The Jeremiad Over Journalism

Officin [Berlingske Printing House], as the new owners, ―despite a highly weakened newspaper
market expected a return of the invested capital around 15 %.‖ 531
For a Danish commercially-oriented newspaper comparable with USA Today, Ekstra Bladet is
chosen since it is one of two Danish present-day papers that most closely resemble the USA Today
in terms of their commercial and populist approach, as well as lay-out and focus on short well-
illustrated stories. 532 The selection of these six newspapers forms the foundation for the subsequent
content analysis.
5.2.4 Reliability
The conventions for reporting content analysis results force the researcher to emphasize
reproducibility through intercoder-tests, and put forth his or her results in relation to the entire
article sample size which helps to alleviate the difficulty of determining the sample‘s
representativity, a challenge which occasionally plagues more qualitative studies. Content analysis
thereby presents a firm foundation for subsequent discussions to build on.
Yet, it is important to note that the strict separation between quantitative content analysis and more
qualitative hermeneutical analysis is in part artificial. The research process leading up the creation
of a coding scheme and a codebook is often interpretative in nature and a construction by the
researcher. 533 Moreover, despite the large number of texts dealt with in a content analysis, there is
still a significant interpretative element involved in coding text for variables related to meaning.
Scholars utilizing content analysis therefore have to acknowledge that individuals read (and
interpret) texts differently. As Krippendorff notes, ―ultimately all reading of text is qualitative, even
when certain characteristics of a text are later converted into numbers.‖ 534 Consequently, achieving
absolute intercoder-reliability in content analysis is more an ideal than reality, and as will become
apparent, achieving a high ―beyond chance‖ reliability coefficient on variables with few values is
challenging.
531 Klaus Bruhn Jensen, Dansk Mediehistorie 1995-2003 [Danish Media History 1960-1995], ed. Klaus Bruhn Jensen, 4
vols., vol. 4, Dansk Mediehistorie (København: Forlanget Samfundslitteratur, 2001). Page 130.
532 Juhl, Bladet Fra Munden [Speak Your Mind]. Page 176. See also Dirckinck-Holmfeldt, Tør - Hvor Andre Tier;
Vrisne Victor Og Hans Hvalpe [Dares - Where Others Keep Silent; Grumpy Victor and His Pups]. Page 80-83.
533 For an example of a qualitative approach in defining variables see Kimberly A. Neuendorf, The Content Analysis
Guidebook (Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2002). Page 102-104.
534 Krippendorff, Content Analysis: An Introduction to Its Methodology. Page 16.
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