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I V l I I_;.'. | b I - ,3 ,. I. ,.-- '.. . 'r '_ II ,I. .-.r III I .I I .J‘ '0 D ."I' ‘0 l _-_L'-r';. -_ I v DEMOC N ‘ -. - .. I . .- '.'.' a .. . -I. . ' V I II I I I I II E, ’I'IIII II IIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIL _ 1293 009941 1596 . move this checkout from your record. PLACE IN RETURN BOX to re TO AVOID FINES r eturn on or before date due. E DATE DUE DATE DUE} MSU Is An Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Institution o:\circ\datodue.pm3-p.1 Ill'llllllffl THE 361 CCEATIV 2.313.331“: A CLEITLIJT AllALYSIS BY Roger H. Merz AN ABSTRACT Submitted to the College of Business and Public Service of Michigan State University of Agriculture and A6clied Science in partial fulfillment of the re uirem ents for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Department of iolitical Lcience and Public Administration 1956 Approved / '— 'A1 IA Ex: I (Lb/«mim’t‘o; A THESIS II 93" 5"» Roger H. Marz This research was designed as a pilot study to supply information on the problem of national political party mass communication policy in the United States. It is based on a content analysis of the Democratic Digest, a magazine pub- lished by the Democratic National Committee. The universe of analysis is the first eighteen issues, from August 1953 to January 1955. The analysis includes data on the types of articles which appeared in the magazine, the sources from which it drew its information, the individuals whom it stressed, and the political issues which it emphasized. It was found that the Democratic Digest was largely com- posed of material which originated with the magazine, thus suggesting the conclusion that it was get primarily a digest at all. There were sharp divergencies between those sources from which articles were drawn and those which were quoted in other articles. The former list was dominated by news- papers of essentially regional character, while the latter more closely resembled the national "prestige" press. On individuals and issues, Republicans and Republican stands were emphasized over Democrats and Democratic positions. This work also includes an evaluation of content analy- sis as a research technique, a criticism of the code used in the study, and a provisional statement of the theory of 11 ROger H. Marz national party mass communication policy for which the re- search was designed. For those who may be interested in specific findings, in each of the analysis chapters (chapters III, IV, V, and VI) the relevant section of the code is included in the chapter, together with a discussion of the coding technique. A complete reproduction of the code may be found in the appendix. 111 THE DEMOCRATIC DIGEST: A CONTENT ANALYSIS BY Roger H. Marz A THESIS Submitted to the College of Business and Public Service of Michigan State University of Agriculture and Applied Science in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Department of Political Science and Public Administration 1956 Approved THESIS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author wishes to express his gratitude to Doctor Joseph G. LaPalombara, who supervised this work and whose suggestions on presentation and on the alternative inter- pretations of the research results were invaluable. He is also greatly indebted to Doctor George M. Belknap, whose advice on organization and details of ex- pression was particularly helpful. They, and other members of the Department of Politi- cal Science and Public Administration, supplied the grounding in general information and research technique which made the entire study possible. Finally, to my wife, whose patient editorial efforts improved this work immeasurably, my deepest appreciation. The Press and Kass Communications European Experience . . American Experience . . The Democratic Digest . Cllapter II - TIIE LETHCD o o o o o 0 Chapter III - Chapter IV - Th3 SOURCES OF THE DIE Manifest Content . . . Th e Concept "Attitude" A Complementary Method Theoretical Problems . ITIIJ‘T .L 11...“: The ' MAGAZINE . . . . . Code . . . . . . . Talk of the Nation Original Articles . Quoted Articles . . Cartoons . . . . . . . Analysis . . . . . . . Interpretation . . . . The ( ) U H if.) I—1 '1 I COde O O 0 O O O 0 Articles . . . . . . . vi (DmrhMI—J 44 44 45 Cartoons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Publication Quote Sources . . . . . . 53 Interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Chapter V - INDIVIDUALS AND ORGANIZATIONS AND HE DEM GRATIS DIGEST . . . . . . . . . . . 58 The Code and the Coding . . . . . . . 58 Party members . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Organizations . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Columnists and "Others" . . .V. . . . 69 Speeches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 General Findings . . . . . . . . . . '73 Chapter VI - THE POLITICAL ISSUES . . . . . . . . . 79 The Purposes of the Issues Code . . . 80 The Code and the Coding . . . . . . 81 The Data - Articles . . . . . . . . . 84 The Data - Cartoons . . . . . . . . . 88 The Shortcomings of the Code . . . . 90 Explanations of the Shortcomings . . 91 Possible Variations of Approach on the Political Issues Code . . . . . 95 Chapter VII - SUQAARY, CCACLUSIONS, AND EVALUATIONS . 98 Summary of Findings . . . . . . . . . 98 Meaning for Future Rese rch . . . . . 99 I“ Alternative Methods of Study . . . . 104 vii I‘ll‘l‘l'lu lll“,ll'||"'lll‘l|’l III 1 General Impressionistic Suzmary . . 107 Personal Value of the Study . . .7. 109 AFPLJRIDH o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o 111 BIBLIOGRA.I‘I—IY o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o 115 Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table 9. IO. 11. 12. 13. 14. LIST OF TABLES The Original Articles of the Democratic Digos t by Issue of Iagazine, umoer of Articles, Total Pages, and Lean The Reproduced Articles of the Democratic Dis est by IsS‘e of azine, Number of Articles, Tote l Pa'g and Kean Length . . . ‘5»- b—Lfiéa Us, Leadin“ Reprint Sources of the Democratic 5 DigeEt by Frequency 0 o o o o o o o o o o o The Geographic Distribution of Digest Re- print Sources by Fireo uency . . . . . . . . . Cartoon Sources Leading by Frequency . . . . Leading Newspaper Quote Sources by Frequency Leading magazine Quote Sources by Fre quer .cy Crganization ;uote Sources by Type of Organization and Frequency . . . . . . . . . f1 oolumnists as Quote Source by Frequency . . "Other" Individuals as Quote Source by Cate- gory and Frequency . . . . . . . . . . . . Issues by Cate gory and Frequency for All Articles and Cartoons. . . . . . . . . . . Category, Fr Original Art Issues by quency, and Party Stand for c 188 o o o o o o o o e 1 Issues by Category and Frequency for Fe- printed Articles from Leading Reprint Sources Issues by Category, Frequency, and Party Stand for Cartoons . . . . . . . . . . . . Party Stands on Issues for Articles and Cartoons by Frequency and Percentage of All Issue References . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix 68 69 71 85 86 87 89 94 I‘lll‘ ‘l'l'll'ul‘l‘llll'lll'llll‘l‘fl’ll Figure I Figure II Figure III LIST OF FIGURES Individual Quotes by Party . . . . . . . 61 Eisenhower and Cabinet and Stevenson - Individual luote Frequency . . . . . . . 63 Quote and Individual Frequencies for Leading Non-Congressional Democrats and "Other" Republicans . . . . . . . . . 