using newspaper articles in research

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2-Types of Sources

8. News as a Source

News sources can provide insights that scholarly sources may not or that will take a long time to get into scholarly sources. For instance, news sources are excellent for finding out people’s actions, reactions, opinions, and prevailing attitudes around the time of an event—as well as to find reports of what happened at the event itself.

Whether news sources are good for your assignment depends on what your research question is. (You’ll find other relevant information in Chapter 3, What Sources to Use When .)

News is a strange term, because even when the information is old, it’s still news. Some sources are great for breaking news, some are great for aggregated (or compiled) news, and others are great for historical news.

While news was transmitted for centuries only in newspapers, news is now transmitted in all formats: via radio, television, and the Internet, in addition to print. Even most newspapers have Internet sites today. At the time of this writing, the Student Government Association at Ohio State University provides an online subscription to The New Yok Times for all students, faculty, and staff at the university.

News must be brief because much of it gets reported only moments after an event happens. News reports occur early in the Information Lifecycle. See the Information Lifecycle video earlier in this chapter for more information.

When Are News Sources Helpful?

• You want to keep up with what is going on in the world today.
• You need breaking news or historical perspectives on a topic (what people were saying at the time).
• You need to learn more about a culture, place, or time period from its own sources.

When Are News Sources of Limited Use?

• You need very detailed analysis by experts.
• You need sources that must be scholarly or modern views on a historical topic.

Activity: Using News Effectively

Mainline and non-mainline news sources.

Mainline American news outlets stick with the tradition of trying to report the news as objectively as possibly. That doesn’t mean their reports are perfectly objective, but they are more objective than non-mainline news sources. As a result, mainline news sources are more credible than non-mainline sources. Some examples of mainline American news outlets: The New York Times , The Washington Post , The Boston Globe , The Chicago Tribune , The Los Angeles Times ; ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, PBS News, NPR News.

News from non-mainline American news outlets is often mixed with opinions. One way they frequently exhibit bias is that they leave out pertinent facts. Some examples of non-mainline American news outlets: MSNBC, Fox News, and reddit.

Types of News Sources

Press Services— News outlets (print, broadcast, and online) get a lot of their news from these services, such as Reuters, Bloomberg, or the Associated Press (AP), which make it unnecessary for individual outlets to send their own reporters everywhere. These services are so broadly used that you may have to look at several news outlets to get a different take on an event or situation.

News aggregators— Aggregators don’t have reporters of their own but simply collect and transmit the news reported by others. Some sources pull news from a variety of places and provide a single place to search for and view multiple stories. You can browse stories or search for a topic. Aggregators tend to have current, but not archival news. Google news and Yahoo News are examples.

Newspaper sites – Many print newspapers also have their own websites. They vary as to how much news they provide for free. Take a look at these examples.

• The Lantern , Ohio State University’s student newspaper
• The Columbus Dispatch
• The Boston Globe
• The Times of London
• China Daily , USA edition
• The New York Times

News Databases – Search current, recent, and historical newspaper content in databases provided free by libraries. OSU Libraries offers 69 news databases to students, staff, and faculty. They include:

• LexisNexis Academic – contains news back to 1980 from newspapers, broadcast transcripts, wire services, blogs, and more.
• Proquest Historical Newspapers – contains older content from several major U.S. newspapers.
• allAfrica – contains more than a million articles from 100 African news sources, 1996-present.
• Lantern Online – contains the archive of all of OSU’s student newspaper issues, 1881-1997.

See the complete list of OSU Libraries’ newspaper databases .

Activity: Choosing a Newspaper Database

Look at the list of OSU Libraries’ newspaper databases available to OSU users. Which one would be a good place to find an article with an international left perspective on a topic? Our answer is at the end of this section.

Broadcast News Sites – Although broadcast news (from radio and television) is generally consumed in real time, such organizations also offer archives of news stories on their websites. However, not all of their articles are provided by their own reporters: some originate from the press services, Reuters and the Associated Press (AP). Here are some examples of broadcast new sites:

Activity: Quick World News Scan

Visit the BBC’s News page and scan the headlines for a quick update on the world’s major news stories.

Social Media – Most of the news outlets listed above contribute to Twitter and Facebook . It’s customary for highly condensed announcements in this venue to lead you back to the news outlet’s website for more information. However, how credible tech companies such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google are with news is in serious doubt now that their lawyers have testified to the U.S. Congress that more than 100 million users may have seen content actually created by Russian operatives on the tech companies’ platforms leading up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election.  Read more about their testimony at  NPR  and  The New York Times. 

Blogs – Sometimes these are good sources for breaking news, as well as commentary on current events and scholarship. Authors who write more objectively elsewhere can share more insights and opinions, more initial questions and findings about a study before they are ready to release definitive data and conclusions about their research.

Citizen Journalism – A growing number of sites cater to those members of the general public who want to report breaking news and submit their own photos and videos on a wide range of topics. The people who do this are often referred to as citizen journalists.

Examples of such sources include CNN iReport , and  reddit . For more details on the history and development of citizen journalism, including addressing some of the pros and cons, read Your Guide to Citizen Journalism .

