and content have been determined, you will construct a code sheet with guiding topics, concepts, images, or interactions that you think are pertinent to studying the sociological content you are interested in. For example, if you are interested in media depictions of police interaction with communities of color, you could conduct a content analysis of the HBO show "The Wire". Some of the codes/themes you may want to look for are depictions of crime, negative interactions with police, the presence of racial stereotypes, instances of police violence, etc. You would then watch 3-5 episodes and make notes over each occurrence of the codes. You can additionally take qualitative notes on each episode for emergent themes (grounded theory approach).

After you have completed the review of the content, review the code sheet and identify any themes or interesting findings. Please submit your code sheet with the research report. Below is an example template for the code sheet. You should also review the sample code sheet in the textbook.

Parts of the Report:

1. Statement of research topic/question- you can use the same topic in each mini-study or you can select a different topic for each research assignment.

2. Significance of topic-describe why this question is sociological in orientation and merits further research.

3. Description of method- explain what research design is used and the steps are taken to develop the design (ie measurement and sampling technique, survey or interview questions, description of the field site, codes/themes, explanation of analytic concepts or frames)

4. A brief discussion of findings- you are not expected to conduct in-depth analysis, but share any observed patterns or descriptive data

5. Reflection on design and ethical considerations- was this the best design for the research topic? are there any limitations to this design? is anything missing in the data? what ethical considerations did you incorporate into the design?