Mary Jackson Pitts, Ph.D.
|
Mary Jackson Pitts, Ph.D.
|
|
Coding Instructions: The following information will assist you in your task of coding television station news websites. Each coder will code a total of 8 websites. Each coder will be assigned two states (Ie. Arkansas and Alabama). Websites have been randomly selected from a listing developed by the American Journalism Review, www.ajr.newslink.org. Coders must first logon to computers in multi media lab. Coders should first go to www.ajr.org. At that point, click on radio/ television sites. Go to the states that you have been assigned to code. Click on the specific station websites, as given to you. Once you are on the individual stations web site, click on the news portion of the site. (REMEMBER, WE ARE ONLY CODING NEWS PAGES OF THE WEBSITE, AND THE LINKS THAT GO TO THAT SITE. DO NOT GO TO THE SPORTS, WEATHER, PROGRAMMING, SALES OR PROMOTION LINKS ON THE SITE. However, if there is a link to UPCOMING EVENTS OR TALK TO US, CHECK THAT LINK OUT to answer questions #17 and #21-23.
Remember, The news section of the site may be found on the first screen of the station site, or it could be in a pull down site map, or it may jump out at you on the first page. ( NEWS) Once you are on the news page of the site, remember you must click through all the links to answer the content analysis questions. Remember, quality control will be occuring throughout the study. Other individuals will go back to check to make sure you have completed your task successfully.
Always click on every link at the news website, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF OTHER DEPARTMENTS IN THE STATION, PREVIOUSLY LISTED.. Go as far into the link as it will take you. AS LONG AS YOU HAVE A NEWS ATTACHMENT TO THE URL KEEP GOING. Ie. The link might say www.abc3340.com/news/hair BUT IF YOU CLICK ON A LINK IN THE NEWS SITE WHICH HAS A DIFFERENT ADDRESS THAN NEWS DOES, THEN YOU NEED TO DO THIS. FROM THE NEWS URL YOU CAN GO TWO LINKS OUTSIDE OF THE NEWS URL. Ie. You may go to www.abc3340.com/talent. At this link you could follow the links one more step, then go back to the news url. WARNING: When you answer questions 11 and 35, you must do this. 11. DID THE SITE GIVE YOU LINKS TO THESE EXPANDED PIECES OF INFORMATION? The url address must be something that is within the url address you first wrote down at the top of the coding sheet. Ie www.abc3340.com 35: DOES THE SITE GIVE YOU LINKS TO OTHER NEWS SITES OUTSIDE THE STATION? The url address will go outside of the station site. YOU WILL HAVE TO TEST THE LINK, BUT REMEMBER TO GO BACK TO THE NEWS LINK. IF YOU ARE IN DOUBT ABOUT A PARTICULAR QUESTION, ALWAYS READ THE OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS BEFORE YOU ANSWER. IF YOU DON’T TRUST YOUR INTERPRETATION OF THE OP DEFINITIONS, COME SEE ME FOR FURTHER TRAINING. Operational Definitions 1: News Website: Each station has a website. Within that website, the station will provide links to various departments. This study is only interested in evaluating the news link at a stations website. Most of the time the link will be in some type of pull down site map, or you may find the link on the stations main home page, identified as NEWS. 2. Still Pictures... Non moving pictures. Ie. Pictures of anchors, news subjects. They don’t move and they don’t talk. 3. Charts... 4. Video Clips...A story that has moving video and anchors or reporters can be heard. This would be equivalent to a news package aired in a newscast. 5. Audio Clips...You can hear audio only. This would be equivalent to a radio story. You hear a reporter or anchor, but you do not see pictures. 6. Newscasts.....a news program. 7. Streaming... This means you can watch or listen to news pieces in real time. You do not have to down load the file in order to use it. You will most likely need a help tool to view it. Ie. Shockwave or real player. 8. Individual news video clips... Same as video clips... but they are not included in an entire newscast. 9. Expanded information about stories.....This includes more information about a story than seen in the original story. For instance, links within the website. Here you will always have an address that still has the main sites address in it. You will see the stations address in the address window. 10. Links to expanded information.... Links that go beyond the website to different addresses. In other words, if a story is done on cooking chicken, there may be a link to the american chicken growers site. 11. Business information... Wall street ticker... nasdaq..etc 12. News programming....A listing of newscast or news magazines that are produced by this particular station. 13. Upcoming stories..... This are stories that will air on future newscast, whether its today or tomorrow or when ever. They are promoted with a brief statement or two on the news website. A person must go to the web site to see the promotion. 14. Information about news anchors.....This are biographies of the news anchors. 15. Information about news employees....Could you find information about other news employees like a producer. You may find phone numbers, e-mail, fax info. You may also find a picture and the person’s name. 16. News promotional events..... Ie. The news anchors are broadcasting from the mall to raise awareness about diabetes. 17. Advertisements.... 18. Job openings 19. Archiving.....Stations often will store previous news programs and news content. If a person wanted to get information about a story that aired yesterday or long before today, does the web site have a place where you can go to call the story up. 20. News notifier.... This is a mechanism where a station, once you are enrolled, will notify via e-mail when certain types of stories of interest to you are airing on your newscasts. Once enrolled, a person does not have to go to the web site to get information about upcoming stories. Instead, the person would receive a news notifier via their e-mail account. 21. News tips.....A possible story idea. Will the station let you send the information that could potentially be turned into a story. 22. Webmaster...The person who maintains a website. 23. Chat rooms- “Chat is interactive messaging in a synchronous form. With chat, all parties to the communication must be online at the same time.” 24. Bulletin Boards-“Bulletin boards differ from chat rooms because the “conversations” are asynchronous. Message board participants can post a message about a topic of interest and readers can post their responses at their convenience. 25. Other news sites...... Websites with differing url than the website you are using. 26. Dead links... Links that can be seen but they don’t take you anywhere. 27. Language.... English...Spanish...etc. 28. Font size... The height, width of the written word. 29. Privacy statement.... Will be explicitly stated. You should see the word.. Privacy on the site. 30. V irtual tour....This part of the web site allows you to look at the station facilities. |