Content analysis

How to measure negativity in news?

A. The types of news being covered Is there a difference between the type of stories in the news in 1960 and the type of stories in 1990? Is there a greater tendency for the news to cover more “negative” stories such as political and corporate scandals, elections/campaigns in terms of a horse race, murder, and alerts for Americans (i.e., the dangers of SUVs, credit card theft, and consumer scams)?

B. Negativity within the different types of stories 1. A political news story is not necessarily negative. Political stories framed in terms of a “horse race” or in terms of strategy are considered more negative than stories framed in terms of issues (Patterson; Capella and Jamieson). Have political news become framed increasingly in terms of strategy, not issues, from 1960-1990? 2. Are stories about businesses in 1990 increasingly involving scandal and contain more negative words and phrases than in 1960? (Ex. “average employees are being hurt, not CEOs”; “FDA is mired in debate’ [over Ephedra, a drug linked to heart attacks, serious medical problems, and death].

C. Testing for negativity across the board Instead of looking at the different types of news being covered and how if these types of stories have become increasingly negative, perhaps I should look at the overall negativity of each news broadcast. Perhaps I should designate if a story is negative (should there be a denotation of a neutral or a positive story?) and calculate the percentage of negative stories in a news broadcast (and I would then compare the percentages of negative news stories in broadcasts through the 30 years?) Also, just deciding whether a news story is negative isn’t very objective and wouldn’t be a consistent way of measuring negativity. Lists of negative words and phrases available (or must create)?

December 5, 2002 “Ice Storm in the East” Carolina power outage El Nino “Showdown with Saddam”-- “Roone Arledge” “United Facing Bankruptcy”-- “Environmental Disaster” “FDA: Safety Regulations”-- Strom Thurmond’s Birthday “Everybody has a Story”