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The Audience Reactions To Hollywood Politics Media Essay

发布时间:2018-02-23
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Van Zoonen conducted an exploratory inquiry into the criteria of how people use films and television series with political content to present their political reactions, by means of mapping audiences' political performances. By carrying out a qualitative content analysis of people's postings on an online movie database, imdb.com, she aimed to classify their opinion about seven movies and television series: Mr. Smith goes to Washington (1939), Dave (1993), The West Wing (1999- ), Primary Colors (1998), Wag the Dog (1997), All the President's Men (1976), Yes, (Prime) Minister (1980-86). First of all, she categorizes the movies according to their narrative structure into: Quest, Soap, Conspiracy and Bureaucracy.

Regarding the material and the size of the data set, the researcher analyzed 549 comments taken from the discussion forums on Imdb database in February 2004. This database attracts 25 million site visits a month, which ensures a reasonably high number of comments for each of the movie presented. After the first selection phase she has noticed that 40 percent of the postings lack or political content and removed them from the actual study.

In terms of actual conduct and method of analysis, van Zoonen has chosen the three consecutive open coding steps (REFERENCE): open, axial and selective coding. In the first phase she articulated the main "coherent collections of comments" (van Zoonen, REFERENCE) by looking into what people were commenting upon and what kind of presentation was therefore achieved, while in axial coding phase she established the categories of comments based on the respective films or series. The third selective coding phase was the one in which the author has analyzed the categories and relations between them on the basis of the core concept of the study: performance of the "political self" (political behavior), by identifying those types of politics that were not performed in comments.

As a result of the open coding process, the author has come up with four distinctive categories from the comments: descriptive comments, in which people describe the programme they viewed, reflection on politics, in which people reflect on political dilemmas, judgment in which they comment upon certain political stories and fantasying about ideal political systems and actions. Every comment might contain one or more categories. Based on this classification she goes into depth with each category by giving examples of comments that fit to it.

Although not fully acknowledged, the analysis process was inductive and took a grounded theory approach. Van Zoonen did not develop variables (categories) from accessible theories or earlier associated studies, and she had no intent of verifying existing theories; rather, she immersed herself in the comments posted and let the categories materialize on their own. However, she is not very generous in providing details about what her exact procedure in terms of analysis was. Some categories in the coding scheme were straightforward and could be easily identified based on manifest content, while others were harder to recognize because they were partially based on the underlying content of the texts.

Besides the reported limitations mentioned above, the author also recognizes the fact that Imdb.com attracts more non-political comments about the films as films, rather than about their political content. Moreover, as the material has been extracted from an online forum, therefore the authenticity of the study could be affected (Bryman, 2008). In other words, the background and identity of the people who post their comment is unknown, so they might give their non-valid opinions and pretend to be experts. "The Internet is a constant flux of information and the degree of representativeness is doubtful" (Bryman, 2008). The database also might raise bias because specific comments are mentioned but one cannot conclude that there are no other comments worth mentioning in regards to the impact of politics presented in movies on people's political behavior. This is why, I believe the paper as a whole lacks of specific argumentation with regards the researcher's choice of presenting some comments and other not.

By using the method of purposive sampling, the author acknowledges the need of a variety of films in order to guarantee a wide range of reactions among viewers. Although this is a very useful approach of sampling for her paper, she mentions personal favoritism and reputation of the movies as main reasons for choosing it which provides no evidence for theoretical saturation. As a result, her sample might actually be too small for drawing up a valid theory.

In terms of strengths of the methodological choices of the author, I believe that the qualitative content analysis she conducted fits the aim of the paper of mapping the range in audience reactions in order to explore the range of political performances resulting from popular film and television fiction about politics. This method is indeed appropriate for the author's study as the focus is on people's personal opinion generated after watching the movie or the series. Moreover, as she also notices, there isn't so much previous research to study audience's reactions to such films. As people's opinion is mandatory for such a study, classifying and commenting upon their posts can generate the expected results of the study. However, she does not bring explicit arguments to sustain her choice of research approach.

The researcher carefully designed and controlled the data collection and the data analysis procedures to ensure credibility of the research results. Moreover she clearly states the limitations that she encountered when choosing and classifying the sample data. However, in order to reach all the conditions of credibility and reduce the bias of a single researcher, the author could have used a peer's debriefing. Also as a weakness, I believe that not listing a codebook with explained procedures for handling all the data offers leads evidence of trustworthiness of the study. All in all, I think explicitly claiming trustworthiness would have better sustained the results.

I would say that although the qualitative approach of this research is the most appropriate method of answering the research question of this study, an alternative way of finding out whether people indeed form a "political self" after watching films and TV series with political content would be to conduct a quantitative content analysis. This method would generate more precise results in terms of percentages of people who describe, reflect, judge or fantasize about the political content of certain movies. On the one hand, people's personal perspectives would not be so clearly stated, but on the other hand the degree of generalization would increase, as data would be much more reliable. Validity, reliability and replication would be easier to define and measure and subjectivity would decrease. Another suggestion would be to add also the experts' opinion that is also present on the imdb.com discussion forum, which would consolidate better the relationship between theoretical embedment and the results.

