data analysis

English – Data Analysis

1.      My data is representative for the investigation I am analysing, primarily due to the quantity of papers I collected on the same topic of the Royal Baby. I collected 6 Broadsheet and 6 Tabloid papers, both with 3 separate newspaper titles. However, the data can be seen as unrepresentative as the newspapers were collected only collected on 2 dates, 3 days apart. This can be seen as a disadvantage as it may not represent the language the newspaper titles uses the majority of the time.

2.      It does offer enough data to test my hypothesis and to analysis with at least 1500 words as I’m analysing 12 newspapers. However, as analysing 12 whole newspapers being too large of a data pool, I am only analysing the language of language of the front cover and first 2 pages on the story of The Royal Baby. This allowed it to become more representative and comparable.  

3.      I can quantify in my investigation the number of newspaper titles collected, the 3 page restriction of analysing of each paper on the story of the Royal Baby, and the price of each paper.

4.      …

Methodology

METHODOLOGY  

As my hypothesis is to discover whether ‘Broadsheet newspapers aim their newspapers at a different audience to tabloids’, I investigated the discourse structure and language of both types of newspaper. Over the 23^th and 25^th of July I collected 3 broadsheet titles on two days (The Guardian, The Times and I) and the same for tabloid newspapers (The Sun, Daily Mirror, Daily Star) with the main topic being the birth of the Royal Baby.

COMPARABILITY

I collected my data on the topic of the birth of the Royal baby, and the naming of him, allowing a two day gap between them. By doing so, this allowed me to analysis data on specific stories, allowing comparisons of language between to be far more valid.  I chose to use the broadsheets The Guardian and The Times as these were reported to be the extremely popular British quality newspaper titles (http://www.newspapers.co.uk/most-popular-uk-newspapers/), with more popular newspapers such as Daily Mail being mid-market. Using mid-market newspapers may reduce my level of comparability as it’s in between broadsheet and tabloid. I also chose The Sun and Daily Mirror as tabloid samples due to their popularity. For the broadsheet ‘I’ and tabloid ‘Daily Star’, I also used these for comparability between them as both of them are the cheapest newspaper under their categories,  to see if the language changes further, based on the price of the newspaper. To minimise comparability issues, I collected the same titled newspapers, on the same date, reporting the same story. This allowed my data the ability to be compared between one another without a lack of reliability. To improve comparability, when analysing the language of the lead report of the Royal Baby, I will only analysis the front page and first 2 pages reporting the story. By doing so, the data will be a similar sample size as particular newspaper report it over 8 pages, and others over 2 pages. I also chose to collect 3 titles of each broadsheet and tabloid to increase the representativeness of coming to conclusions of broadsheets and tabloid, based on the data.

RELIABILITY

One concern I faced in my investigation was the possibility of lacking reliability when analysing the newspapers, due to the newspapers only reporting a story for one day.  I overcame this problem by collecting similar stories over 2 days, resulting in a large data sample. This is likely to lead to far more representative data of the newspaper titles if language features are found in the same newspaper on separate dates. However, it can be argued that collecting two newspapers of each title not a large enough sample, making the data unrepresentative of how the newspaper titles usually write.

ETHIC Issues

As all the newspaper titles were published for the public to read, no ethical issues can exist when using data that consist only in the newspapers. This lead to no complications of the possible Hawthorne effect created from recording people’s behaviour and required no consent from applicants taking part in the data.  

A2 Coursework investigation

Comparison of Broadsheet to Tabloid newspaper

• The theories I am interested in are language and power, analysing the lexical choices, discourse structure etc. to distinguish whether they aim for different social class audiences.
• HYPOTHESIS: Broadsheet newspapers aim their newspapers at a different audience to tabloids.
• To achieve evidence whether my hypothesis is true, I have collected 12 newspapers (3 tabloid and 3 broadsheet over 2 days) with the same dates and key story.
• METHDOLOGY: Due to the data being published nationally, no ethical issues can be raised, needing no consent to use the data.
• I have made the data comparable by collecting the papers over 2 days with the same data, using the same newspapers over the 2 days, and the newspapers all covering the main story of the birth of royal baby.
• The datas reliable as I collected it over 2 days, with 6 of the papers being broadsheet and 6 of them being tabloid.
• One problem I faced was not making the data comparable. However as the newspapers are covering the same story, the data can be made comparable.

SAMPLE DATA

Sample Data Evaluation

1. When evaluating my data, I predicted that tabloid newspapers (The daily star, and The Mirror) would contain far more colloquial lanuage, which was correct. I also predicted that broadsheet newspapers would be in a more formal strcturure. This was shown through the page layout, with the broadsheets (The guardian, and the Telegraph) containing far mroe compelx sentences and larger paragraths.

2. More indepth of the language choices used by the newspapers and what target audience they aim to appeal to by doing so.

3. The data was scientific to a certain extent due to all 4 articles i collected were pulished on te 24th of March 2013, all reporting the same event of the 'Woolwich attack'. The data linked to Power theory, by how it aims to influence its audience through the language features they use.

4. There was overall enough data to collect from the 4 peices, however they contrasted in size. e.g. Guardian article 400 words, the Daily Star article 1200words. By collecting 2 broadsheet and 2 tabloid newspapers, covering the same story over a period of time, it will make my data comparable and reliable.