News Feeds – You can get updates on specific topics or a list of major headlines, regularly sent to you so you don’t have to visit sites or hunt for new content on a topic. Look for links that contain headings such as these to sign up for news feeds:

• News Alerts
• Table of Contents Alerts

What’s an RSS feed? How can it help you stay informed about what you are interested in?

Answer to Activity: Choosing a Newspaper Database

If you look at the database descriptions, you will notice that the one for Alternative Press Index matches the need expressed in the question.

Choosing & Using Sources: A Guide to Academic Research Copyright © 2015 by Teaching & Learning, Ohio State University Libraries is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Newspapers and Magazines as Primary Sources

• Introduction to Newspapers and Magazines

Introduction

Example of a newspaper article, example magazine article, exercise for step 1.

• Step 2: Page
• Step 3: Issue
• Step 4: Further Research
• Return to HPNL Website

Ask a Librarian

When working with newspapers and magazines, you will likely begin with an article, especially if you are using digitized newspaper and magazine collections, article indexes, or footnote tracking as strategies for discovering primary sources.

All newspaper and magazine articles have authors, but the authors are not always identified. Many articles are unsigned, by which we mean the author remains anonymous. The part of a newspaper article that identifies the author or authors is called the byline , which you can see in the example below. In a newspaper article, the byline will sometimes include the author's affiliation (does he or she work for the newspaper itself, or is he or she a reporter for a newswire service like the Associated Press?) and sometimes even the author's job title (e.g. Crime Reporter). If there is a byline, it can appear in different places--beneath the headline, or sometimes at the end of the article itself.

There is no special name for the part of a magazine article that identifies its author, but as with newspapers, many magazine articles are unsigned. If the article is signed, the author's name can appear beneath the title, or at the end of the article. Unsigned articles have been conventional throughout the history of journalism, though less so after the 19th century. In Britain, the number of unsigned magazine articles written by now-famous authors was so great, that scholars in the 20th century tried to provide attribution for as many of these unsigned articles as possible. The results of their work can be consulted in the Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals .

Magazine articles often have titles, but not always. Sometimes, especially if the article forms part of a special section, it will be untitled.

Newspaper articles technically do not have titles, but headlines . Headlines and titles serve similar functions, but a headline is really one or more line of display type intended to capture the reader's attention. One reason to understand that headlines are not the same as titles is that a newspaper article reprinted from a newswire service like the Associated Press will often have completely different headlines, depending on the newspaper in which it is printed. The headline chosen for such an article can sometimes reveal information about the newspaper's editorial stance.

Finally, a newspaper article will often have a dateline . An article's dateline is the part of the article that identifies the location from which the reporter filed the article. It can also refer to the date the article was filed with the newspaper, but the word primarily refers to the location. Not every article will carry a dateline, but if it does, you can use that information to decide how near the author was to the event he or she is reporting. For example, in the newspaper article below, we might interpret the reporter's information differently if the article carried a London or New York dateline.

Image credit: Chicago Daily Tribune , Sept. 28, 1922, p. 1.

Image credit: English Review , Oct., 1922, p. 353.

For the first part of this tutorial, you will examine two articles from one of the two groups below.

Group A (Great Migration)

For a brief overview of the Great Migration, see the article " Great Migration " in Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience , Second Edition.

Group B (Jack the Ripper)

Questions to answer about your article.

• Does the article have a headline or a title? If so, then transcribe the headline or the title.
• Does the article have a byline or author? If so, then transcribe the byline or author.
• Does the article have a dateline? If so, then transcribe the dateline.
• What kind of article is this? (E.g. national news, state news, local news, investigation, feature, fiction, poetry, column, editorial, letter?)
• What news, if any, is being reported here? For this step you must separate out the factual information from the opinions expressed. By factual information we mean information capable of being verified, not necessarily information that is true. For example, the statement "Barack Obama is the 30th President of the United States" is a factual statement, though not a true one. (He is the 44th President.) [What other kinds of historical records might you consult to verify the factual information presented in the article? (is that too much?)]
• What opinion, if any, is being reported here? Distinguish between the author's opinions, and opinions that are being reported as news (for example, expert opinion).
• Can you identify any recognizable point-of-view? If so, then how would you characterize the point-of-view?
• How would you characterize the intended audience?
• Other salient features of the article? Illustrated? Length of the article? Average sentence length? Diction? Syntax? Other stylistic features?
• Can you determine the article's purpose? (E.g. to entertain, to enlighten, to inform decision-making, to persuade, to please, to mislead or deceive, to comply with the law, to record for posterity?)
• << Previous: Introduction to Newspapers and Magazines
• Next: Step 2: Page >>
• Last Updated: Jan 4, 2023 2:21 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.illinois.edu/periodicals

Why Use Newspapers?

Finding a specific newspaper, finding articles if you have a citation, finding articles on a topic, finding article full text.

• Newspapers in the Library Collection
• Newspaper Websites

Newspaper articles can provide a useful source of information, serving as a primary source of information about historical and current events. Some of the benefits of using newspaper articles as primary sources include:

• seeing how people viewed an event when it happened;
• providing multiple points of view about an issue, including a comparison of the United States and international views;
• permitting researchers to trace the historical development of subjects over time;
• examining issues in the context of their time (by seeing how stories about an issue relate to other stories, or by examining the type of coverage provided);
• giving a snapshot of a time period detailing how people lived, and what they purchased, etc. which is helpful for writers, playwrights, historians, etc.