66 In the field of political science there are many alternative subjects of study. Like most of the other social sciences, it is an area of specialization which lacks a compelling, explicit organization of its subject matter. Since there is no omnicompetent theory now extent which per- mits the individual researcher to structure his investiga- tions in its light, each sebarate study must be justified by appeals to principles of relevance which might seem vague if they were used in those areas of scientific endeavor which are at a higher level of theoretical organization. Although no encompassing theory of political science exists at the present, the interests and activities of poli- tica scientists do center around a common set of problems. The investigative and speculative activities of political scientists are generally related in some way to the be av- iors and functions of formal governments. This might be alled the ultimate referent of the field, but certainly many specific investigations are conducted on topics which are not directly related to the operations of formal govern- ments. In the area of administrative behavior, for example, a political scientist might tell wish to study some private 2. bureaucracy, though his eventual aim would be to build theo- ries relating to all bureaucratic organizations. Similarly, a student interested in the general area of political beha- vior might find it fruitful to study the internal politics of a social or economic organization such as a labor union, hoping to find regularities of behavior in that smaller arena which might eventually be applied to the public at large. The research described in this thesis combines two fields which have often been of interest to political science, the areas of political party behavior and of the press. Political parties are obviously a part of the governing pro- cess in the United States as well as in most of those coun- tries of the world which maintain some pretense of democratic institutions. It seems Just as obvious that they are not an essential part of the governing process, since the inception of political parties may be placed historically at a point in time considerably later than that of formal governments, and since political parties do not exist in some countries even at the present time. ’The Press and Mass Communications The press, and mass communications generally, are of in- terest to the political scientist for a number of reasons. Except in those areas of the world where habit alone is the organizing force which keeps the society operating, the mass communication media are the channels through which many of 5. the activities of the government are made known to the peo- ple; they also serve as a mechanism by which "feedback" takes place so that the government can be apprised of the effects of its actions on the populace. Even in those countries where the press is not directly controlled by the government, it is generally assumed to have some effect on the conduct of government. In the United States, for exam- ple, some researchers have conducted studies on the assump- tion that the way in which newspapers handle information on political subjects, particularly during election campaigns, is likely to have an effect on the behavior of the voters in elections.1 This research goes to another, though related, topic, the uses which parties themselves make of the press in order to organize both their own membership and the electorate at large. Before describing exactly what this study attempted, however, it seems worthwhile to consider some of the other theories of the relationship between the political parties and the press. Unfortunately, most of these theories derive from European experience, and there seems to be an essential difference between the purposes and methods of organization of most European political parties and the major parties in 1 LeRoy c. Ferguson and Ralph H. Smuckler, Politics In The Press, East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State College Governmental Research Bureau, 1954. 4. America. This is at least a generally accepted interpreta- tion of the difference between American and European parties which may be found in any of the standard texts on political parties.2 European Experience Lenin, for example, writing from his revolutionary ex- perience, has developed his concept of the relationship of the press and political life most completely, and this con- cept is the guiding principle of the press in at least one entire nation, Soviet Russia. The entire press structure is built around his statement that, "A newspaper is not only a collective propagandist and collective agitator, but a col- lective organizer."3 When this statement is transported to America it loses much of its relevance, for both parties, and the press as well, are the creatures of the bourgeoisie and are not particularly interested in agitating, propagan- dizing, or organizing the society in the sense in which Lenin uses these terms. Rather, they are competing for poli- tical office within the existing social framework. Another leading European thinker on this question of the party press is Robert Michels. Writing about the democratic For example, D. D. McKean, Party and Pressure Politics, Cambridge: The Riverside Press, 1949. 3 Lenin, Collected Works, (1v) 1, 114, quoted in Alex Inkeles, Public Opinion in Soviet Russia, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1951, p. l36. 5. parties of the early twentieth century, Michele tried to de- monstrate that the ideology of these parties as democratic movements representing the rank and file was not and could not be an actual description of the organization of these parties. He asserted that, as a matter of fact, these par- ties were just as oligarchical as any other organized group. His thesis of the inevitability of leadership control is accepted as part of the frame of reference of this thesis, but his statements of the role of the leaders in controlling the press are felt to be of more relevance to European ex- perience than to the United States. He says, for example, "In all cases the press remains in the hands of the leaders and is never controlled by the rank and file." Also, "Speaking broadly it may be said that it is the paid leaders who decide all the political questions which have to do with the press."4 Until the Democratic Digest came upon the scene in 1953 there was no party press for the leaders of a major national political party to control. It is, of course, possible that the establishment of a party newspaper is a ~step towards the rationalization and bureaucratization of the party which might lead to the extension of Michels' generali- zations to the United States. At the present time, however, it is not felt that Michels' generalizations are likely to 4 Robert Michele, Political Parties, (Translated by E. and C. Paul), Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1949, p. 135. 6. prove to be productive sources for a description of what is felt to be an essentially new phenomenon in American politics. American Experience Lest the statement that the Democratic Digest is an essentially new phenomenon in American politics seem too broad, let us briefly examine the historical background of the American political press. Certainly there has always been an intimate connection between the press of the United States and partisan politics. It seems probable that no political party in this country has ever been completely without its partisan supporting newspapers, and, of course, the classification of newspapers into "Republican," "Demo- cratic" and "Independent" goes on now in the same way that papers were called "Democratic" or "Federalist" in the early days of the republic. When it is said that the Democratic Digest is an essentially new phenomenon, obviously this does not mean that no partisan press existed before the founding of the Democratic Digest. What is meant is, as far as can be determined, no major national political party has overtly supported a regular publication as an official party organ. That is to say, a party has never been the direct publisher of such an organ. As we trace the present political alignment back to the Civil War and the coming to power of the Republican party in 1860, we find no reference to any national political party 7. newspapers or magazines in the standard political science sources on the histor of political raarties. Turnin” to 1 55 another source we find no reference to a party press since the Civil Ear, but extensive material on the connection be- tween political parties and the press from the Federalist Period up to that date.5 If the Federalists and Anti-Feder- alists are considered political parties, certainly The Gazette of the United States and The Eational Gazette were closely associated with them, since the former was set up at the behest Of Hamilton and the latter founded with the help of Madison and Jefferson.6 Hamilton was evidently well aware of the uses of a political press, for he also helped found the New York Evening Post in lBOl.7 Another newspaper with a long and close connection with the group in power was the Fational Intelligencer, which served as printer to Congress and as the organ of the Presi- dent till Jackson's administration.8 At that time the United States Telegraph took over the government's patronage until 1830 when the Tashington Globe was founded. Both these papers were supporters of Jackson and the staff of the latter 0 Frank Luther lott, American Journalism, Few York: The nacmillan Company, 1947. 6 Ibid, pp. 122-123. 7 Ibid, p. 184. 8 Ibid, p. 178. 