Abstract
Content analysis of newspaper publications has become a major scientific method of the analysis of public discourse. Within the framework of content analysis, we suggest a computer-assisted method to extract the most important topics of this discourse in an objective, quantifiable manner. The method combines frequency and proximity analysis of the text population, selection of the key words, text modification based on a key word dictionary, factor analysis of the modified text population, and factor interpretation. We illustrate the concept by applying the method to study the major topics discussed in the US and UK prestige press that relate to the precautionary principle. Precautionary principle is a concept of preventing environmental damage under scientific uncertainty. The analysis demonstrates the difference between the major topics of the precautionary principle discussion in the US and UK press. In the US, it revolves around an emphasis on the action on global warming, international trade on genetically modified food, environment pollution, the risks of new technologies, and cost-benefit analysis (CBA). In the UK, the major discussion topics include threats to agriculture and farmers, climate change economics, national and EU regulations, and commercial fishing. Other discussion topics, such as health and pollution, water safety regulations, meat safety and trade, and GMO regulations are shared between the countries. The US sample demonstrates more negative views towards the precautionary principle, which is presented as a threat to the US economic interests.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ackerman F.: Poisoned for Pennies. The Economics of Toxic and Precaution. Island Press, Washington, DC (2008)
Alexa M., Zuell C.: Text analysis software: commonalities, differences and limitations: the results of a review. Qual. Quant. 34, 299–321 (2000)
Andsager J.L.: How interest groups attempt to shape public opinion with competing news frames. Journal. Mass Commun. Q. 77(3), 577–592 (2000)
Andsager J.L., Drzewiecka J.A.: Desirability of differences in destinations. Ann. Tour. Res. 29(2), 401 (2002)
Ashford N.A.: The legacy of the precautionary principle in US Law: the rise of cost-benefit analysis and risk assessment as undermining factors in health, safety, and environmental protection. In: de Sadeleer, N. (eds) Implementing the Precautionary Principle: approaches from the Nordic Countries, EU and USA, pp. 352–378. Earthscan, London (2007)
Audit Bureau of Circulations, http://www.accessabc.com (2009). Accessed 1 Feb 2010
Beder S.: Environmental Principles and Policies, An Interdisciplinary Introduction. Earthscan Publications, Sterling, VA (2006)
Boykoff M.T.: Flogging a dead norm? Newspaper coverage of anthropogenic climate change in the United States and United Kingdom from 2003–2006. Area 39, 470–481 (2007)
Boykoff M.T., Boykoff J.M.: Balance as bias: global warming and the US prestige press. Glob. Environ. Change 14, 125–136 (2004)
Brace N., Kemp R., Snelgar R.: SPSS for Psychologists: a guide to data analysis using SPSS for windows. Palgrave Macmillan, New York (2003)
Brown T.A.: Confirmatory Factor Analysis for Applied Research. The Guilford Press, New York, NY (2006)
Chen, Y., Lehto, X.Y.: Brand personality of spa destinations (resorts) on the Web. In: proceedings of the 12th Annual Graduate Education and Graduate Students Research Conference on Hospitality and Tourism, pp. 911–919, Houston, TX, January 3–5, 2007
Commission of the European Communities: Communication from the Commission on the precautionary principle, European Union, Brussels (2000)
Deacon D.: Yesterday’s papers and today’s technology digital newspaper archives and ‘Push Button’ content analysis. Eur. J. Commun. 22, 5–25 (2007)
Demont-Heinrich C.: American “prestige press” representations of the global hegemony of English. World Englishes 27, 161–180 (2008)
Doerfel M.L., Marsh P.S.: Candidate-issue positioning in the context of presidential debates. J. Appl. Commun. Res. 31(3), 212–237 (2003)
Driesen D.M.: Economic dynamics of environmental law: cost-benefit analysis, emissions trading, and priority-setting. Boston College Environ. Aff. Law Rev. 31(1), 501–528 (2004)
Duriau, V.J., Reger, R.K.: Choice of text analysis software in organization research: insight from a multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) analysis. In: 7th International Conference on the Textual Data Statistical Analysis, March 10–12, pp. 382–389, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 2004
Duriau V.J., Reger R.K., Pfarrer M.D.: A content analysis of the content analysis literature in organization studies: research themes, data sources, and methodological refinements. Organ. Res. Methods 10(1), 5–34 (2007)