Because newspapers also contain commentaries or retrospective articles about events, they can also serve as a secondary source. (Modified from Why Use Newspapers? - OhioState University)

To find a specific newspaper, try the following:

1. On the library home page in the search box click the Journals tab. Type the newspaper title.

The search will return results for titles starting with the words you typed. If you want to search for the exact tile or are not sure of the the complete title, use the E-Journals Search (link below the box). From the drop-down menu you can select "Title contains all words" if you are not sure in what order the words appear in the title or "Title equals" (the latter would be useful for short titles like "Time" or "Times").

2. For titles not available online, click "Print Journals" under the search box for journal searches. This will take you to the library catalog. Click on the "Title" tab. Do a catalog TITLE search for the newspaper title. It is useful to limit your search to Periodicals/Serials.

Results list may include several entries for different versions of the title and various formats (print, microfilm, and electronic). If you are confused, ask a librarian for help. For your convenience, information about popular newspapers in our collection is provided in this guide.

Library records may include information about current print holdings and microforms, as well as links to online content. Please note that the catalog does NOT have links to ALL newspapers available online, use the e-journals search for this.

First, determine if the issue of the newspaper is available online.

Method 1 . Search for the article title in quotation marks (and author's name, if the title is common) in the red search box on the home page (under the "Articles" tab).

A successful search will include a link to the article full text.

Method 2. Use the E-Journals search to see if the issue you need is available online. This method is more comprehensive, because it will find ALL of library electronic subscriptions. It also helps when a link in Method 1 does not work.

In the results list find a database that covers the period when the article of interest was published.

You can click "Look up Article" or go to the database. Most databases will allow you to browse to the volume and issue or search for the article.

If the article is not available online or you need to see the article as it was published with original graphics, do a catalog search for the newspaper title in the library catalog as described above . Important note: search for the newspaper title, NOT the article title.

• Start with searching Summon . After you enter your search terms and get results, you will be able to refine you search by Content - Newspapers . You may also select a date range for the articles.

• Search one of the general newspaper databases . You should also be able to filter your results to newspaper content and specify dates.
• Many subject guides provide information on newspapers in the discipline.
• Ask your subject librarian for assistance.

Please note that newspaper databases come in different formats.

Digital archive databases provide scanned reproductions of original newspaper pages (the full-text and any accompanying graphics).

Full-text databases provide the complete text of newspaper articles (but not accompanying graphics).

Index only databases provide citations (references) to newspaper articles. You can use these to identify the publication date and page number details for specific articles.

Therefore you may still need to use digital or traditional microfilms to view the articles you found using an online database.

If you working with newspapers not available online, you may need to use an index, which may be available in print or on a microfilm. Ask for help at the desk or via an online form .

Remember that if we don't have access to an article you can request it through interlibrary loan (ILLiad) .

(Modified from Newspapers & news services: Finding newspaper articles on a topic - University of Wollongong)

• Next: Newspapers in the Library Collection >>
• Last Updated: Mar 11, 2024 11:25 AM
• URL: https://guides.libraries.uc.edu/newspapers

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How to Research Online Newspaper Articles to Conduct a Qualitative Media Content Analysis

• By: Maria Pournara
• Product: Sage Research Methods: Doing Research Online
• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Ltd.
• Publication year: 2022
• Online pub date: July 12, 2022
• Discipline: Sociology , Education , Psychology , Health , Anthropology , Social Policy and Public Policy , Social Work , Political Science and International Relations , Geography , Criminology and Criminal Justice , Nursing , Business and Management , Communication and Media Studies , Counseling and Psychotherapy , History , Economics , Marketing
• Methods: Ethnography , Internet research , Qualitative data analysis
• DOI: https:// doi. org/10.4135/9781529611311
• Keywords: crime , information sources , news , newspapers , publications Show all Show less
• Online ISBN: 9781529611311 More information Less information

This How-to Guide describes what qualitative media analysis is, when and how it can be used to research online newspaper articles and shows how to draft a protocol to address the research problem under investigation. The guide also discusses similarities and differences between the more traditional quantitative content analysis often used in media research and the more recent qualitative content analysis which is far less rigid and puts emphasis on the researcher’s reflexivity and ability to interact with the materials to arrive at more meaningful conclusions with regard to the communication of messages. Furthermore, an overview of the 12 stages of the qualitative content analysis process is presented and a specific focus is placed on studying online newspaper articles. The 12 stages of the process include steps such as identifying a theoretical problem, finding documents, developing a protocol, collecting, coding, organising data, data analysis, and creating a final report. A more specific focus is then placed on how to develop a protocol which can meaningfully address the research question(s) and help categorise the data. The guide finishes with an example of a protocol used in a research project on organised crime representations in British national newspapers and a brief discussion on some of the research decisions and choices that guided its drafting, examination, and revision.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this guide, readers should be able to:

• Explain when and how they might use qualitative content analysis to research online media sources such as newspaper articles
• Describe the 12-step process of qualitative media analysis
• Draft their own protocol according to their topic or research question

Introduction

Qualitative approaches to researching documents in general and mass media, in particular, have been developing gradually and consistently in the past few decades, moving news research away from exclusively positivist understandings of ‘objective’ analysis of media messages. First, it is worth noting that media sources, from newspaper articles to news broadcasts or social media posts, are all forms of documents. A document can be defined as any symbolic representation that can be recorded or retrieved for analysis. Document analysis refers to an integrated and conceptually informed method, procedure, and technique for locating, identifying, retrieving, and analysing documents for their relevance, significance, and meaning ( Altheide & Schneider, 2013 ; Grant, 2018 ). Electronic documents have become extremely important in various domains of social life from international affairs to everyday communication of messages. The importance of technology in constructing, saving, retrieving, and investigating massive amounts of information cannot be overstated especially in news research.

There are many methods of data analysis that can be useful for researching online news (quantitative content analysis, thematic analysis, etc.), but this guide focuses on qualitative content analysis as a technique which can categorise and classify large amounts of information with a specific 12-step process and the use of protocols and at the same time help generate new categories and variables due to the reflexivity and adaptability inherent in this approach. Both of these traits can be invaluable, especially when conducting online news research where researchers are often concerned with exploring both manifest and latent content and discovering the different meanings and consequent representations of social phenomena in media sources such as news articles.

Defining and Using Qualitative Content Analysis in Media Research

Content analysis is a prominent method for the analysis of message content. Historically, content analysis has been linked to a positivist paradigm with primarily quantitative techniques used ( Neuendorf, 2002 ; Smith, 2000 ). More recent research, however, has introduced ‘qualitative content analysis’ ( Altheide & Schneider, 2013 ; Mayring, 2014 ) which has more similarities with methods such as thematic analysis. Traditional quantitative content analysis originates in positivistic assumptions about objectivity and, therefore, aims at obtaining data to measure the frequency, extent, and sometimes even meaning of messages ( Krippendorf, 1980 ; Krippendorff, 2004 ). Qualitative content analysis (often also described as ethnographic content analysis) is also interested in identifying and understanding the communication of meaning.

However, the main difference between the two methods lies in the highly reflexive and interactive nature of the researcher during the process of collecting, observing, and analysing concepts and data in qualitative content analysis ( Altheide & Schneider, 2013 ). In this method of data analysis, the researcher gathers both numerical and narrative data not only to force them into predefined categories necessarily – although these can exist, of course – but to also allow a process of constant discovery and comparison ( van den Berg & van der Veer, 1989 ) where other categories or variables can be generated from the data. When researching online news using qualitative content analysis, therefore, the aim is to be systematic and analytic, yet not rigid.

Altheide and Schneider (2013) have introduced a 12-step process of qualitative document analysis which, although can be applied to a wide range of documentary analysis, is very useful to apply to media research.

These 12 steps are now presented alongside an application on specifically researching online news articles.