8. formed Jackson's famous "Kitchen Cabinet." The Globe kept this position through Van Buren's administration.9 Even in this period of close relations between certain news organs and particular political parties, however, the parties them- selves were never the overt publishers. Just prior to the Civil War, both the abolitionists and secessionists were spurred on, and in some cases led by the press, but neither of these movements could prOperly be called a political party. Historically, and even at the present time, miggg parties have directly supported news organs and magazines. Examples for the present day are such publications as The Daily,Worker, The Industrial Worker, The Socialist Call, and Fourth Inter- national, published by the Communists, I.W.W., Socialists, and Trotskyites respectively. Historical examples may be found in numerous works on minor parties in the United States.10 This may probably be explained on two grounds. First, the minor parties seem more likely to be ideologically oriented than the major ones, and second, they are less likely to have the sup- port of the existing press. 9 Ibid, p. 180. 10 Among these are Nathan Fine, Labor and Farmer Parties in the United States, New York: Rand School for Social Science, 1928; W. Parrel Overdyke, The Know-NothinggParty in the South, Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State Univer- sity Press, 1950; and William Du Bose Sheldon, Populism in the Old Dominion, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1955. The Democratic Digest It is therefore a prior assumption of this thesis, and indeed part of its justification, that as far as modern poli- tical experience is concerned the Democratic Digest is a new factor on the political scene. As such, information about its sources, makeup, and the individuals and political issues which it attends to is presumed to be of interest to the profession. For the author, the Digest was conceived as a source whose analysis might produce information which could be used to form a theory of national party mass communication policy in the United States. The technique of content analy- sis is used as a method whereby reliable data can be produced for this purpose. This content analysis is based on the first eighteen issues of the Democratic Digest, from August 1953 through January 1955. This is a pocket-sized magazine published by the national committee of the Democratic Party. This magazine was chosen for several reasons, no one of which is conceived of as being particularly dominant over the others. In spite of their order of presentation, they may therefore be considered as being of equivalent importance. First, by studying the Democratic Digest, one problem was avoided which faces any political scientist who attempts docdhtentaanalysis of a particular organ of mass-communica- tion. This is the problem of defining what sections of the "yrwfi rH r symbolic data are political and are therefore to be coded. ‘l’i.l‘llllill'! l'll'll'lll'l.‘ ' ' I II. I’ll 'l| l 10. The problem of selecting and precisely defining the universe of discourse is difficult in any sort of a study, but parti- cularly in a political content analysis. If the analyst de- sires a relatively complete summary of the political content of a particular news organ, for example, he faces a very tricky task in deciding just what sections of the publica- tion are political and what attributes he shall use to de- fine these sections prior to his analysis. One common method of solving this problem is to restrict the analysis to a par- ticular subject in the general realm of governmental decision or competition for political office. He may restrict himself to coding comments on foreign policy, or expressions of the governmental activities of a given country, or individual or set of individuals. This thesis was designed, however, to tackle the problem of describing ET; the political content of a given publication. Therefore, a magazine was chosen about which it could realistically be assumed that all the content was of interest to political science without laboring either my own credulity or that of the readers. This, how- ever, is not an assumption that the largest prOportion of articles will be directly concerned with governmental or political activities. .Actually, however, the specific uni- verse of discourse of this thesis is somewhat more limited than that. It consists of all the cartoons and pictures of the Democratic Digest, with their accompanying letterpress, 11. and of all those articles whose length was greater than one- half page. After sample coding of a random selection of issues the shorter filler articles with which the magazine is peppered were excluded since they showed no significant differences from the longer stories with regard to those attributes with which this thesis is concerned. In the reading of these articles, differences were detected between them and those longer ones which are the primary topic of the thesis, but they were not such that they would be de- tected by the code. The unit of analysis for all sectiOns of the code was the complete article, or, in the case of photographs and cartoons, the picture plus accompanying 1etterpress.* Another problem which is particularly difficult in many content analyses is that of assigning weights to evaluative statements about individuals or particular political posi- tions. Such categories as "pro" vs. "anti" or "positive" vs. "negative" are extraordinarily difficult to define precisely, and without precise definition of categories counting is not particularly useful. The skills of present day cepy writers are such that, even given precise definitions, it may be difficult to apply them to particular statements, or even to decide if the statements are evaluative in nature. This sort of activity requires more self-confidence in the matter of l2. predicting the intent of the writer and/or the responses of the audience than this researcher is willing to permit him- self. As noted in the second chapter, there are devices which permit of this sort of research. However, they usual- ly require the services of a relatively large panel of judges whose opinions are merged through some technique or other to create a consensus. This technique was not avail- able to the present researcher and affords serious, though not insurmountable, difficulties in its application to con- tent analysis of mass communications even where funds and time are unlimited. It was felt that the choice of the Democratic Digest as a subject made it possible to avoid this problem, although this decision came only after several abortive attempts to insert such a category into the code. The analysis of these attempts led to the conclusion that it was not only difficult and of dubious scientific worth, but unnecessary. The ng9- cratic Digest praised Republicans or Republican stands so rarely that an index number based on rigid counting would be of little or no practical value in the opinion of this re- searcher. The assumption was therefore made that any mention of a man as a Republican, or of a program as a Republican position would be negatively slanted. To verify this assump- tion, in the preliminary coding period three random issues were selected and checked. In these three issues no indivi- dual was praised as a Republican, and no Republican program 13. was approved. There were two cases where individual Republi- cans were praised but it was only where they were specifi- cally mentioned as Opposing Republican policy. To Republican program was ever evaluated positively. The choice of the Democratic Digest, therefore, made it possible to avoid this difficult, perhaps insoluble, problem in code design. Another reason for the choice of the Democratic Digest was that it was a new magazine, in two senses. As was said before, the universe of discourse of this study was the first eighteen issues of the magazine. This gives the writer an unusual chance to comment on the characteristics of a mass- communication organ with no previous history or tradition. The fact that the magazine never appeared before the period of this study also removes another problem: this study can restrict its scope to describing the magazine during the per- reared ~4 L iod of issue alone. If the Democratic Digest had ,0) ’(j before it would be necessary to describe e rlier i -ues and {D m (n justify both ends of the period of study. As it stands, it need only be explained why the period of study was restricted to eighteen months. This period was, of course, arbitrary to some