media analysis paper-rough draft-BETHUEL BEST ONLY

TOPIC: POLICE AND BODY WORN CAMERAS REDUCE LAWSUITS AND COMPLAINTS

 

The  objective of the assignment is to conduct a content analysis centered  on media presentation of a crime-related topic. This assignment will  require you to identify a research topic, identify a source of data,  select a sample, code your data, analyze your data (codes), and present  your analysis in a clearly written research paper, 6-8 pages in length,  following APA or ASA style.

Final  papers are expected to follow the traditional research-paper format,  including abstract, introduction, literature review, a clearly written  methods section describing the content analysis process, presentation  and discussion of results, conclusion, and references.

The  focus of this project is the social construction of a crime topic,  rather than the topic itself. For example, do not write a paper about  the death penalty. Discuss public perceptions of the death penalty,  including specific examples of how these opinions are constructed in the  media.

Begin  with sociological topic. Even better, have a research question. For  example, you may be interested in examining how the police are discussed  in rap music. How is prison discussed in the media? What does Fox News  tell us about terrorism? Be sure to choose a question for which you can  find appropriate data, which in most cases means your topic actually  occurs in the media.

Identify  your data and select a sample. Perhaps you'll be examining  representations of gender roles in the top grossing movies over the past  50 years? Perhaps you'll focus on drug use in movies over the last 5  years? Perhaps you'll examine gender and prison, watching a season of  "Orange is the New Black?” In short, think carefully about how you will  select a sample and be prepared to discuss this choice in the methods  section of your paper.

Code  your data. You will have to code the text, images, or objects using  terms that represent the concepts that you are interested in and that  enable you to investigate your theoretical ideas. In short, you are  seeking to identify patterns and similarities. This assignment will  require you to develop a set of adjectives (or codes) that you assign to  each of the cases.

Analyze your data. Summarize the codes in relation to your research question. Present the data in a logical way.

Conclude  with a discussion of results, contrasting media images to scholarly  knowledge. What would a person know about the subject if he or she got  all their information from your sample? What would they learn by relying  on expert knowledge?

 

The vast majority of scientific reports can be broken down into the following constituent parts.

• Title - Author(s)
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Methodology
• Results AND Discussion
• Conclusions
• References
• Appendices

Methods Section

There  is always a lot of confusion about the methods and results sections of  your papers  Confusion is probably not the right word since the reality  is that many of you simply do not know how to do this. Some of you have  not taken the research methods courses, and/or these topics were not  fully understood in these classes.

As  the saying goes, "we don't know what we don't know." In this case we  often learn that the "methods" section is one thing we do not know.

These sites should help:

• http://www4.uwsp.edu/psych/mp/APA/apa4b.htm - see the Research Reports section.
• http://www.rit.edu/cla/gssp400/lectures/e8.html
• http://psychology.about.com/od/psychologywriting/ht/method.htm - don't cite to a general source such as this, but a good place to start learning.
• http://www.radford.edu/~jaspelme/201/sample_apa_paper_apa_vol_5.pdf

  Please submit a draft of your final paper 6-8 PAGES. I will be looking for signs of adequate progress toward the final paper, so your grade will reflect both the product and progress. The final paper is due soon enough that feedback will be limited, but ideally you will submit a complete draft. If you reach this goal, a week or two away from the final due date, you will to return to your paper with a fresh eye in preparation for final submission.