The Real Spiral of Cynicism? Symbiosis and Mistrust between Politicians and Journalists

The study conducted by… aims to determine whether there is such a thing like a vicious spiral of cynicism between journalists and politicians by means of mutual mistrust and their perception towards politics. By applying a cross-sectional research design and a questionnaire the authors aim to observe the degree of political and media cynicism among entities, journalists view on politicians' media salacity and politicians' view about themselves. The survey was conducted in the Netherlands and is mainly meant to emphasize how politics is covered in the media, as a result of the relationship between politicians and journalists.

In order to answer these questions, the authors have operationalized the main concept of spiral of cynicism into media cynicism, political cynicism and media salacity (dependent variables). The first concept has been conceptualized into the quality of the content of the news media, the style and character of the journalist and the potential effect of media coverage. Moreover, background variables have also been added like the frequency of contact between politicians and journalists on a formal as well as informal basis, contentment of politicians with regards politics and their media portrayal and what the main function on media in society is. Media salacity has been defined as the exaggerated attention given by the politicians to their media activities.

The survey was carried out on a time period from September 2006 until January 2007 on a sample of 104 journalists (from the association of parliamentary journalists (PPV) - response rate 65%) and of 70 politicians (members of the Dutch Parliament selected from the website - response rate 46%). They have received per email the link to the questionnaire and also a paper version that could be sent back per mail. Reminders have been also sent.

All of the three concepts media and political cynicism and media salacity have been measured on a 5-point scale and for measuring the level of cynicism among politicians towards the media, an ordinary least squares regression analysis has been conducted. As a strength for this study, the Cronbach's alpha indicates a high level for media cynicism, therefore a high level of internal reliability. However, the test does not have such good results for political cynicism and even lower for media salacity (0.59 - journalist, 0.72- politicians, 0.53 - journalists and 0.62 - politicians respectively).

In terms of complications and limitations acknowledged by the authors, the unexpected Dutch general election is the main one. This affected negatively the response rate among politicians who were busy with campaign activities. They also report a personal lack of satisfaction with the conceptualization of political cynicism, as there might be also other elements that could define or lead to political cynicism. However, they decided to keep the questions like that in order to avoid complications over the time.

Nevertheless, the fact that the questionnaire was online implies certain limitations to the study as the doubt arises whether politicians and journalist were indeed those who filled in the questionnaire.

What I believe is strength of this article is the fact that the authors have clearly presented the procedures they have undertaken: how the respondents have been selected, the conceptualization of notions, how they managed the material and analyzed the data. Therefore, the degree of replicability is very likely to be high.

In terms of weaknesses, the research design itself does not usually have a high level of internal validity due to the nature of the approach. There is no causal relation between the concepts employed in the study, but more an associative one (Bryman, 2008).

News on the move: exogenous events and news coverage of the European Union

Boomgaarden et al. examined the visibility of EU news in newspapers, its coverage between the seven countries selected and across a longer period of time. By choosing the longitudinal research design rather than the cross-sectional one, the authors have the opportunity of offering us an explanation why there might be differences among countries in media coverage of the European Union. Therefore, the authors operationalized their research approach through a series of factors that have an impact on the coverage: "EU as a polity" (EU events such as summits or parliamentary sessions), "EU policies" (treaties, referendums, Euro introduction) and "national politics" (national events with impact on the EU).

The method of research that they have chosen is quantitative content analysis. By using more pragmatic criteria like beginning of membership and availability of newspapers in the country for a longer period of time, the authors came up with a sample of seven countries: Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom (UK). When sampling the media, they have selected only one newspaper in each country according to a scale found in previous research that indicates the quality newspapers in each of the chosen countries.

In terms of measures implied, they have undertaken two computer-assisted content analyses in order to opt for the articles that contain at least one reference from every newspaper. The result was a date-set of 329.746 articles across a period of time from 1990 until 2006. The second content analysis measured the prominence of the EU within the articles. Articles on the first page and those where the EU is mentioned in the titles have been calculated twice, while those that contain more than 1 reference have been calculated according to the formula: Prominence= 1+ln(number of referrals). The dependent variable, media attention is being correlated to the independent variable important events. A lagged variable has been added for autocorrelation.

The authors began the analysis by demonstrating that the country series are not supposed to be differentiated by using a Dickey Fuller analysis and looking for repeating patterns. They also show that is very improbable for the countries to differ in their mean level of change in media attention. The analysis goes further by using a mathematical formula: Dyi,t = c + a Dyi,t−1 + S b Dxi,t−1 + 1i,t. , where Dyi,t is the value of country i on time t on the dependent variable (change in visibility), c the constant, Dyi,t21 the lagged value of the dependent variable, Dxi,t the value of country I on time t on an independent variable (changed scores) and 1i,t the error term (REFERENCE).