extent. H waver, this thesis was conceived at a time q—u “. when the Democratic D ges_ had been published for more than one, and less than two years, and eighteen months seemed to be as good a place to stop as any. It had the advantage of including a congressional and senatorial election, which a one-year study would not have done. 14. The Democratic Digest is a new magazine in still another sense. As far as can be determined through library research this is the first time a major American political party has published a mass-circulation magazine. Neither of the pre- sent political parties has ever been completely without a partisan press in the form of supporting newspapers and maga- zines, but there has never before been the Opportunity to study news and political writing as produced directly by the national committee of a major party without the color effect of an independent news dispensing organization. This reason for studying the Democratic Digest shades into the last one, which is a great deal harder to describe precisely. The last reason for studying the Democratic Digest can only be summed up in terms of a vague imperative. I felt someone should study the Democratic Digest. It seemed that reliable data about the early issues of a new political maga- zine would be of great use to the discipline if it were avail- able in general, easily understood form. It seemed that a topic which could be treated within the scope of a master's thesis and still produce information of interest to those in- dividuals interested in politics, both inside the discipline and in the society at large, is one that should not be ignored. I believe the content of the Democratic Digest is such a topic. Furthermore, it provides an excellent spring-board for general comments on the technique of content analysis, a subject of considerable interest to the profession and to the 15. author. This discussion of the method is contained in the next chapter, and with it are some theoretical discussions of possible alternative approaches and a description of the remaining chapters where the results of the analysis are presented. 16. Chapter II THE METHOD Content analysis, when considered as a research techni- que, has probably as many definitions as there are people using the term. The problem of definition will first be approached by examining in a general way the more inclusive meanings in the term and then refining my definition into a specific usable concept. In the broadest sense, content analysis occurs whenever anyone surveys symbolic data with the idea of discerning and organizing meanings in the mater- ial surveyed. In this sense, any sort of reading for in- formation, rather than entertainment, is a form of content analysis. Art criticism is generally a form of content analysis. Music may have its content (sound clusters of varying pitch and rhythmic pattern) noted and analyzed. Wherever symbolic material exists and an attempt is made to categorize or explain it, there is a form of content analy- sis. In its use in the language of social science the term "content analysis" is generally much more narrowly defined. It seems to imply quantification, tabular presentation, and some form of statistical analysis of the quantitatively ex- pressed data. Bernard Berelson develops a typical brief 1?. definition of content analysis as it is generally thought of in social science in his book on the technique. He defines it as, "... a research technique for the objective, system- atic and quantitative description of the manifest content of communication."1 In my opinion these characteristics are all aspects of the major differentiating criterféjby which studies of symbolic material may be classified. This cri- terigpis gpecificity. Let me explain what is meant by this. In a content analysis (using the term in its narrower sense) only certain attributes of the symbolic data are studied. These may range from the frequency of various words, average word length, the quoted sources used in verbal data, to more abstract concepts such as themes of persuasion and attitudes toward various individuals or countries. No matter what the nature of the attributes studied, they must be precisely defined and the method by which they are con- sidered, collated, or counted must be described accurately enough so that the reader or another researcher can duplicate the results of the analysis if he is inclined. The precision of definition which is demanded by the technique and the care with which these definitions must be applied make this a particularly time consuming form of re- search. When one compares the written descriptions of 1 Bernard Berelson, Content Analysis in Communication Research, Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1952, p. 18. 18. content analyses with the man-hours of work involved in col- lecting and interpreting the data, it is reminiscent of the mountain laboring to bring forth a mouse. It is a very special form of mouse, however, and the users of the techni- que generally find it worth their labor, for the results of the labor of a properly conducted content analysis are £21;- ngg, This means that the specificity with which the tech- nique has been described and the findings expressed pay off by making the studies reproducible. Any researcher who accepts the definitions of a content analysis code should be able to go over the same symbolic material and arrive at the same, or nearly the same, distribution, frequency, or state pertaining to the given attributes as did the original re- searcher. This idea of reliability or reproducibility may seem minor, but it is the heart of the descriptive phase of science. The precision and specificity required of a content anal- ysis make the data particularly susceptible to numerical pre- sentation and quantitative forms of analysis. Statistical interpretation is probably the most common form of quantita- tive description used in content analyses at the present time, but other forms of mathematical treatment are at least theo- retically possible. Statistics and mathematics generally are only methods of expressing information. They are languages in the same sense that German and English are languages. 19. The advantage of using mathematics instead of some verbal language is that a mathematical presentation is less likely tO be ambiguous. It is difficult to disguise fallacious reasoning when the reasoning is in mathematical form. Un- fortunately, this characteristic of mathematics is often abused, wittingly or unwittingly, by social science research- ers. If the original formulations of the study have been imprecise, if the attributes have been haphazardly defined, or if the techniques of coding are not carefully described, then no amount Of mathematical translation will give the study the precision and reliability which the first, verbal formulations lacked. Therefore it is maintained that speci- ficity rather than quantification is the basic attribute Of a content analysis. The concepts of manifest content and Objectivity as presented by Berelson will be discussed fur- ther on. Manifest Content Let us now turn to the problem Of "manifest content." Berelson states the argument that no such thing as manifest content exists, except in the sense Of black-marks-on-white. Emiefly, this argument says that whenever meanings are atudr buted to these marks, the individual's predispositions affect the meanings as set down by the writer so that no one can ascertain with precision just what any individual will ex- tract as meaning from a given piece Of symbolism, nor can he 20. determine what meanings the writer may have had in mind. Berelson escapes from this criticism by assuming a continuum Of communicative materials based on the degree of "latency," that is to say, the degree to which different members of the audience perceive radically different meanings. He re- stricts content analysis to that area where latency is small- est. The sphere where the researcher can feel sure that the task Of perceiving the writer's meanings is relatively simphe and the audience will largely agree with the researcher as to what the meanings are.2 This discussion of manifest ver- sus latent content seems to be no more than another way of approaching the problem of Objectivity. Berelson's comments notwithstanding, the researcher is still tempted to expand the technique into areas of "laten- cy." For example, the use Of content analysis to detect political attitudes on the part of the communicator would infringe the area Of "latency." In this sort Of analysis the categories Of examination might be framed in terms Of themes and subthemes Of argument on the part Of the symbol originator. These are counted and the researcher infers the intent of the communicator. Besides infringement on "latent areas" it seems that research cast along these lines reintro- duces an element of subjectivity that the technique itself 2 Ibid, p. 19. 