Media Content Analysis Study, 1974

This data collection contains an analysis of the contents of 96 of the daily newspapers read by nationally sampled respondents in AMERICAN NATIONAL ELECTION STUDY, 1974 (ICPSR 7355), conducted by the Center for Political Studies at the University of Michigan. Articles or graphics on the front and/or editorial pages of newspapers appearing on ten sampled dates before and immediately after the November 1974 congressional election were coded for this study. There are 8,768 cases of front page data and 9,504 cases of editorial page data. Each case is coded with a unit of analysis that could be any combination of story text, headline, sub-headline, label, photograph, and drawing or cartoon. Information collected about each case includes specific newspaper, date, page, type of story or photo, and source of item. In terms of content, both a first and a second problem are identified (specific problems are classified in several major categories, e.g., social welfare, agricultural, natural resources, labor union/management, racial, public order, economic and business, consumer protection, foreign affairs, national defense, government function, and Watergate) along with corresponding descriptive information in both their first and second mentions. Examples of such content description are level of problem (e.g., international with no United States connection explicit, international with United States connection explicit, national, state, and local), person or actor dimension (e.g., President Ford, specific political parties, Democratic and Republican Senate candidates, specific areas of government, specific government agencies and groups, and voters or taxpayers in general), position of person or actor, agreement or disagreement between persons or actors, the first and second mention of criticism or praise dimension, and object of criticism or praise. Additional data collected for this content analysis include keywords (referring to a major news event), proposal method (references to any proposed or enacted method, program, or policy to deal with governmental, political, or social problems in the United States), editorial endorsement of a candidate by the newspaper (coded in categories such as experience, leadership ability, personal qualities, party connection, government management, government philosophy, and domestic and foreign policies), references to Democratic and Republican senatorial races, and references to these specific events: the textbook struggle in West Virginia, busing in Boston, cattle killing, Nixon's resignation, Nixon's pardon, Nixon's illness, the mastectomies, Watergate trial, Kissinger's Moscow trip, United Nations World Food Conference, Arab and PLO summit conference, Rockefeller nomination, coal strike, and Patty Hearst.