The microscope and the moving target: The challenge of applying content analysis to the World Wide Web

Journalism and Mass Communication Quaterly

Volumn 77, Issue 1, 2000, Pages 80-98

  McMillan, Sally J ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 1342343653     PISSN: 10776990     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/107769900007700107     Document Type: Article

References (74)

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2. Commerce Department, The Emerging Digital Economy (available online at: http://www.ecommerce.govdanintro.htm).
3. Internet Index (available online at: http://www.openmarket.com/ intindex/content.html).
4. Wallace Koehler, "An Analysis of Web Page and Web Site Constancy and Permanence," Journal of the American Society for Information Science 50 (February 1999): 162-80.
5. Klaus Krippendorff, Content Analysis: An Introduction to Its Methodology (Beverly Hills, CA, 1980), 13-14.
6. Bernard Berelson and Paul F. Lazarsfeld, The Analysis of Communication Content (Chicago and New York: University of Chicago and Columbia University, 1948).
7. Bernard Berelson, Content Analysis in Communication Research (New York: Free Press, 1952).
8. Berelson, Content Analysis, 18.
9. Richard W. Budd, Robert K. Thorp, and Lewis Donohew, Content Analysis of Communications (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1967), 2.
10. Krippendorff, Content Analysis, 21.
11. Krippendorff, Content Analysis, 29-31.
12. Ole R. Holsti, Content Analysis for the Social Sciences and Humanities (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1969).
13. See for example Budd, Thorp, and Donohew, Content Analysis, and Krippendorff, Content Analysis.
14. See for example Budd, Thorp, and Donohew, Content Analysis, and Krippendorff, Content Analysis.
15. Krippendorff, Content Analysis, 66.
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17. Sally J. McMillan, "Virtual Community: The Blending of Mass and Interpersonal Communication at Health-Related Web Sites" (paper presented at the International Communication Association Annual Conference, Israel, 1998).
18. Wallace Koehler, "An Analysis of Web Page and Web Site Constancy and Permanence, Journal of the American Society for Information Science 50 (February 1999): 162-80.
19. Budd, Thorp, and Donohew, Content Analysis, 33-36.
20. Louisa Ha and E. Lincoln James, "Interactivity Re-examined: A Baseline Analysis of Early Business Web Sites, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 42 (fall 1998): 457-74.
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22. Lauren A. Clyde, "The Library as Information Provider: The Home Page," The Electronic Library 14 (December 1996): 549-58.
23. Sally J. McMillan, "Who Pays for Content? Funding in Interactive Media," Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 4 (September 1998): available online at: http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vo14/issue1/ mcmillan.html.
24. Birgit Wassmuth and David R. Thompson, "Banner Ads in Online Newspapers: Are They Specific?" (paper presented at the American Academy of Advertising annual conference, Albuquerque, NM, 1999).
25. Brian L. Massey and Mark R. Levy, "Interactivity, Online Journalism, and English-Language Web Newspapers in Asia," Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 76 (spring 1999): 143.
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29. Steven M. Schneider, "Creating a Democratic Public Sphere through Political Discussion: A Case Study of Abortion Conversation on the Internet," Social Science Computer Review 14 (winter 1996): 373-93.
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31. Michael D. Mehta and Dwaine Plaza, "Content Analysis of Pornographic Images Available on the Internet," The Information Society 13 (spring 1997): 153-61; Marty Rimm, "Marketing Pornography on the Information Superhighway: A Survey of 917,410 Images, Descriptions, Short Stories, and Animations Downloaded 8.5 Million Times by Consumers in over 2000 Cities in Forty Countries, Provinces, and Territories," The Georgetown Law Journal 83 (May 1995): 1849-1934.
32. Michael D. Mehta and Dwaine Plaza, "Content Analysis of Pornographic Images Available on the Internet," The Information Society 13 (spring 1997): 153-61; Marty Rimm, "Marketing Pornography on the Information Superhighway: A Survey of 917,410 Images, Descriptions, Short Stories, and Animations Downloaded 8.5 Million Times by Consumers in over 2000 Cities in Forty Countries, Provinces, and Territories," The Georgetown Law Journal 83 (May 1995): 1849-1934.
33. John E. Newhagen, John W. Cordes, and Mark. R. Levy, "Nightly@nbc.com: Audience Scope and the Perception of Interactivity in Viewer Mail on the Internet," Journal of Communication 45 (summer 1995): 164-75.
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36. R. Alan Hedley, "The Information Age: Apartheid, Cultural Imperialism, or Global Village?" Social Science Computer Review 17 (spring 1999): 78-87.