21. is designed to eliminate. Of course, Mannheim's discussions Of the sociology Of knowledge force us to recognize the essentially subjective character Of all scientific research.3 Still, there are what might be called legitimate and ille- gitimate ways in which to express the subjectivity Of your categories, according to the current mores of social scienaa. The content analyst is obliged to admit that any choice Of categories is to some extent arbitrary, individualistic, and subjective. .On the other hand, categories such as length of unit, position, individuals mentioned, and sources quoted seem to be far more "manifest," in the Berelson sense, than such things as subject matter themes. This becomes parti- cularly apparent when we consider the difficulty which a thematic analyst has in defining precisely what he is lookhm; for. When the themes are designed to permit the analyst to comment on the intentions Of the symbol-originator, we have an additional introduction Of subjective decisions.4 3 Karl Mannheim, Ideology and Utopia, (translated by Louis Wirth and Edward shils), New York: Harcourt Brace and Company, 1936. 4 This problem has been with the social sciences for quite some time. L. L. Thurstone, in his early writings on scale construction, demonstrates this concern quite well. Starting with the definition of an attitude as ". . . the sum total Of a man's inclinations and feelings, prejudice or bias, preconceived notions, fears, threats, and convictions about any specified topic . . . admittedly a subjective and personal affair." He goes on to assert that attitudes can be measured by the acceptance or rejections Of a list of Opinions, which are defined as "a verbal expression of -- (Continued ) 22. The Concept "Attitude" Even granting that content analyses may be used to de- tect political attitudes in a valid way, we may question the theoretical efficiency of such an approach. If we accept the general definition Of an attitude as a predisposition to action,5 we have still done nothing but insert an interven- ing variable between symbol producing behavior and other sorts Of activity. I conceive the end of political science to be the theoretical ordering Of one class of social beha- vior. For example, a political scientist might decide to study a legislature, having previously justified to himself that this situation is likely to display social behavior of the class which he wishes tO Observe. He Observes the legis- lators or other members Of the study situation in certain routines and tries to construct a set Of categories, concepts, or abstractions (the words are interchangeable as used here), which will classify the behavior he has Observed and permit him to suggest relations between the categories. The 4 (Continued from previous page) attitude." TO over- come the problems of rating subjective judgments, Thurstone proposes reliance on the classification Of statements by a large panel of judges, with proper statistical controls to eliminate ambiguous and irrelevant statements. "Attitudes Can Be Measured," American Journal Of Sociology, Volume 53, NO. 4, 1928, p. 531. 5 LOgan Wilson and Zilliam L. Kolb, Sociological Analy- sis, New York: Harcourt brace and Company, 1949, p. 155. categories Of explanation and the relations between them must then be tested by applying them to some similar situa- tion as a test of their workability in more general cases. It must be noted that the behavior which is Observed might be words in magazines or, in the case of a legislature, voting records. In the sense in which the term is used in this thesis, these are just as much "behaviors" as face to face conversations, fighting, or pulling down a lever in a voting machine. Given this end, the concept "attitude" does little to simplify our task. Attitudes are generally detected by some form Of verbal activity either in answer to a questionnaire or by study of freely produced symbolic material. This symbol producing activity is just as much a form Of social behavior as any other sort Of activity.) There is always some form Of theo- retic division Of social activities in the ordering of social behavior, but the separation Of symbol-producing activity from other sorts Of behavior is generally made by the assump- tion that the symbol-production is less "real." The re- searcher who adopts the concept of "attitude" uses this con- cept to link verbal behavior to other sorts Of social action. The social researcher in the field of content analysis would be better advised to accept his symbolic data as a form Of social behavior in and of itself. His theoretical task wouki then be to relate the symbolic material with the other 24. social activity Of the symbol producer, and with the behavior of the respondents or audience. What do we have when we reject the attitude concept and consider symbol-production and response as forms Of human behavior fully as active as walking? The symbols may be sub- jected to content analysis. The other sorts Of activity may be described and classified by other techniques. When the human activities are linked by workable explanatory concepts we are on our way to a science. The important point here is that time spent talking about attitudes is time which cannot be spent in describing social behavior, nor does it lead us toward a successful integrated science, for the gulf between symbol-production and social action is still there, even though it is bridged.6 There are, however, even stronger theoretical arguments to be mustered against the use Of the attitude concept. The metapsychology of thought and the ponderings of 6The Thurstone article is also relevant here for in an apparent effort tO ward Off criticism of the attitudinal approach from this direction, he specifically rejects the idea that any necessary connection between the results Of a Thurstone scale test of attitude and overt behavior exists. As he points out, the respondent might lie. Removing this reason for studying attitudes leaves one, however, in a rather delicate position when asked why he studies attitudes. It is presumed that there must eventually be some connection made between behavior in the test situation and behavior in other situations. If this is so, the question for political science and the other social sciences is, "Does the concept 'attitude' help or hinder making the connection?" This thesis takes the position that it, at least, does not help. Thurstone, pp; cit., p. 523. 25. epistemological argument are not areas where questions can be finally or precisely answered. Many authorities in this field now lean towards the position that thought cannot take place except as symbolic manipulation.'7 If we accept this view, we are forced to admit that even the most active, "con- crete" forms of behavior must be translated into symbolic form before they can be manipulated in our search for scien- tific classification. This being the case, there seems to be little defense for the idea of separating symbolically linked data from other sorts of human activity, since the other sorts must be symbolically linked before they can be manipulated. This first section of the chapter is summed up in this definition of content analysis which will hereafter be used in the thesis. A technique wherein specifically de- fined attributes of symbolic material are collated in care- fully described manner. A Complementary Method The first section of this chapter has been spent in re- fining the broad meaning of content analysis mentioned in the opening sentences into a precise definition for use in the sections of this thesis which deal with precise description and analysis. I believe this definition meets with and 7 Suzanne K. Langer, Philosophy in a New Key, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1942; Edward Sapir, Lan ua e, New York: Harcourt Brace and Company, 1921. 