Social Science Computer Review

This article reviews computer science perspectives on video processing and explores the ways in which automated video analysis can be employed in social scientific studies of film and television content.

Test item review is a specialized type of content analysis conducted to identify and correct test item flaws early in the test development process. Test item reviewers not only examine the targeted content of a test but also remove inappropriate content and balance various types of incidental content. An automated content analysis implementation of Hiller’s verbal ambiguity scales and Laffal’s General Concept Dictionary of English was used to examine 576 multiple-choice test items before and after test item review and revision by experienced item editors. Hiller’s scales detected some problems with item clarity. Laffal’s categories detected content imbalance between test forms but not inappropriate item content.

This article examines methodological issues for content analytic research of the World Wide Web. The outline of content analysis as a systematic and quantitative scientific method for measuring the content of messages have existed for centuries. Nevertheless, its development and diffusion have been primarily spurred by the rise of mass media, newspapers in the 19th century and electronic media in the 20th century. The growth of the Internet promises to induce a similar expansion of its use and refinement of its techniques. The World Wide Web is characterized by its ubiquity, global reach, interactivity, decentralized, hyperlinked structure, and multimedia format. All of these characteristics present researchers with opportunities and challenges at each step of a content analysis: sampling, unitization, development of content categories, coding, and analysis. Based on a review of recent content analytic research, this article analyzes these issues and suggests methodological improvements for future research.

Gestation is the calendar of pregnancy. Some abortion debaters keep one foot in pro-choice and the other in pro-life camp, depending on gestation. Their literature is often subjectively labeled pro-life or pro-choice. However, they trade off gestations pro-choice for gestations pro-life. Therefore, labeling a body of literature as this third camp is objective. If other trade-offs besides those calendar-based are sparse, then the objective labeling of a percentage of a body of literature as third camp implies the objective labeling of the remaining percentage as authentic pro-life or authentic pro-choice, because Pr(camp|labeled camp) = 1 - Pr(third camp|labeled camp). This study applied the method to Web samples. The data support the hypothesis that specific gestations are mentioned or implied in this literature more frequently than can be explained by a debate for which every gestation yields as many timeline keywords as one would expect without third camp.

The growth of party and candidate activity on the World Wide Web over the past 5 years has provoked much comment and criticism. Although initially most assessments were descriptive and anecdotal, more recent studies have taken a more systematic and quantitative approach to this topic. This article builds on the existing literature by developing a coding scheme that addresses two basic questions applicable to all political Web sites: (a) what the purpose of the sites are, and (b) how effectively they deliver their contents. In doing so, this article attempts to standardize the study of party Web sites and to promote the growth of cross-national and longitudinal comparative research in this area.

HyperRESEARCH is a computer-assisted software program for analyzing qualitative data. This article describes the analysis strategy of the hypothesis-testing component of the program. The Hypothesis Tester allows a researcher to generate a theoretical framework inductively from their data, or to test out a preexisting set of theoretical ideas on a given data set deductively. The hypothesis-testing component of HyperRESEARCH provides a semiformal mechanism for theory building and hypothesis testing. It provides for validity and reliability checks by having the researcher describe the inference process used to draw conclusions from the data. The article discusses the theoretical and data analysis implications of using the Hypothesis Tester for qualitative research. Future additions to the program are presented that promise to revolutionize the way that qualitative research is conducted.