37. McMillan, "Who Pays for Content?"
38. Wassmuth and Thompson, "Banner Ads in Online Newspapers."
39. Charles Frazer and Sally J. McMillan, "Sophistication on the World Wide Web: Evaluating Structure, Function, and Commercial Goals of Web Sites," in Advertising and the World Wide Web, ed. Esther Thorson and David Schumann (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum) 119-34; Chang Liu, Kirk P. Arnett, Louis M. Capella, and Robert C. Beatty, "Web Sites of the Fortune 500 companies: Facing Customers through Home Pages," Information & Management 31 (1997): 335-45.
40. Charles Frazer and Sally J. McMillan, "Sophistication on the World Wide Web: Evaluating Structure, Function, and Commercial Goals of Web Sites," in Advertising and the World Wide Web, ed. Esther Thorson and David Schumann (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum) 119-34; Chang Liu, Kirk P. Arnett, Louis M. Capella, and Robert C. Beatty, "Web Sites of the Fortune 500 companies: Facing Customers through Home Pages," Information & Management 31 (1997): 335-45.
41. Clyde, "The Library as Information Provider"; Massey and Levy, "Interactivity, Online Journalism," 138-51.
42. Clyde, "The Library as Information Provider"; Massey and Levy, "Interactivity, Online Journalism," 138-51.
43. Xigen Li, "Web Page Design and Graphic Use of Three U.S. Newspapers," Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 75 (summer 1998): 353-65.
44. McMillan, "Who Pays for Content?"
45. Wassmuth and Thompson, "Banner Ads in Online Newspapers."
46. See Frazer and McMillan, "Sophistication on the World Wide Web"; McMillan, "Who Pays for Content?"; Sally J. McMillan and Kathryn B. Campbell, "Online Cities: Are They Building a Virtual Public Sphere or Expanding Consumption Communities?" (paper presented at the AEJMC Annual Conference, Anaheim, CA, 1996).
47. See Frazer and McMillan, "Sophistication on the World Wide Web"; McMillan, "Who Pays for Content?"; Sally J. McMillan and Kathryn B. Campbell, "Online Cities: Are They Building a Virtual Public Sphere or Expanding Consumption Communities?" (paper presented at the AEJMC Annual Conference, Anaheim, CA, 1996).
48. See Frazer and McMillan, "Sophistication on the World Wide Web"; McMillan, "Who Pays for Content?"; Sally J. McMillan and Kathryn B. Campbell, "Online Cities: Are They Building a Virtual Public Sphere or Expanding Consumption Communities?" (paper presented at the AEJMC Annual Conference, Anaheim, CA, 1996).
49. Chilton R. Bush, "The Analysis of Political Campaign News," Journalism Quarterly 28 (spring 1951): 250-52.
50. Judit Bar-Ilan, "The Mathematician, Paul Erdos (1913-1996) in the Eyes of the Internet," Scientometrics 43 (March 1998): 257-67.
51. McMillan and Campbell, "Online Cities."
52. Carrie Heeter, "Implications of New Interactive Technologies for Conceptualizing Communication," in Media Use in the Information Age: Emerging Patterns of Adoption and Consumer Use, ed. Jerry L. Salvaggio and Jennings Bryant (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1989), 217-35.
53. Massey and Levy, "Interactivity, Online Journalism," and McMillan, "Who Pays for Content?"
54. Massey and Levy, "Interactivity, Online Journalism," and McMillan, "Who Pays for Content?"
55. Rachel K. Gibson and Stephen J. Ward, "U.K. Political Parties and the Internet: 'Politics as usual' in the new media?" Press/Politics 3 (fall 1998): 14-18.
56. Nancy Tannery and Charles B. Wessel, "Academic Medical Center Libraries on the Web," Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 86 (October 1998): 541-44.
57. Wassmuth and Thompson, "Banner Ads in Online Newspapers."
58. Budd, Thorp, and Donohew, Content Analysis, 66.
59. Krippendorff, Content Analysis, 74
60. Mark Elliott, "Classifying Family Life Education on the World Wide Web," Family Relations 48 (January 1999): 7-13.
61. Li, "Web Page Design."
62. Ha and James, "Interactivity Re-examined."
63. Bar-Ilan, "The Mathematician, Paul Erdos."
64. Bates and Lu, "An Exploratory Profile of Personal Home Pages."
65. Clyde, "The Library as Information Provider."
66. McMillan, "Who Pays for Content?"
67. Gibson and Ward, "U.K. Political Parties and the Internet."
68. Elliott, "Classifying Family Life Education."
69. Holsti, Content Analysis for the Social Sciences and Humanities.
70. Koehler, "An Analysis of Web Page and Web Site Constancy."
71. Clyde, "The Library as Information Provider."
72. Wassmuth and Thompson, "Banner Ads in Online Newspapers."
73. A separate issue, not directly addressed in this study, is the use of computer-based content analysis for examining the digital content of Web sites. None of the studies examined in this article utilized this technique. With computerized analysis of content, reliability is assured - the computer will obtain the same results every time the data is analyzed. With this form of content analysis, emphasis must be placed on validity rather than on reliability.
74. Wassmuth and Thompson, "Banner Ads in Online Newspapers."