26. reflects the standards of social science. There is another set of standards, however, by which studies of symbolic material can be judged. This general approach is often la- beled with the German word Verstehen, meaning"to understand." In general the users of this approach feel that the subject matter of social science is too complex to be explained using precise, verifiable techniques which have been borrow- ed from the physical sciences. The student of a problem often feels that an irreparable loss occurs when he is forced to shoehorn his findings into the restrictions of scientific discourse. Judgments are made, but the researcher cannot prove them to the satisfaction of one who demands rigid categories and 10gical derivations. It seems apparent that the conclusions of a conscientious observer who has satur- ated himself in the topic he studies have value for those in- terested in that topic. It also seems apparent that this value is of a different sort than the specific factual find- ings which the scientifically inclined student prizes, and which he hopes to integrate into a logical, exhaustive theory of explanation. It is unfortunate that rabid adherents to one system or the other for the description and discussion of social events deny the utility of what they view as an Opposing technique. It is my position that, given the present primi- tive state of social science, the two systems are not 27. opposites, but complements. Specific descriptions and logi- cal constructions in the scientific vein have an additive character and a reliability which the more intuitive studies lack. But, educated judgments or intuitions are often the only information or the best information available in areas that even the most "scientifically" inclined scholar would admit are important. It may be summed up in the language of the addicted gambler, "Even if it's crooked, it's the only game in town." The judgments of a careful observer might not be crooked but we cannot be sure. In a short article published in the Public Opinion Quar- terl ,8 Siegfried Kracauer has raised this problem directly. His pesition is stated at the beginning of the article, where he presents three propositions on the role of qualita- tive statements in communication research. "1. One sided reliance on quantitative content analysis may lead to a neglect of qualitative ex- plorations, thus reducing the accuracy of analysis.’ 2. The assumptions underlying quantitative analy- sis tsnd to preclude a Judicious appraisal of the important role which qualitative considerations may play in communications research. Hence the need for theoretical re-orientation. 3. The potentialities of communications research ‘ can be developed only if, as the result of such a reorientation, the emphasis is shifted from quan- titative to qualitative procedures."9 8 Siegfried Kracauer, "The Challenge of Quantitative Con- tent Analysis", Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 16, No. 4, Winter 1952-55, pp. 631-641. 9 Ibid, p. 631. 28. The implicit assumptions upon which Kracauer bases these suggestions seem to be: (1) Accuracy is to be measured only in terms of the total meanings of the subject matter. If this is accepted his criticism stands. No quantitative anal- ysis can possibly explore all the possible intended meanings of a piece of communication; it can only devote its attention to those characteristics which are countable. In his dis- cussion of these propositions Kracauer does not exclude the countable characteristics of communication from the subject matter of qualitative analysis, therefore the range of.pos- sibilities for research is increased. (2) There is little utility in quantitative analyses which do not approach the problem of attaching "qualities" to the data at some point in the analysis. Kracauer seems to be primarily concerned with correcting the rabid "counters" of content analysis, who would apparently restrict the field of communication reseamfll to countable characteristics. The controversy which exists in this field has forced adherents of one approach or the other into such extreme positions, but it is questionable whether such individuals will be swayed by Kracauer's re- proving comments. I would suggest that an article preposing the ways in which qualitative standards could be best intro- duced into content analyses would be more valuable in terms of changing the behavior of content analysts than a contin- uation of argument and controversy. 29. In this thesis I will attempt to use both techniques in order to get maximum exploitation of the data at hand. In the preceding paragraph it was asserted that the two techni- ques, science and Verstehen, were complements. This term is used in the geometric sense. That is to say, the two compon- ents fit each other to form a larger figure, but do not over- lap. Since this thesis will contain both speculative comments on the Democratic Digest and precise description and analysis of its contents, the organization of the chapters will re- flect the separate but complementary character of the tech- niques. The sections of each chapter which present and analyze the specific results of the coding may be verified by any reader and stand subject to the standards of science. The speculative sections gain whatever credence the reader may place in them solely from his acceptance of the writer as a competent commentator on political subjects. Theoretical Problems This thesis has been described as an attempt to combine the precise standards of scientific study with the immediate interpretative value of a reasonably capable commentator. The thesis will fall short of the standards of science in one respect, however. It does not set out to prove any pre- conceived hypotheses. This study could have been couched in such a form, as it is not a particularly difficult task. However, the testing of hypotheses is an essential part of 30. the scientific method only when they are drawn from a logi- cally consistent theory with the intention of testing the theory's utility as a method of organization and description. A common criticism leveled at social science studies by those not in sympathy with the technique is that the hypotheses which the studies are designed to test are either banal, unimportant, or obvious. Even the political scien- tist most deeply committed to this type of research must often find it necessary to agree with these criticisms. It is my contention that the seeming trivial nature of studies of this type often results from the form in which these studies are stated. The important things about them are not that certain unconnected hypotheses are tested, but that precise data on a matter of interest to the discipline has been provided. Of course, these data must be integrated into a theory, at some time in the future, and the testing of such a theory will involve the construction and testing of hypotheses. However, very few of the studies which are done today have their hypotheses drawn from theories. To set up a study in hypothetical form when it is really an in- vestigation of some lines of interest intuitively conceived as important is to claim for them a virtue, according to the mores of science, which they lack. If there were a consistent theory relating propaganda to the other political behavior of the originator, this 31. study of the Democratic Digest would be framed in terms of such a theory. I should construct hypotheses from it and attempt to test them. It is my conviction, however, that no such theory, that is one which fits the Merton definition of J "middle-range" theory, exists. Perhap' the best known, and U certainly the most ambitious content analyses in the area of political science are those sponsored by the Hoover Insti- tute's RADIR project. The theoretical framework of these studies is described in The Comparative Study of symbols by Harold D. Lasswell, Daniel Lerner, and Ithiel de Sela Pool}O This book seems to indicate that researchers infer from the repetition of symbols and from their stylistic nature what the attitudes of the sources of communication are in the ealm of politics. Among the things which the writers feel can be gleaned from the study of symbols and style are in- formation on the course of democratization in a given coun- try, level of crisis, and civic cohesion.11 There are seve- ral important reasons why this theory of the relation of political behavior to propaganda was not used in this thesis: (1) The frame of reference generally emphasizes international politics and relations between states. It is my position 0 Harold D. Lasswell, Daniel Lerner, and Ithiel de Sola Pool, The Comparative Study of Symbols, Stanford, Calif- ornia: Stanford University Press, 1952. that the problems involved in explaining social behavior within our own culture are complicated enough without intro- ducing the problem of cross—cultural variations. In the work discussed above, the problem of cross-cultural variation is not mentioned but I think it is there none the less. (2) The broad theoretical framework in which the theory is set seems to be largely based on the as captions of Freudian or |—-" NJ Mao-Freudian psychology. These assumptions are used, of course, in many fields of social science. Still, there seems to be no field where more dangers exist for those who adopt these principles the an in the genera 1 area of inter- I national relations. aside those criticisms of psychology itself as a basis for social exp anation, generally the problems of cross-cultural explanation are not sufficiently recognized in most Freudian or Nee-Freudian systems of explanations. (3) The study adepts an attitudinal frame of reference and separates symbols and deeds into different categories.13 This has already been discussed. I have spent a good deal of time explaining what I was not going to do in this thesis. This so ems the proper place to make some further comments about what is attempted and why. The third chapter uses data from the analysis to des- cribe the physical nature of the magazine. Article~1engths, 12 Ibid, pp. 20-21. 