Fenton, F.: The influence of newspaper presentations on the growth of crime and other anti-social activity. Am. J. Sociol. 16(3–4), 342–371, 538–564 (1910)
Forsythe A.M.: Mapping the political language of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. Qual. Quant. 23(3), 215–224 (1998)
George, A.L.: Propaganda analysis. A Study of Inferences Made from Nazi Propaganda in World War II, Row, Peterson, Evanston, IL (1959)
Grice J.W.: Computing and evaluating factor scores. Psychol. Methods 6, 430–450 (2001)
Iker H.P.: An historical note on the use of word-frequency contiguities in content analysis. Comput. Humanit. 8, 93–98 (1974)
Iker H.P., Harway N.I.: A computer approach towards the analysis of content. Behav. Sci. 10, 173–183 (1965)
Jordan, A., O’Riordan, T.: The Precautionary Principle in UK Environmental Law and Policy. Working Paper. http://www.uea.ac.uk/env/cserge/pub/wp/gec/gec_1994_11.htm(1994). Accessed 2 Jan 2010
Kline P.: An easy guide to factor analysis. Routledge, New York (1994)
Kraidy M.M., Goeddertz T.: Transnational advertising and international relations: US press discourses on the Benetton ‘We on Death Row’ campaign. Media. Cult. Soc. 25, 147–165 (2003)
Krippendorff K.: Content analysis an introduction to its methodology. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA (2004)
Lacy S., Fico F., Simon T.F.: Fairness and balance in the prestige press. Journal. Q 68, 363–370 (1991)
LaFranchi S.: Surveying the precautionary principle’s ongoing global development: the evolution of an emergent environmental management tool. Boston College Environ. Aff. Law Rev. 32(3), 679–720 (2005)
Landis J.R., Koch G.G.: The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data. Biometrics 33, 159–174 (1977)
Lasswell H.D., Leites N.: Language of politics, studies in quantitative semantics. MIT Press, Cambridge (1965)
Lasswell H.D., Lerner D., Pool I.D.S.: The comparative study of symbols. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA (1952)
Lewin H.S.: Hitler Youth and the Boy Scouts of America: a comparison of aims. Hum. Relat. 1, 206–227 (1947)
Lowe, W.: Content analysis software: a review. Technical report for the identity project. http://people.iq.harvard.edu/~wlowe/Publications/rev.pdf(2003). Accessed 1 Feb 2010
Luther C.A., Miller M.M.: Framing of the 2003 U.S.–Iraq war demonstrations: an analysis of news and partisan texts. Journal. Mass Commun. Q. 82(1), 78–96 (2005)
Macnamara, J.: Media content analysis—uses, benefits, & best practice methodology. In: mMedia Monitors. http://www.mediamonitors.com.au/documents/Media%20Content%20Analysis%20Research%20Paper.pdf (2006). Accessed 4 Jan 2008
Martin H.: Nationalism and children’s literature. Libr. Q. 6, 405–418 (1936)
Mathews B.C.: A study of a New York daily. Independent 68, 82–86 (1910)
Mattis, K.: The adoption of the precautionary principle in environmental policy: does american media bias undermine public and ecological health and environmental sustainability? Master’s thesis, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND (2009)
Miles M.B., Weitzman E.A.: The state of qualitative content analysis software: what do we need?. Curr. Sociol. 44(3), 206–224 (1996)
Miller M.M., Andsager J.L., Riechert B.P.: Framing the candidates in presidential primaries: issues and images in press releases and news coverage. Journal. Mass Commun. Q. 75(2), 312–324 (1998)
Muskens G.: Mathematical analysis of content. Qual. Quant. 19, 99–103 (1985)
Myers N., Raffensperger C.: Precautionary Tools for Reshaping Environmental Policy. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA (2006)
Namenwirth J.Z.: Marks of distinction: a content analysis of British mass and prestige newspaper editorials. Am. J. Sociol. 74, 343–360 (1969)
Neuendorf K.A.: The Content Analysis Guidebook. Sage, Thousand Oak, CA (2002)
Neuman W.L.: Social Research Methods Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. Allyn & Bacon, Needham Heights, MA (1997)
Newbold C., Boyd-Barrett O., Van Den Bulck H.: The media book. Arnold Hodder Headline, London (2002)
Pennings P., Keman H.: Towards a new methodology of estimating party policy positions. Qual. Quant. 36(1), 55–79 (2002)
Popping R.: Computer programs for the analysis of texts and transcripts. In: Roberts, C.W. (eds) Text analysis for the social sciences: methods for drawing statistical inferences from texts and transcripts., pp. 79–100. Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ (1997)
Powers A., Andsager J.L.: How newspapers framed breast implants in the 1990s. Journal. Mass Commun. Q. 76(3), 551–564 (1999)
Rampton S., Stauber J.: Trust us, We’re Experts!. Putman, New York, NY (2001)
Roberts C.W.: A conceptual framework for quantitative text analysis. Qual. Quant. 34, 259–274 (2000)
Romano N.C. Jr., Donovan C., Chen H., Nunamaker J.F. Jr: A methodology for analyzing web-based qualitative data. J. Manag. Inf. Syst. 19(4), 213–246 (2003)