The acknowledge limitations are related to the selection of one single newspaper from each country, which might be considered not enough for this study, but as the research unit is the article, I believe it will not have any negative consequences. Moreover, due to the extended period of analysis, some newspapers were not available for a certain period of time, therefore the scholar have decided to use the material that was indeed available. This might jeopardize the gerealizability. Other limitations might arise due to the inter- and intra-coder reliability. For such an extended study, more coders where needed, therefore the coding method should be the similar, if not identical and there has to exist an amount of agreement between coders. Although it is not explicitly acknowledged,

In terms of strengths, this study is a very complex one in which the timing was impressive and although it is usually extremely difficult to study the media coverage across an extended time frame due to time and cost reasons, the researchers were very successful in selecting, analyzing and picking up long-term changes for this study.

Although the research has been thoroughly presenting, a limitation might arise from the uncertainty whether the newspapers that have been selected are somehow biased in terms of ideology, political preferences or issue ownership.

Issue Importance as a Moderator of Framing Effects

The article is focused on how framing effects differ depending on the importance of the issue. In this context, individual issue importance also plays its part by being considered an essential factor in the process of attitudes and opinion forming through framing. Therefore, the authors structured the study by using operationalizing through a series of hypotheses:

Hypothesis 1: Effects of frames are larger for issues that are personally less important.

Framing low importance issues will have a more significant impact at an individual level than high importance issues.

Hypothesis 2: The degree of belief elaboration is contingent upon issue importance with a higher degree of elaboration for high-importance issues.

People will express their beliefs towards an issue in a more complex way if the issue has a higher degree of importance.

Hypothesis 3a: On an issue of low importance, a framing effect on opinion is mediated through belief importance change.

Framing of an issue has an impact on the perceived importance of an issue

Hypothesis 3b: On an issue of low importance, a framing effect on opinion is mediated through belief content change.

Individuals are less motivated to change their attitudes if they are facing the framing of a low importance issue.

The authors have applied an experiment research design by conducting two online experiments, a pilot study and the actual experiment. The pilot study was meant to answer the first hypothesis and used a low importance issue (international trade) and a high importance issue (care for elderly) both selected from Danish national election studies. In order to confirm the validity of the choice, they have added questions measured on a 7-point scale.

In terms of sampling for both experiments the sample was chosen randomly and individuals have been classified into pro, con and also a control group responsible for an economic consequences frame. Moreover, the ones that have treated the whole procedure in a superficial way have been removed, in order to ensure a high quality of the study. The sample size for the pilot study was 202 people, while 1618 participated in the main study out of 2643 who received the invitations.

The procedure contained four steps: online pretest questionnaire, the news article (included framing conditions), posttest questionnaire and manipulation check (successfully conducted for both high- and low experiments). The dependent variable for the pretest questionnaire was opinion towards the two issues selected: international trade and care for elderly.

The main study had the same framework like the pilot study. In order to assess the other hypothesis the firstly added two open ended questions meant to measure belief importance and then participants had to explain "to a friend" what they read in the articles. The answers were analyzed according to a coding scheme split into considerations from the stimulus article and considerations related to the issue. To test the inter-coder reliability, a test has been conducted that indicated a wide range of scores which were considered by the authors reliable for showing "primed and spontaneous issue related considerations" (REFERENCE). In order to test belief content, participants had to agree or disagree with particular statements regarding the care for elderly in the case of the first experiment and international trade for the second one.

The authors acknowledged the complications an online experiment might imply due to a less controllable environment; this is why they have very well selected certain participants. However, using online experiments might be also considered a weakness and may imply other complications like the lack of understanding some questions properly or more persons could use the computer in the same time. This of course would affect the truthfulness or validity of answers.

Another reported limitation of the study is the fact that the low- and high- importance issues were selected from Danish election studies and were considered to be "too remote". (REFERENCE). The authors also worry about the opinion of the control group on the trade agreement issue that was "too positive" in comparison to the con and pro groups and so gave biased answers.

In terms of strengths the thorough design of the experiment and the random selection and assignment of participant to the designated groups are worth mentioning. I believe the authors have cleverly chosen the control group in order to maintain the internal and external validity. The experiment, as a method is nevertheless one of the most reliable when it comes to internal validity and helps, like in the case of this study, to determine causality (Bryman, 2008). The structure of the experiment, its pilot study and main study were also very well chosen and the manipulation check fulfilled its purpose. The sample for the main study was impressively large and I believe that although it was very complicated to control such a sample, the authors managed to control it very well; that lead to the success of the whole study. Although the study is clearly a very elaborate one it leaves us with a question regarding how representative to the population is sample is.

General discussion

This paper analyzes four articles that have approached different research designs: cross-sectional, longitudinal and experimental design. As a common trend is the fact that the selection of the research design for all the articles was a successful one in all of the studies, although only in one the authors mention explicitly the reasoning behind their choice. Although all of the articles have some limitations they have mostly been acknowledge by the researchers. Another common tendency would be the lack of justification in regards to the sample choice or the lack of evidence that internal and external validity have been tested.

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