<p>Content analysis</p><p>How to measure negativity in news?</p><p>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)?</p><p>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].</p><p>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)?</p><p>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”</p>