Russill C.: The tipping point trend in climate change communication. Glob. Environ. Change 19, 336–344 (2009)
Ryan C., Cave J.: Structuring destination image: a qualitative approach. J. Travel Res. 44(2), 143–150 (2005)
Simpson, G.E.: The negro in the Philadelphia press. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Pennsylvania (1934)
Sinclair K.: British prestige press editorials on leadership during 1979 campaign. Journal. Q. 59, 230–234 (1982)
Speed G.J.: Do newspapers now give the news?. Forum 15, 705–711 (1893)
Stempel G.H., Windhauser J.W.: The prestige press revisited: coverage of the 1980 presidential campaign. Journal. Q. 61, 230–234 (1984)
Stepchenkova S., Morrison A.M.: The destination image of Russia: from the online induced perspective. Tour. Manag. 27(5), 943–956 (2006)
Stepchenkova S., Morrison A.M.: Russia’s destination image among American pleasure travelers: revisiting Echtner & Ritchie. Tour. Manag. 29(3), 548–560 (2008)
Stepchenkova S., Chen Y., Morrison A.M.: China and Russia: organic destination images in US media. China Tour. Res. 3(1), 55–72 (2007)
Stepchenkova S., Kirilenko A., Morrison A.M.: Facilitating content analysis in tourism research. J. Travel Res. 47, 454–469 (2009)
Stovall J.G.: The prestige press covers the 1960 presidential campaign. Journal. Q. 38, 157–163 (1961)
Street, A.T.: The truth about newspapers. Chicago Tribune, July 25, 1909
Stryker J.E., Wray R.J., Hornic R.C., Yanovitzky I.: Validation of database search terms for content analysis. Journal. Mass Commun. Q. 83(2), 413–430 (2006)
Tenney A.A.: The scientific analysis of the press. Independent 73, 895–898 (1912)
Tesch R.: Qualitative Research: analysis types and software tools. Falmar Press, New York, NY (1990)
Tickner, J., Raffensperger, C., Myers, N.: The Precuationary Principle in Action: a handbook. science and environmental health network. http://www.sehn.org/rtfdocs/handbook-rtf.rtf (1999). Accessed 4 Sept 2008
Treaty of Maastricht: declaration on Assessment of the Environmental Impact of Community Measures. http://www.europa.eu/legislation_summaries/economic_and_monetary_affairs/institutional_and_economic_framework/treaties_maastricht_en.htm(1991). Accessed 01 June 2010
UK Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs: understanding Adaptation. http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/climate/adaptation/index.htm(2010). Accessed 01 June 2010
UK Department of Energy and Climate Change: our energy future: creating a low-carbon economy Energy. White paper. http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/publications/white_paper_03/white_paper_03.aspx (2003). Accessed 01 Feb 2010
United Nations Environment Programme: rio declaration on environment and development (1992)
van den Berg H., van der Veer K.: Computerized decision support systems and text analysis: evaluating CETA. Qual. Quant. 34(1), 65–86 (2000)
Walworth A.: School histories at war, A study of the treatment of our wars in the secondary school history books of the United States and in those of its former enemies. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA (1938)
Weaver D.A., Bimber B.: Finding news stories: a comparison of searches using LexisNexis and Google News. Journal. Mass Commun. Q. 85(3), 515–530 (2008)
Weber R.P.: Measurement models of content analysis. Qual. Quant. 17, 127–149 (1983)
Weber R.P.: Correlational models of content: reply to Muskens. Qual. Quant. 20(2–3), 273–275 (1986)
Wells R.A., King E.G.: Prestige newspaper coverage of foreign affairs in the 1990 congressional campaign. Journal. Q. 71, 652–664 (1994)
White, P.W.: Quarter century survey of press content shows demand for facts. Editor and Publisher, May 31 (1924)
Wickham M., Woods M.: Reflecting on the strategic use of CAQDAS to manage and report on the qualitative research process. Qual. Rep. 10(4), 687–702 (2005)
Wilcox D.F.: The American newspaper: a study in social psychology. Ann. Am. Acad. Polit. Soc. Sci. 16, 56–92 (1900)
Woefel J.: CATPAC: Users guide. RAH Press: The Galileo Company, New York, NY (1998)
Woodroom E.: Mainstreaming content analysis in the social science: methodological advantages, obstacles, and solutions. Soc. Sci. Res. 13(1), 1–19 (1984)
Zuell, C., Landmann, J.: Computer-assisted content analysis without dictionary? In: The Sixth International Conference on Logic and Methodology (RC33)—Recent Developments and Applications in Social Research Methodology, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2004
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kirilenko, A., Stepchenkova, S., Romsdahl, R. et al. Computer-assisted analysis of public discourse: a case study of the precautionary principle in the US and UK press. Qual Quant 46, 501–522 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-010-9383-z
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-010-9383-z