13 Ibid, p. we 33. types of articles generally used, and the layout of the maga- zine are presented and discussed here. Chapter IV is based on that section of the code which treats publication sources. Here information is presented on the newspapers and magazines from which the Democratic Digest reprints or condenses arti- cles and cartoons and those publications which are quoted in the articles originated by the magazine. Chapter V is based on the individual-quote section of the code. Here is the in- formation which the study produced as to the individuals whom the Digest saw fit to quote. Chapter VI presents and dis- cusses the_data produced by the political-issues code. Specific discussions of the code will be reserved for the chapters in which the data appear, since I felt that this would be handler for those individuals who wanted to refer to this thesis for information on an important and novel influ- ence on American politics. In general, however, the attri- butes of the data which are studied in detail were chosen for three reasons: (1) They seemed important; (2) They are the sorts of things which can be studied in any kind of political symbolic material; and, (3) They seemed sufficiently "mani- fest," in the Berelson sense, to be fit subjects for a con- tent analysis. Given the present development of social science, I think this is sufficient justification for this project. Chapter III THE MAGAZINE In this chapter we shall discuss the results of that section of the analysis devoted to physical description of the magazine and of the types of articles which it con- tained. This part of the research revealed some interesting information as to the digest character of the magazine, and the relative lengths of original and reprinted articles. The Code The Democratic Digest is a pocket-sized newsmagazine, five inches wide by seven-and-one-quarter inches high. For the period coded the Democratic Digest was always 112 pages long. In general the magazine is made up of both reprinted material and articles which apparently originated with the Digest; at least they are not attributed to any other source. This chapter will present the findings produced by the first section of the code used in this project. This section is the article-type code. It is‘reproduced and explained below. Article-Type Code 1. Talk of the Nation 2. Articles not attributed to a prior source a. signed 35. b. unsigned 3. Articles attributed to a prior source a. speech b. reprint of previously published article 4. Cartoons and pictures The Talk of the Nation In every issue of the Democratic Digest falling within the period of this study the first six or seven pages are given over to a standard department of the magazine, an arti- cle titled "Talk of the Nation," This article seems to be based in style and subject matter on The New Yorker magazines department "Talk of the Town." It is composed of brief anec- dotes and comments concerning recent political events. These events are often of minor importance. In any event this article treats them in a humorous manner. The "Talk of the Nation" does not often distinguish between political events on the basis of their importance to the country. The empha- sis in this feature is always on those aspects of governmen- tal and political party behavior which can be joked about or, in the case of the GOP, ridiculed. The position of this article in the magazine never varied and the article was al- ways present. The Original Articles All of the issues of the Democratic Digest contain arti- cles which are not attributed to a prior source. At the time 36. of coding these articles were divided into two sub-classes, signed and unsigned. The first sub-class contained so few members (nine out of a universe of 202) that the sub-classes were collapsed and the distinction was not carried through to the analysis. The ;uoted Articles The other major category by which the letterpress of the Democratic Digest was divided were those articles which were either condensed or reprinted in full from a prior source. During the coding these articles were divided into reprints of speeches and reprints of previously published articles. In this chapter this difference will not be ex- ploited for purposes of analysis, but data will be presented on the issues which the reprinted speeches involved, and the people whose speeches were chosen for reprinting.i In both major classifications of articles the length of the article was coded to the nearest half-page. Cartoons Category four of the article—type code contains the car- toons and pictures which appear in the Democratic Digest. These were coded according to the following definition. When- ever a drawing, picture, or cartoon had a caption or letter- press separate from the body of the article, no matter what the size of the cut, it was coded in category four, even 37. though it may have been intended as an illustration for the article. These categories do not exhaust the content of the mega- zine. There are the filler articles, which were noted ear— lier in this chapter, but were not part of the universe for coding purposes. An occasional issue of the magazine con- tained a letters column type of article. These letters were not always addressed to the Democratic Digest, they were often reprints from other papers. As it happens, the issues selected (by random choice) for the code construction did not contain this type of article, so it does not appear in the article-type code. The following section proceeds to the presentation of the material gleaned by the article-type code. Analysis There were 537 articles in the eighteen issues of the Democratic Digest which compose our universe of discourse. This gives an average of 29.8 articles per issue. The issues contained from twenty-three to thirty-five articles. There was a total of two-hundred articles of Type Two in the coded numbers of the Digest. This yields an arith~ metic mean of 11.1 articles of this type per issue. As one can see, the total number of articles per issue 38. ranges from eight to fifteen. The average length is never more than 4.7 nor less than 3.1 pages. Table l The Original Articles of the Democratic Digest by Issue of Magazine, Number of Articles, Total Pages, and Mean Length. firm W m Volume Number Number of Total Pages Mean Length Articles per Issue . I 1 12 56.5 4.7 I 2 9 38.0 4.2 I 3 10 45.5 4.6 I 4 10 38.5 3.9 I 5 13 40.5 3.1 I 6 13 42.5 3.3 I 7 10 35.0 3.5 I 8 13 49.5 3.8 I 9 13 51.0 3.9 I 10 12 43.5 3.6 I 11 15 46.0 3.1 I 12 9 37.5 4.2 II 1 9 39.0 4.3 II 2 10 38.0 3.8 II 3 11 41.0 3.7 II 4 15 51.0 3.4 II 5 8 36.0 4.5 II 6 8 31.5 3.9 Total 200 760- 3.8 Grand AV? 0 There was a total of 337 articles of Type Three, giving an arithmetic mean of 18.7 articles per issue. The range of articles per issue was from 14 to 23. The examination of these tables makes some of the differ- ences between the two article-types apparent. Obviously, one Table 2 The Reproduced Articles of the Democratic D1 Issue of Magazine, humber of Articles, Total Pa ‘9 EDS and Mean Length Volume Number Number of Total Length Mean Length Articles I l 14 20.5 1.5 I 2 19 36.5 1.9 I 3 21 32.0 1.5 I 4 19 30.5 1.6 I 5 23 39.5 1.7 I 6 17 32.0 1.9 I 7 23 39.5 1.7 I 8 21 34.5 1.6 I 9 16 27.5 1.7 I 10 22 38.5 1.8 I ll 16 31.0 1.9 I 12 16 33.5 2.1 II 1 