• 1. Topic: pursue a specific problem to investigate . Identifying a research problem is crucial as it helps inform not only the type of the research question(s) but also the unit of analysis, including what specific type or portion of documents would be chosen for the sample and analysed. For example, a researcher might choose to investigate articles published only in national newspapers or exclude broadsheet publications. This is also interlinked with the articles’ relevance to the research questions asked. For example, an investigation of the representation of a major international incident may be more suitably explored through a sample of articles published in national newspapers (i.e., ‘How was the Russian invasion in Ukraine presented in the British press?). Articles published in regional newspapers may be selected for exploring issues with more localised effects and manifestations (i.e., ‘What is the representation of the problem of county lines in South Wales?’).
• 2. Literature review: explore possible sources of information and become familiar with the process of collecting them . Once a research problem has been identified, it is essential for the researcher to familiarise themselves with the process of identifying and collecting appropriate sources of information. In online news research, this often leads to an exploration of various databases. Lexis Library News (Lexis®) is a very well-known database which offers free access to local and global news sources and is a tool that can be used to gather media data. Alternatively, newspapers’ websites can be used to collect articles as well, especially if the researcher has selected only one or two publications to focus on. For new media researchers, this stage should also include a process of familiarisation with news production, collection, and dissemination processes. It is invaluable to gain an understanding of how media outlets gather and present information. For example, newspapers often choose to publish important and timely articles on the front pages and allocate them more words as well. That would mean that by contrast smaller articles usually represent minor issues. Therefore, the position and length of news articles could be important elements to consider and add to the protocol for analysis.
• 3. A few documents: select a small sample of newspaper articles (6–10) and select a unit of analysis (i.e., each article ). Selecting a small sample of newspaper articles to read and analyse first, before making final sampling decisions is a crucial step in qualitative media analysis. It allows the researcher to test their hypotheses on the type of information they will be getting and the format of their units of analysis. Moreover, it facilitates the process of reflexivity and interaction with the data that distinguish qualitative from quantitative media analysis, as the researcher is able to get some initial impressions and interact with them to create some first-level codes or even to exclude some more sources of information (i.e., types of articles), if necessary. In the study of online newspapers, admittedly in most cases, the unit of analysis is the individual news article because of the way they are presented in databases – not as part of a newspaper, but rather as individual news reports. However, in some cases, the unit of analysis could be a particular page, individual articles, or perhaps even paragraphs if that is consistent with the research question(s).
• 4. Draft protocol: List several items or categories (variables) to guide data collection and draft a protocol . Drafting a protocol for the qualitative content analysis of any type of document is the researcher’s way of asking the questions they need answers to from the documents. Therefore, a protocol is ‘a list of questions, items, categories, or variables that guide data collection from documents’ ( Altheide & Schneider, 2013 ). Some categories in protocols can be ‘precoded’ which means that they were already determined before the research process began, but some others are generated from the data inductively.
• 5. Examine documents: Test the protocol by collecting data from several documents . Qualitative media analysis protocols usually have far less categories than their quantitative counterparts. Typically, most protocols have between 8 and 14 categories. To examine if a protocol works in the context of a specific research project, the researcher must determine whether the identified conceptual problem is adequately addressed by the categories in the protocol.
• 6. Revise protocol: Revise the protocol and select several additional cases to further refine it . This is the final step before the sampling and another chance to be reflexive about the choices made with regard to collecting newspaper articles and forming the categories for the protocol.
• 7. Theoretical sample: Arrive at a sampling rationale and strategy . This stage is crucial. It requires that the widest range of relevant messages is included in the sample mainly because a major emphasis in qualitative media analysis is to capture the meanings and themes of messages and to understand the organisation and process of how they are presented ( Glaser & Strauss, 2012 ). Although there are many sampling strategies that could be followed (including theoretical, opportunistic, cluster, and stratified), in media analysis, theoretical sampling (i.e., the process of selecting materials for conceptual and theoretically relevant reasons rather than following a more rigid sampling strategy) is usually followed. This is mainly because progressive theoretical sampling facilitates the selection of articles based on emerging and evolving understanding of the research topic that is consistent with the principles of reflexivity and interaction.
• 8. Collect data: Collect data using preset codes if appropriate and many descriptive examples . In online media research, preset codes can be relevant to the format, source and style of articles. These can, for example, include the year of publication, name of newspaper, page of publication or length of the article. Descriptive examples are more conceptual and relevant to the problem under investigation. They can be as generic as the subject matter of each article or more specific to the research question(s). For larger samples, it is always a good idea to use a computer software programme such as NVivo or ATLAS to import data for easier search and coding of text. Reflexivity at this stage is also very important; about halfway to two-thirds into the process of data collection, taking a step back and examining the data could allow for the emergence, refinement, or merging of categories which is very important to decide before moving on to full-scale coding and data analysis.
• 9. Code data: Perform data analysis, including conceptual refinement and data coding . Data analysis generally consists of extensively reading, sorting, and searching through materials. As previously mentioned, most researchers conducting online media research tend to use some type of qualitative analysis software, especially for the stage of coding data. While this is recommended for many reasons (better organisation, visual depiction and understanding of code relationships, and identification of overlaps), it is also important to note that researchers should oversee the coding process and always interact reflexively with their materials. In qualitative media analysis, it is up to them to think and decide the best way to integrate and code data using the most meaningful codes relevant to their research question(s).
• 10. Compare data: Compare and contrast data within each category to help identify potential differences . At this stage, it is recommended to go record by record, in other words, article by article in order to search, find, sort, and compare. Making textual notes and writing brief summaries for data in each category could help with this process. Comparing categories across the units of analysis is invaluable in identifying different use of language which is crucial in qualitative media analysis especially when the goal is to explore different ways in which the media represent social phenomena.
• 11. Case studies: Combine the brief summaries with examples of typical cases . This stage is often combined with stage 10 but may also be separate as it requires careful reading of the materials to compare categories within the data and identify the typical cases which share common thematic and presentational characteristics. It is very useful to be consistent with brief summaries here too; two or three sentences which can summarise the range of the use of a specific term, for example, the extremes and the most typical, and what this may mean at this stage of analysis for the problem under investigation.
• 12. Report: Integrate the findings with your interpretation and key concepts in another draft . The final stage of qualitative content analysis involves presenting your findings and making final interpretations in a meaningful way. Here it is advised to use the categories in your protocol to help guide the presentation and structure the report. For example, for a 12-category protocol, approximately 12 paragraphs or sections can be created to present categories, findings, descriptions, and quotations. It is also very important to read these sections and focus on the variations of themes (for a sample of 100 articles, you may have 5–10 or even more) so these can be presented in a meaningful way as well, to show for example how many articles can fit into each theme created, which ones do not fit and what, if anything, has been surprising or odd about them.

Section Summary

• In contrast to traditional quantitative approaches to media research, the qualitative content analysis focuses on the communication of meaning through constant reflection and interaction in the process of collecting, observing, and analysing concepts and data.
• There are 12 stages of qualitative content analysis which can be followed in online media research of newspaper articles.
• These stages involve identifying a research problem, finding documents, protocol development and data collection, data coding and organisation, data analysis, and report.

Developing a Protocol for Studying Online Newspaper Articles

This section focuses on how to develop a protocol specifically for researching online newspaper articles.

