Unobtrusive Research UAPP 702: Research Methods for Urban & Public Policy Class Notes
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Transcript of Unobtrusive Research UAPP 702: Research Methods for Urban & Public Policy Class Notes
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Unobtrusive ResearchUAPP 702: Research Methods for Urban & Public PolicyClass Notes
Based on, Earl Babbie, The Practice of Social Research
Danilo Yanich
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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
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Three types of unobtrusive research
Content analysis
Analysis of existing statistics
Historical/comparative analysis
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Content Analysis
Study of recorded human communications
Record the content of those communications
Two types of content
Manifest
Latent
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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?
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Coding instructions for local newsID# Continuous
Channel Continuous
Date Continuous
Story line Continuous
Time Duration in seconds
Type
1=Crime event;2=Police; 3=Courts; 4=Corrections; 5=CJ policy
Age suspect
1=Juvenile (under 18);2=Adult; 3=Adults & juveniles8=Unknown/Not reported9=NA
Age victim
1=Juvenile (under 18)2=Adult; 3=Adults & juveniles8=Unknown/Not reported9=NA
Source: CJ 0=No; 1=Yes; 9=NA
Source: Defense Atty 0=No; 1=Yes; 9=NA
Presentation mode 1=Anchor read; 2=VO/Anchor; 3=Live at location
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A news story in New York City
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What do we record?
ID# Chan Date Story Line Time Type AgeSus
AgeVic
SourceCJ
Source DefAtty Mode
4687 WABC 3/11/98 Teen pleads guilty in man’s death 45 3 1 2 1 1 2
4688 WABC 3/11/98 Man arrested for robbery 23 2 2 2 1 0 1
4689 WNBC 3/12/98Domestic dispute turns into hostage situation
45 1 2 3 1 9 3
Seconds 1=Crime event2=Police3=Courts4=Corrections5=CJ policy
1=Juv2=Adult3=Adults&Juv8=Unk/NotReport9=NA
1=Juv2=Adult3=Adults&Juv8=Unk/NotReport9=NA
0=No1=Yes9=NA
0=No1=Yes9=NA
1=Anchor read2=VO Anchor3=Live
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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?
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Table 1: In both markets, the race/ethnicity of the victims and suspects most often was not reported or not known
Baltimore Philadelphia
Race/Ethnicity of Victim/Suspect Victim% of stories
Suspect % of stories
Victim% of stories
Suspect% of stories
Not reported/not known 57 41 54 40
Only Caucasian 22 41 25 29
Only African-American 16 17 16 25
Only Hispanic 0 1 3 5
Mixed race/ethnicity 5 0 1 1
Only Asian 0 0 1 0
Source: Danilo Yanich (1998). Crime, Community & Local TV News, p 49
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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
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Disadvantages of content analysis
Limited to the examination of recorded communications
Validity problems
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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
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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
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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.
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Analyzing Existing Statistics, p.4
Problems with reliability
Babbie uses crime data for drug arrests
Arrests may be organizational or political “events”
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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.
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Historical/Comparative Analysis
Examines the development of social forms over time
Comparing those social forms across cultures
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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
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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