Unobtrusive Research UAPP 702: Research Methods for Urban & Public Policy Class Notes

1. Unobtrusive ResearchUAPP 702: Research Methods for Urban & Public PolicyClass Notes Based on, Earl Babbie, The Practice of Social Research DaniloYanich

2. Unobtrusive Research • Clues all around...must use some ingenuity to examine them... • Babbie uses examples of worn tiles in museum, mucus on window, radio dial settings • May have some problems with validity and reliability... • But that can be accommodated

3. Three types of unobtrusive research • Content analysis • Analysis of existing statistics • Historical/comparative analysis

4. Content Analysis • Study of recorded human communications • Record the content of those communications • Two types of content • Manifest • Latent

5. Manifest content • The visible, surface content of a communication • Analogous to a questionnaire with extent of specificity • Advantage of reliability, but may have some question of validity • Babbie’s example of erotic novel—can count number of times words like love, kiss, etc. are used in book...but • Is that a valid measure of eroticism?

6. Latent content • The underlying meaning of the content • Questions about reliability • Babbie’s example re: erotic novel • Read entire novel and assess how erotic it is • Might be very different assessments by different coders/readers • Might even be different assessment if one person was the ONLY reader because no guarantee that definitions will remain same

7. Content analysisLocal TV news example, content coding • Research question • A comparison of the reporting of adult vs. juvenile crime on local TV news stories in the Baltimore and Philadelphia markets • By offenses • By the characteristics of the suspects and victims • By the production modes of the story • NOTE: Juvenile crime story=story in which suspect or victim or both are under 18 years of age

8. Content analysisLocal TV news example, content coding, p. 2 • Sample • The videotaped broadcasts of a “constructed” week of the primary evening news broadcast… • During March and April 1991, 1992, 1993 and 1996… • For all stations delivering a regularly scheduled news broadcast to the market • Result: 153 broadcasts from 11 stations

9. Content analysisLocal TV news example, content coding, p. 3 • Unit of analysis • Individual news story • Result: 2400 total stories excluding sports and weather • Over 700 crime stories

10. Coding instructions for local news

11. A news story in New York City

12. What do we record?

13. Content analysisLocal TV news example, content coding, p. 4 • Careful not to take the position that the content analysis often shows what is common knowledge. • Example: Local news and race of victim and suspect • More often than not, the race or ethnicity of the victims and suspects is NOT reported on local TV news • Then, raises the obvious question—why the common assumption? • Other possible explanations—Placement of story? Production factors? Offenses?

14. Table 1: In both markets, the race/ethnicity of the victims and suspects most often was not reported or not known Source: Danilo Yanich (1998). Crime, Community & Local TV News, p 49

15. Advantages of content analysis • Economy of both time and money • Safety—it is easier to redo if there is a problem • Permits the study of processes that occur over a long time • Content analyst has no effect on subject being studied • Reliability • You can always recode and recode again to ensure reliability

16. Disadvantages of content analysis • Limited to the examination of recorded communications • Validity problems

17. Analyzing Existing Statistics • Babbie makes distinction between secondary data and existing statistics • Secondary data—someone else’s data on which you conduct your own analysis. • Existing statistics—data analyses that others have done

18. Analyzing Existing Statistics, p.2 • Babbie uses Durkheim’s study of suicide as example • Concerned with social conditions that encouraged or discouraged it • Developed theory of anomie, “normlessness”—a general sense of social instability

19. Analyzing Existing Statistics, p.3 • Problems with validity • Two ways to deal with validity questions • Logical reasoning: Durkheim “reasoned” that most of the suicides in a predominantly Protestant region would be Protestants • Replication: Durkheim replicated his study for countries, regions, etc.

20. Analyzing Existing Statistics,p.4 • Problems with reliability • Babbie uses crime data for drug arrests • Arrests may be organizational or political “events”

21. Sources of Existing Statistics • Most obvious and important is: Statistical Abstract of the United States • Published by U.S. Department of Commerce • Bureau of the Census: www.census.gov • Best source of data about the U.S.

22. Historical/Comparative Analysis • Examines the development of social forms over time • Comparing those social forms across cultures

23. Examples of historical/comparative analysis • Marx’s progression of history seen as “class struggle” • Sorokin’s notion of societies that cyclically alternate between “ideational” (spiritual & religious factors) and “sensate” (sense experiences) points of view

24. Elements of historical/comparative analysis • Usually a qualitative method • Researcher must find patterns among details describing the subject matter • Often informed by a particular theoretical paradigm