Changes in Public Attitudes: A Comparison of Content Analysis of Media and Survey Results

在20世纪40年代中期，民意调查开始收集美国种族态度的趋势数据。然而，没有调查数据或其他可靠的证据来回答关于20世纪40年代中期之前的态度的问题。本研究将通过完成对1930年至1946年期间报纸和期刊的系统内容分析来解决这一问题。1946年是关于白人种族态度的全国趋势调查数据甚至最少的第一年。研究者制定了一套广泛的分类，并用这些分类来分析大约35年来报纸文章的随机样本，以确定发生了什么变化，如果有的话，反映或影响了白人的种族态度。第二个研究目标是研究从1946年到20世纪60年代中期的态度。这些年来，与1930年至1946年的早期时期不同，有重复的国家调查，可以比较内容分析的结果。这使研究者能够间接地分离出分析报纸文本对理解1930年早期至1946年期间态度变化的贡献程度。初步调查结果提供了可观变化的有力证据：例如，对报纸文章的上下文分析得出，与所谓黑人犯罪的报道相比，有关黑人成就的报道在统计上可靠地增加了。这项研究将严格审查发生变化的其他领域，包括对性别平等态度的转变，并继续发展一种方法，使人们能够确定报纸文章的内容分析结果与基于同一时期现有国家调查的结果之间的联系。更广泛的影响这项研究有可能增加对大萧条和第二次世界大战期间对少数民族的态度的理解。这项研究还将有助于评估大众传播媒介内容分析在确定一般公众态度趋势方面的价值，从而补充和补充从抽样调查中获得的证据。系统地比较两种非常不同类型的社会科学数据的尝试应该产生对每种类型的优势和局限性的见解，并有助于理解当可信的调查数据不可用或由于限制（例如，低回复率）而受到怀疑时，内容分析是否以及如何揭示态度。研究结果将通过跨学科的演讲和文章传播给历史学家、社会学家、传播研究人员和其他人，从而增加跨学科的交流和意识。此外，对内容分析和调查数据的结果进行系统比较，可能对社会科学研究方法的研究生和本科生有价值，也可能对一般研究社会变化和具体研究不同类型人权态度的人有兴趣。

In the mid-1940s, public opinion surveys began to gather trend data on racial attitudes in America. There, however, is no survey data or other reliable evidence to answer questions about attitudes prior to the mid-1940s. This study will address this by completing a systematic content analysis of newspapers and periodicals from 1930 until 1946 - the latter date the first year when even minimal national trend survey data became available on white racial attitudes. The investigator has developed an extensive set of categories and has used these to analyze a random sample of newspaper articles newspapers over some 35 years in order to determine what, if any, changes occurred that reflected or influenced white racial attitudes. A second research goal is to study attitudes in the years from 1946 to the mid 1960s. For these years, unlike the earlier 1930 to 1946 period, there are repeated national surveys to which the results of the content analysis can be compared. This enables the investigator to indirectly isolate the extent to which analyzing newspaper texts can contribute to understanding changes in attitudes between the earlier 1930 to 1946 period. Initial findings provide promising evidence of considerable change: for example, the context analysis of newspaper articles yielded a statistically reliable increase in the stories about black accomplishments as against reports of alleged black crimes. This study will examine critically other areas in which change has occurred, including shifts in attitudes about gender equality, and continue to develop the methodology that allows one to determine the association of findings from content analyses of newspaper articles and those based on available national surveys over the same period. Broader ImpactThe research has the potential to increase understanding of attitudes toward minorities during the Depression and World War II years. The research will also help to assess the value of content analysis of mass media in identifying attitudinal trends among the general public, thus complementing and supplementing the evidence obtained from sample surveys. The attempt to compare systematically two very different types of social science data should yield insights into the advantages and limitations of each, and contribute to an understanding of whether and how content analysis can shed light on attitudes when trustworthy survey data are not available or are suspect because of limitations (for example, low response rates). The results of the research will be disseminated through presentations and articles that cross disciplinary boundaries, reaching historians, sociologists, communications researchers, and others, and therefore adding to cross-disciplinary communication and awareness. In addition, the systematic comparison of findings from content analysis and survey data has the potential to be of value to graduate and undergraduate students of social science research methods, and to be of interest both to those studying social change generally and attitudes about different types of human rights, specifically.