5. One concern was i collected my data online from past events over 3months ago. To gain futher indepth data, I will use newspapers themselves to collect my data. By doing so, this will show me the full page layout, and the amount of images each use.

Reliability/Comparability/Ethicaliy?

Reliabilty

Reliable data is data that can be replicated over and over again and still get the same results.
It is representative of the whole of the data pool that you are selecting your sample from.

1. In  'Editor's letters in women's and men's magazines', you can make the data reliable by collecting data from significant amount of magazines. An example of this would be to use 8 each for men's and women's magazines, looking only at the Editor's letters. Annotate the texts and compare the language techniques of each text between each other by listing the similarities and differences they hold.

2.To collect reliable data on Brian Cox's tweets, as previously suggested in the booklet, i would use the technique of picking 1 of every 4 or 1 of every 3 tweets he makes starting from the most recent. This will make your investigation unbiased as you cannot pick tweets of your choice. This can therefore create reliable data as it ca be easily replicated.

3.To collect reliable data on Michael Gove's comments on education, i would analysis 5 random clips on youtube of his opinions and ideas of the education system. By looking at 5 at random, it creates unbiased data and you can annotate it to see the similarities each clip holds.

Comparability

1. Kids advertisement for toys aimed at children aged 3-8
    Compare Argos tv advertisements for this target market and see the similaities and differences in  language used when targeting genders.
Adverts aimed at boys emphasis masculine traits such as fighting, being tough and strong. e.g. Action man
Adverts aimed at girls emphasis traditional feminine traits such as being caring and looking after dolls. These advertisements are argued to enforce gender roles in society e.g. girls preparing to be mothers and look after children.

2. Compare radio commentary to television commentory of the same football match
    Analyse the different language features used by each
    TV- contain many more pauses, deixis.
     Radio- Much more fluent, more adverbials used

3.Collect magazines based on age groups such as children, teenagers, young adults, & matured adults

4.Observe one teacher in depth and see the language features they use when speaking/teaching different age groups of pupils e.g. Younger children: Simple sentences, monosyllabic lexis.

Ethicality 

There will be no ethical issues with my investigation.

Transcript of SA

Transcription:  The Apprentice                    (SA, Claire, Simon, Nick)

S: I Was the project manager I lost money (.) but the reason I lost money and I could of made a fortune in that shopping centre this morning/

C: /Yeah

S: /If we started this morning cause I’m good at/

SA: /could of yeah could of should of would of yeah(.) but you didn’t right  

S: No Sir/ Alan

SA: /no you didn’t yeah (3) I think I’ve heard enough for me to make a very very difficult decision here today (0.5)/

C: sir alan may I say one more thing please

SA: (1) if you insist

C: I think in this whole competition (.)if you sit back and remain quiet under the radar (.) people assume that they’re safe (.) and I’ve been bold and I know I’m vocal and that puts/

SA:/ oh you have been bold alright/

C: /and it puts me in a vulnerable position(.) I’m sorry I’ve sat here/

N: /trouble is you know (1) you never back off even/

SA:/you know what I’ll tell you what I’m gonna do with you I’ll tell you what im gonna do im getting sick and tired of you denying all this you know (.) I’m sick of looking at you at the moment get out that door (1) get back to the bloody house (.) ok get back to the house (.)yeah because you’re going to be the next team leader I’m sick of looking at you at the moment get out that door and get back to the house

(Claire leaves)

SA: (10) Simon if I ask you to build me a wall you’d build me a wall I’m pretty sure of it(.) if I asked you to dig me a trench I think you’d dig me a trench (.) I am not that sure (1) that if I gave you my investment portfolio that you’d be able to run that very well (0.5) I’m sure my friend I think you’re a bit out of your depth here and with regret (0.5) your fired

P: thank you for the wonderful opportunity

[paul stands and leaves]

P: (3) thank you Sir Alan goodbye

 

Sir Alan puts in Claire

Transcript: The Apprentice

The data I chose to investigate was based on a clip of The Apprentice, analysing the Language and Power the youtube clip includes. I chose to investigate this data as a significant amount of strategies are used to assert power by all participants throughout the transcript.

Throughout the transcript, Fairclough’s findings of unequal encounters can clearly be seen.  Due to Sir Alan is the main character of the show where the winner receives a £250,000 business investment, he’s the most powerful participant as the others aim to compete for it. In the transcript, Sir Alan takes the longer turns, holding the floor when he chooses to with a lack of interruptions by the other participants. This emphasises his instrumental power over them as he holds the power to fire them or not.

In the transcript, Sir Alan uses face threatening acts “I’m sick of looking at you” when speaking to Claire, asserting his dominant status over her. He uses FTA’s to fulfil the dual purpose of the transcript to inform the candidates present, and entertain the viewers watching the TV show so the show increases in popularity.  He uses taboo language “bloody house” to also possibly fulfil the purpose to entertain the audience, with the use of taboo expressing his anger.

Claire uses positive politeness strategies “may I say one thing please” to soften the possible FTA of interrupting Sir Alan. She tries to assert influential power over Sir Alan as a persuasion technique to stay in the competition for his investment.  The candidates use direct address “Sir Alan” as politeness strategies to mitigate acts that may threaten Sir Alan’s face needs. However, Sir Alan uses second person pronouns “you” to address them, emphasising his higher social status than them, showing his lack of care of saving their face needs.