The Jeremiad Over Journalism

5. Content analysis
Heeding Krippendorf‘s advice for a content analysis framework this chapter will present a study of
selected newspaper articles by first accounting for the ―research design,‖ then ―data making,‖
followed by ―inference‖ and concluded by ―narration.‖ The section below accounts for the research
design. 474
―Cross-national research should make informed and explicit choices regarding its approach to
comparison – country selection, methodological standardization, origin of categories, reporting
style and so forth,‖ writes the British media scholar Sonia Livingstone and adds ―it is ironic that,
while the process of globalization seems to encourage cross-national research, at the same time it
undermines the legitimacy of the nation-state not only for political, economic or cultural purposes
but also as a unit of analysis.‖ 475
Livingstone‘s observation is a useful reminder about the difficulties of comparing across nations, or
media systems. While acknowledging the great regional and cultural diversity in the United States,
and to some extent in Denmark, the point of departure for the present study is that both nations refer
to something ―real‖ and tangible. 476 American foreign and economic policy does have real
consequences domestically as well as globally, and in the case of the United States and Denmark,
the most relevant example concerning the national media systems would be the state‘s relationship
to national broadcasting. As mentioned in chapter 2, up until the 1980‘s national broadcasting in the
United States was subject to public service requirements perceived to be in the national interest. The
same has been and is still true in for the Danish Broadcast Service and its counterpart TV 2, while
direct media subsidies are also provided to the press to ensure a high level of ―knowledge, culture as
well as significant societal information‖ in Denmark. These policies in Denmark are instituted from
474 Krippendorff, Content Analysis: An Introduction to Its Methodology. Page 83-87.
475 Sonia Livingstone, "On the Challenges of Cross-National Comparative Media Research," European Journal of
Communication, no. 18 (2003). Page 482-492. In her article Livingstone examines the benefits and pitfalls of
comparative research and conclude that comparative analysis is useful for ―improving understanding of one‘s own
country; improving understanding of other countries; testing a theory across diverse settings; examining transnational
processes across different contexts; examining the local reception of imported cultural forms.‖ Page 479-480.
476 Elteren, Americanism and Americanization: A Critical History of Domestic and Global Influence. Page 121-125.
Van Elteren writes, ―there is a stubborn historical-societal reality, a ‗real‘ America, out there, with economic,
technological, military, social, political, cultural and other features that lie outside the realm of social imagination and
may in themselves bring about material, structural and symbolic changes elsewhere, be it in the economy, politics,
society or culture.‖
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