The development of the protocol, although presented as a specific stage (4) in the qualitative content analysis process, is a fundamental and integral part of the research process which can evolve over several drafts. Categories should be kept to a minimum at first, to allow for more to be generated as the researcher interacts with the articles in relation to the research problem. These categories should showcase meaningful relationships to one another as well as to the research problem. In other words, they should form a coherent list which addresses the theoretical issue at hand, rather than being included purely because they are interesting. Moreover, the protocol categories can be numbers, letters, or even descriptions and should have more than one possible value to them, for example, ‘newspaper title’ or ‘length of article’ can have many different outcomes. Finally, protocols should have a reflective segment – usually, this is the last category – in which the researcher can make notes and comments about how this case was similar to or different from others.

These general points on how to develop a protocol could be further illustrated by a specific example of a protocol from a research project on exploring representations of organised crime in British national newspapers ( Pournara, 2020 ). In this research, the main theoretical question was ‘How is organised crime presented in British online newspapers?’

Protocol for researching the representation of organised crime in the British national press

* Timeframe: January 1, 1993 to January 1, 2018*

• 1. Newspaper title
• 2. Article Title/Headline
• 3. Date of publication
• 4. Location of the article (page and section, if applicable)
• a. Under 500 words
• b. 501 to 1000 words
• c. 1000+ words
• a. Organised criminal(s)
• b. Organised crime activity/event/phenomenon
• c. Politician(s)/government
• d. Law enforcement agency
• b. International crime groups
• d. Loose networks/lone offenders
• a. Policing/arrests
• b. Harm reduction
• c. National security
• d. Victim-focused
• 11. Article summary

These categories were developed over a period of 2–3 months, while the researcher followed the steps mentioned in stages 4, 5, and 6 of the qualitative content analysis process to draft, examine, and revise the protocol, adding and merging categories as needed. Some of these categories are easier to construct than others. The newspaper title or year of publication, for example, is rather straightforward to set. However, the construction of subcategories for the length of articles required some thinking; why would the upper limit be 500 words for a small article for example? This was partly based on previous research ( Young & Allum, 2012 ) and partly on the fact that as more articles were gathered, it became evident that this was a logical cut-off point for the type of articles published in national British newspapers as the majority of smaller articles tended to come up to 500 words. Also, it is important to note that whereas most categories in this protocol were pre-set, categories 7, 8, 9, and 10 were added later as they were generated from the data during the initial stages of protocol drafting.

Finally, the importance of choosing appropriate keywords to search for relevant articles cannot be overstated. In this example, searching for ‘organised crime’ would be the obvious option but upon gathering a few online articles and reading them, it became apparent that they only covered a small proportion of what the researcher was interested in. For example, ‘organised crime’ in newspapers seemed to refer more to gang activity, drugs, and human trafficking but left out some important activities such as fraud and cybercrime which undoubtedly fall under the definition in academic terms. Whereas this was a very interesting finding on its own, it also prevented the researcher from omitting a number of important articles which referred to other organised crime types had they only used the search term ‘organised crime’. With repeated reading, familiarisation with the information source materials allowed for use of more diverse keywords which in turn ensured a more meaningful sampling strategy and a more accurate protocol which addressed the research question more appropriately.

• Drafting, examining, and revising a protocol are arguably the most important stages in qualitative content analysis.
• Protocols develop over several drafts and can be adapted throughout the research process.
• Use of meaningful search terms is crucial when researching online newspaper articles.

This guide explains what qualitative content analysis is and what are the main similarities and differences with its more traditional quantitative counterpart which has been predominantly used in media research in the past. It then describes the step-by-step process of analysing newspaper articles using qualitative content analysis while providing specific instructions for each step, as well as insights on the particularities of this method, especially the ideas of reflexivity and constant interaction with the data. The 12 stages presented in this guide all play an important role in identifying appropriate and reliable source information materials, drafting a meaningful and robust protocol which can be used for data collection, coding, organisation, and finally creating a report which meaningfully addresses the theoretical research problem.

Multiple Choice Quiz Questions

1. Which aspect of qualitative content analysis differentiates it from the more traditional quantitative content analysis in media research?

Incorrect Answer

Feedback: This is not the correct answer. The correct answer is B.

Correct Answer

Feedback: Well done, correct answer.

2. When researching online newspapers, what is typically the unit of analysis?

Feedback: This is not the correct answer. The correct answer is A.

3. What is important to include in a qualitative media analysis protocol?

Feedback: This is not the correct answer. The correct answer is C.

Further Reading

Drisko , J. W. & Maschi T. ( 2016 ). Content analysis . Pocket guide to social work research methods. Oxford University Press .

Graneheim , U. H. , Lindgren , B.-M. , & Lundman , B. ( 2017 ). Methodological challenges in qualitative content analysis: A discussion paper . Nurse Education Today , 56 ( June ), 29 – 34 . 10.1016/j.nedt.2017.06.002

Hsieh , H.-F. , & Shannon , S. E. ( 2005 ). Three approaches to qualitative content analysis . Qualitative Health Research , 15 ( 9 ), 1277 – 1288 . 10.1177/1049732305276687

Kaefer , F. , Roper , J. , & Sinha , P. ( 2015 ). A software-assisted qualitative content analysis of news articles: Example and reflections . Forum: Qualitative Social Research , 16 ( 2 ), 1 – 20 .

