Ideologies in the news: On the measurement of ideological characteristics of news reports

Abstract

Abstract. In this article, we discuss recent developments within the field of text-analysis from a socio-cultural point of view. In the first part attention is paid to the relation between dominant research traditions in communication studies such as the tradition of content analysis and new approaches which are often labeled as discourse analysis. The main methodological and theoretical problems within the tradition of content analysis are exposed. Perspectives of discourse analysis to overcome these problems are evaluated. Common problem of different approaches seems to be the question whether adequate research tools can be designed to produce not only reliable and valid results but also theoretical relevant analyses of media-discourses. In the second part of this article we consider by way of example a new method of measuring ideological characteristics of news. This method is comparable to jurisdiction in several important respects: Like judges, the task of coders does not simply consist of applying rules of coding in a purely technical way. The coding of news articles, using general rules, is coupled to a further elaboration of the rules themselves. To test the validity of this procedure, we use a method of scaling derived from a theoretical model generally known as "the law of categorical judgement". We also analyze the reliability of the coding process. Finally, the value of the research tool is demonstrated by presenting some results of a content analysis of the news coverage of a renowned Dutch industrial dispute in the seventies.