Qualitative Media Analysis

For students and researchers, Altheide (justice and social inquiry, Arizona State U.) and Schneider (sociology, U. of British Columbia, Canada) explain how to use qualitative approaches to analyze media documents like newspapers and magazines, electronic documents, television newscasts, Internet video games, and online newspaper and other websites. They blend the traditional idea of objective content analysis with participant observation to form ethnographic content analysis and focus on documents as representations of social meanings and institutional relations. They compare traditional quantitative with ethnographic (or qualitative) content analysis, outline the steps of qualitative document analysis and the role of the research task and perspective in various sampling strategies, and address the use of computer information bases for tracking discourse, and field notes and other research materials as documents. Materials from their students' projects are used for illustration. This edition adds new examples, clarifies some concepts and perspectives, adds research by others and more on the process of qualitative media analysis, and has a new chapter on social media, as well as more on their approach, with an expanded list of studies using it. All chapters have been expanded, and figures have been revised. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)