Patterson , C. , Emslie , C. , Mason , O. , Fergie , G. , & Hilton , S. ( 2016 ). Content analysis of UK newspaper and online news representations of women’s and men’s “binge” drinking: A challenge for communicating evidence-based messages about single-episodic drinking? BMJ Open , 6 ( 12 ), 1 – 9 . 10.1136/bmjopen-2016-013124

Web Resources

Lexis Library News: https://www.lexisnexis.com/uk/legal/news?sourceid=1061905

NewspapersArchive®: https://newspaperarchive.com/

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2-Types of Sources

News as a Source

News sources can provide insights that scholarly sources may not or that will take a long time to get into scholarly sources. For instance, news sources are excellent for finding out people’s reactions, opinions, and prevailing attitudes around the time of an event.

So whether news sources are good for your assignment depends on your research question. (You’ll find other relevant information at Sources and Information Needs .)

News is a strange term, because even when the information is old, it’s still news. Some sources are great for breaking news, some are great for aggregated (or compiled) news, and others are great for historical news.

While news was transmitted for centuries only in newspapers, news is now transmitted in all formats: via radio, television, and the Internet, in addition to print. Even most newspapers have Internet sites today.

News must be brief because much of it gets reported only moments after an event happens. News reports occur early in the Information Lifecycle. See Publication Formats and the Information Lifecycle for more information.

When Are News Sources Helpful?

• You need breaking news or historical perspectives on a topic (what people were saying at the time).
• You need to learn more about a culture, place, or time period from its own sources.
• You want to keep up with what is happening in the world today.

When Are News Sources of Limited Use?

• You need very detailed analysis by experts.
• You need sources that must be scholarly or modern views on a historical topic.

Activity: Using News Effectively

Open activity in a web browser., mainline and non-mainline news sources.

Mainline American news outlets stick with the tradition of trying to report the news as objectively as possibly. That doesn’t mean their reports are perfectly objective, but they are more objective than the non-mainline sources. As a result, mainline news sources are more credible than non-mainline sources. Some examples of mainline American news outlets: The New York Times , The Washington Post , The Boston Globe , The Chicago Tribune , The Los Angeles Times ; ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, PBS News, NPR News.

News from non-mainline American news outlets is often mixed with opinions. One way they frequently exhibit bias is that they leave out pertinent facts. Some examples of non-mainline American news outlets: MSNBC, Fox News, Gawker, Reddit.

Types of News Sources

Press Services— News outlets (print, broadcast, and online) get a lot of their news from these services, such as Reuters or Associated Press (AP), which make it unnecessary for individual outlets to send their own reporters everywhere. Services are so broadly used that you may have to look at several news outlets to get a different take on an event or situation.

News aggregators— Aggregators don’t have reporters of their own but simply collect and transmit the news reported by others. Some sources pull news from a variety of places and provide a single place to search for and view multiple stories. You can browse stories or search for a topic. Aggregators tend to have current, but not archival news. Google news and Yahoo News are examples.

Newspaper sites – Many print newspapers also have their own websites. They vary as to how much news they provide for free. Take a look at these examples.

• The Florida Times-Union
• The Boston Globe
• The Times of London
• China Daily , USA edition
• The New York Times

News Databases – Search current, recent, and historical newspaper content in databases provided free by libraries. The FSCJ LLC offers many news databases to students, staff, and faculty. They include:

• America’s News (Newsbank) – contains U.S. news content from local, regional, and national sources including newspapers, broadcast transcripts, wire services, blogs, and more.
• Florida Newspapers (Newsbank) – groups together major Florida newspapers.
• Access World News (Newsbank) – contains news articles from various countries and source types; ideal for exploring issues and events at the local, regional, national, and international levels.
• New York Times Historical (Proquest) – contains full-text and full-image articles, covering the period from 1851-2007.
• News (Gale OneFile) – contains global news and U.S. regional, national, and local news from major newspapers, radio, and TV broadcasts.

See the complete list of FSCJ’s News and Current Events databases . Additionally, there are some historical newspaper collections hosted by state universities and the Library of Congress that you can access for free:

• Florida Digital Newspaper Library , hosted by the University of Florida, provides access to the news and history of Florida.
• Central Florida Memory is a digitization project hosted by the University of Central Florida Library, in collaboration with the Orange County Regional History Center, and the Orange County Library System.
• Chronicling America hosted by the Library of Congress and produced by the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), has information about historic newspapers and select digitized newspaper pages.

Broadcast News Sites – Although broadcast news (from radio and television) is generally consumed in real time, such organizations also offer archives of news stories on their web sites. However, not all of their articles are provided by their own reporters: some originate from the press services, Reuters and AP. Here are some examples of broadcast new sites:

Activity: One-Minute World News from the BBC

Visit bbc’s video area and watch their one-minute world news to get a quick update on the world’s major news stories..

