Social Research Methods

Spring 2007

Assignment 5: Content Analysis

We are going to do a content analysis of song lyrics to learn more about media portrayals of masculinity and fictive kin relationships. In thinking about song lyrics, develop hypotheses about the qualities that you think artists will associate with a “real man” or what type of artists you think will make references to fictive kin in their songs?

* Once you select a hypothesis to test, conceptualize and operationalize your terms. For example, what does “alternative rock” mean and how will you know if a song is “alternative” Then think carefully about how to sample the songs using probability sampling. You are now ready to do your content analysis!

* Locate lyrics from any lyric website that lets you search the full text of the songs (for free). Remember to be systematic about your selection criteria and sampling method. Select and analyze 10-20 songs looking for patterns in the data.

* Select 2 songs that appear especially pertinent to this project and code the lyrics using open coding. Then recode using axial coding. Coding is the process of transforming raw data into a standardized form. See page 355 & 423 in Babbie for more on this.

* Do they support your hypothesis? Knowing what you know now, would you revise your conceptualization, operationalization, or research design in any way?

* Be prepared to discuss your hypothesis, methods of analysis, findings, and conclusions.