Content analysis - validity Flashcards
What types of data might we never have?
That which is withheld for security reasons.
• In-house security research has the full data.
• Those of us working in academia have to live with it.
• Develop and test models based on what we have (see Lecture 5 BRM for example).
Where those present are killed.
• Both victims and offenders.
• A potential systematic bias – (e.g. does victim resistance work) – we have little or no data for those cases with the very worst outcomes.
Other biases: Eye witness and victim testimony.
• Victims and witnesses of violent and traumatic incidents have unreliable memory.
• Many academic studies.
What is Crenshaws list?
unofficial list of reputable news sources: BBC Telegraph Observer Independent Times Guardian Washington Post New York Times CNN
Types of media bias
• Occur near to base (theirs),
• Have the potential to affect their own readers,
• Are “unusual”,
• Or result in loss of life.
• “Low key” incidents and unsuccessful missions may not be covered.
• Results in public perception that (for example) hijacks don’t happen any more and that terrorism is aimed only at killing people.
• E.g. Many terrorist attacks are against property – but these are rarely reported.
• Is the media “forcing” terrorists to take more serious action?
• Media does not report unsuccessful crimes very often.
Selective reporting makes violent crime seem more prevalent than it really is.
• There is a whole literature on “Fear of Crime”.
• Those who are most fearful are not those most likely to be victims.
• Contagion or Copycat crimes.
• There are a number of crime types that are thought to be prone to so called “contagion” effects.
• There are studies that demonstrate this statistically. - E.g. Hijackings, product tampering, mass shootings. (And suicide).
• News restrictions/blackouts.
Basic issues of media sources
Choose the most reliable news sources possible – “Crenshaw’s List”
• Use more than one account for each crime studied.
• We tend to use three reputable sources and compare the content.
• “Triangulation” of sources.
• What if they don’t agree?
• Two out of three agree? If they all disagree get a fourth.
Press Contradictions on detail - reasons?
Breaking news may not yet have very many details available to report.
• Therefore contradictions between reports may be time related…
• Were the reports published at different stages of the incident meaning new information may have only just come to light?
• This is why for your exercise I said choose reports close to the time the crimes were committed.
• But in real research you will rarely be creating data on breaking news and have time to sample reports over a period of time.
• GTD allows for updates if more information becomes known. But only uploaded once a year.
Reasons for omissions in news reported data
That is one source reports information that another source does not.
• This demonstrates why more sources provide better coverage.
• Creating data this way is incredibly time consuming.
• Which is why most researchers just reach for an established data base.
• Even if it is not quite right for their research questions (more on this in later weeks).
Security reasons
WHat is triangulation of sources?
where you take three sources and go with the majority (minority report) and if all 3 contradict, then widen the number of sources used till a correlation is found (using Crenshaws list as a limiting factor)
s there such a thing as a terrorist profile?
NO
Can offender profiling be used to predicit if someone will commit a crime
No