Social Media – Most of the news outlets listed above contribute to Twitter and Facebook . It’s customary for highly condensed announcements in this venue to lead you back to the news outlet’s website for more information. However, how credible tech companies such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google are with news is in serious doubt now that their lawyers have testified to the U.S. Congress that more than 100 million users may have seen content actually created by Russian operatives on the tech companies’ platforms leading up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election.  Read more about their testimony at  NPR  and  The New York Times. 

Blogs – Sometimes these are good sources for breaking news, as well as commentary on current events and scholarship. Authors who write more objectively elsewhere can share more insights and opinions, more initial questions and findings about a study before they are ready to release definitive data and conclusions about their research.

Citizen Journalism – A handful of websites cater to those members of the general public who want to report breaking news and submit their own photos and videos on a wide range of topics. Most of the people who do this now use social media platforms, and the few remaining sites dedicated to citizen journalism have changed their model to have more oversight of what is published. Examples of such sources include WikiNews and Reddit . For more details on the history and development of citizen journalism, including addressing some of the pros and cons, read Understanding Citizen Journalism .

News Feeds – You can get updates on specific topics or a list of major headlines, regularly sent to you so you don’t have to visit sites or hunt for new content on a topic. Look for links that contain headings such as these to sign up for news feeds:

• News Alerts
• Table of Contents Alerts

Movie: What is an RSS Feed?

View video : https://youtu.be/6HNUqDL-pI8

Activity: RSS Feeds from CBS News

Visit cbs news rss feeds list to see a list of general and very specific topic areas for which you can sign up for alerts. what topic interests you consider signing up for one (or more)..

Choosing & Using Sources: A Guide to Academic Research Copyright © 2015, 2020 by Teaching & Learning, Ohio State University Libraries is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

TAFT COLLEGE

Evaluation of Sources - A How to Guide

• Scholarly Journals
• Trade Journals

Some newspapers are considered local papers intended to be read by people in a certain location, and some are more regional, national or international in audience. Examples include: The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Times (London), Wallstreet Journal, and many more.  

Newspaper Databases

• Newspaper Source Plus Newspaper Source Plus includes more than 860 full-text newspapers, providing more than 35 million full-text articles. In addition, the database features more than 857,000 television and radio news transcripts.
• US Newsstream US Newsstream provides current coverage from major national newspapers including: The New York Times (1980-present), The Wall Street Journal (1984-present), Washington Post (1987-present), Los Angeles Times (1985-present), The Christian Science Monitor (1988-present), The Atlanta Journal Constitution (2001-present), The Boston Globe (1980-present) and many regional publications from across the United States.

Evaluating Newspapers

When evaluating newspapers for research, consider the following:

Credibility of the Source

• Assess the reputation and reliability of the newspaper and its publisher.
• Review the credentials and expertise of the authors.

Bias and Objectivity

• Evaluate whether the reporting is balanced and free from undue bias.
• Be mindful of the newspaper's potential political or commercial affiliations.

Accuracy and Verification

• Cross-check information with other reputable sources.
• Look for evidence and citations within the articles.
• Ensure the information is current and relevant to the research topic.

Intended Audience

• Understand the target audience and consider how it may influence the content and perspective.

By using these criteria, students can effectively incorporate newspapers into their research, ensuring they use credible and pertinent information.

Using newspapers in research.

While newspaper articles are not typically the first choice for inclusion in academic research as they are not peer-reviewed articles, they do provide first‐hand accounts of events that have historical significance and are excellent examples of primary sources.  Newspapers are often the first reliable sources reporting on current and local events.

We use newspapers in research to:

• access primary source material for historical and contemporary events;
• understand public opinion and societal issues at specific points in time;
• gather information on local, national, and international events.

Examples of Newspaper Use in Research

There are many potential research purposes for which newspaper articles can serve as valuable sources. Below are some examples of research queries.

• Contemporary reporting of the Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba in 1961.
• Contemporary accounts of the sinking of the Battleship Maine in Havana harbor in 1898.
• The capture and killing of Libya's Gadhafi in October 2011.
• Public sentiment toward the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States.
• Conservative and liberal analyses of NATO's intervention in Bosnia in 1995.
• Changes in cigarette advertisements in national newspapers of the United States from the early 1900s up to today.
• Excerpts of Lincoln's November 19, 1863, Gettysburg address published at the time of its delivery with editorial commentary of the time.

Another example is that scientific and technological breakthroughs are often reported in newspapers. A researcher keeping track of advances in science and technology would use newspapers to find announcements of where any breakthroughs were made and by whom. Finding the scientific literature surrounding the breakthrough would be the next step for the academic researcher.

How To Cite a Newspaper Article

While many databases have citation tools that generate an automatic citation, these can often have mistakes that make the citation incorrect. Students should learn how to recognize the elements of citations and how to create one. The following information is used to create a citation for a newspaper. 

• Article headline
• Article byline
• Newspaper name (and place of publication if it has a common title)
• Date of the newspaper
• Page and column of the article
• Where the article was retrieved (in print, from a database, online, etc.)
• When the article was retrieved (this is especially important if the article was found on the open Internet)

See examples of an how an article looks in a database below:

For help citing newspaper articles see the links below:

Chicago/Turabian

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