16 37.0 1.8 II 2 21 37.5 1.8 II 3 15 37.0 2.5 II 4 18 24.0 1.3 II 5 23 43.0 1.9 II 6 17 34.0 2.0 Total 337 608 1.8 Grand difference is the lengths of the two types of articles. the first eighteen issues of the Democratic Digest, 760 pages were devoted to articles of Type Two, (1.6., those originating with the magazine) while reprints of speeches and articles took up only 608 pages. The mean length for- the entire sample was 3.8 pages for articles of Type Two, and 1.8 pages for tnose of Type Three. What is even more teresting is the difference between the modal lengths for In in- 40. the two types of articles. Original, Type Two, articles had a modal length of five pages for the first eighteen issues which composed the universe, while reprinted, Type Three, articles had a model of but one page. All article lengths were coded to the nearest half-page. In addition to the difference in length between the two article types, there is a distinct difference in their posi- tion in the magazine. The first article of each issue is always the "Talk of the Nation." Of the articles immediate- ly following, the second is always an article of Type Two, the third was of Type Two in thirteen of the eighteen issues and the fourth in nine. It can be assumed that these posi- tions are those of emphasis and high attention. The fact that they are predominately devoted to articles which origin- ate with the magazine, when coupled with the higher average and total lengths of articles of Type Two leads one to ques- tion whether or not the Democratic Digest can really be con- sidered primarily a "digest" type magazine. Although 61.5% of the articles are reprints, 337 out of 537, 56% of the letterpress pages or 760 out of 1368 are devoted to original articles. There is the possibility that the Democratic Party chose the form of the magazine to convince the readers that a significant proportion of this country's press favored the Democratic Party. It seems obvious that the purpose of the 41. magazine was to ive the larty's National Committee a plat- (V1 form from which to announce its views on political affairs. Berhaps the digest form was chosen to create the impression .ational Committee »-) that the central values of the Democratic ‘3' ‘d 'ere sher red 0 other elements of the nation's wress. It is y :4 likely that a magazine called the Democratic Digest would have a better chance on the newsstands than an C gan which contained no articles except those written by the employees of the Democratic national 30.nittee. ihe eirhteen issues of the 33 mos retic ;i set cc ntaiied a total of 418 cartoons giving a mean of 23.2 cartoons per issue. A complete scurce analysis of the cartoor s is pro- vided in the next chapter, but it is interesting to note here that only 37 of the 418, less than ten eercert, originated - with the Lerccratic Digest. moreover, 15 of these 37 appear- ed in two numbers and were panels of comic strips, eacn panel coded as a separate cartoon. In six of the eighteen issues, however, original cartoons per a in the first or second posi- tion. Interpretation Let us now examine s0£Le explanations for the distribu- tion of article-types which our analysis has exposed. Cne strong possio ility is tist there is simply not enough favor- (D ((1 ably slanted Democratic material in tie Emerisan pr s to be & T1 reproduced or condensed. :is explanation is also EU ported 42. by material on the sources of the Democratic Digest which will be discussed in the next chapter. Another possibility is that the Democratic Digest's editorial policy is concerned with aspects and approaches to various political subjects which are not those of interest to the press at large, even that segment which is favorable to the Democratic Party. The analysis of the political issues of the Democratic Digest which is carried on in Chapter VI neither confirms nor denies this eXplanation. To do so would require simultaneous study of the Digest and other Democratic news sources. Generally speaking the study of the article types of the Democratic Digest suggests certain things which are not reducible to tabular presentation or specific analysis. The "Talk of the Nation" is a standard feature of the magazine. 'It displays a tongue-in-cheek approach to the political world which is not characteristic of the rest of the articles in the magazine. One might compare it to a verbal cartoon. It might be said that this feature is committed to the idea that people who laugh at the Republicans are unlikely to vote for them. The general line of attack of this article is to stress the pompous, officious, and stupid character of Repub- lican officialdom.~ This technique of persuasion by ridicule is concentrated in the "Talk of the Nationfi,and in some ex- tent in the "filler" articles, which were not subjected to rigid coding. In fact, the filler articles have more in 43. common with the "Talk of the Nation" than with the rest of the magazine. One important subvariant on the article type code is the "battle of quotes" article. This article was coded as a Type Two-b, that is, not attributed to a prior source, un- signed. It consists entirely of matched quotes emphasizing contradictions in the Republican party line, or its similar- ity to the Republican party of Hoover days. The subjects of these articles are always Republicans. The commonest title is "Pledges and Hedges" used five times out of the 11 occur- rences of this type of article. No issue of the magazine contained more than one such article. The general impression one gets of the article types of the Digest is in accord with the findings of the rigid analy- sis. The original articles impress the reader as being de: finitely longer and in the important positions. In addition to this they are more often illustrated and have bigger, more elaborate title treatment. Chapter IV THE SOURCES OF THE DEMOCRATIC DIGDST One of the most important factors to be considered in the analysis of a digest-type magazine is that of the sources from which the magazine procures its data. Although the third chapter has shown that the major share of the magazine is devoted to articles which apparently originated with the Democratic Digest's own editorial staff, we must consider those sources from which articles are directly condensed and reprinted in order to achieve a satisfactory description of a magazine of this type. The Code In addition to this category of analysis, however, the research design for this project includes those sources which are quoted within the articles, both reprinted and original. This distinction is more clearly made in that section of the code reproduced below: "1. For those articles attributed to a prior source, (category 3 of the article-type code) the sources will be noted. "2. Within an article,mention is often made of the sources from which the article was drawn, both by direct and indirect methods of quotation. These sources will be noted and coded separately from of category 1, above." From now on category 1 will be referred to as the article source category and category 2 as the Quote source. Coding procedures for the article source category were sim- ple and straightforward. The ascribed source of each con- densed or reprinted article, speech, and cartoon was simply written down next to the code number of the article. Coding the quote sources was a more arduous job, but the mechanics were equally simple. The articles were scanned, and each time an individual or news organ was quoted, either direct- ly or indirectly, the source was noted and its frequency of use within the article coded. Articles Let us first consider the article source category. As was previously mentioned, there were 337 articles which were attributed to a prior source, of which 299 were reprints or condensations of articles from formal publications and 38 from speeches. Considering for the moment only those arti- cles from formal news organs, 1.e. newspapers and magazines, Q" 'i D we find that 106 sources were represented. ,nen we examine these 1C6 sources we find that the most frequently used nineteen account for 157 of the reprinted articles or 52.5% of the articles of Type Three-b. Of these nineteen sources, all but two are newspapers. The most frequently used sour- ces and their respective frequencies are presented in the table below in the order of their use. 46. Table 3 Leading Reprin Sources of the Democratic Digest By Frequency - Source Frequency Dayton Daily News 19 St. Louis Post-Dispatch 12 New York Times 11 Milwaukee Journal 10 New York Herald Tribune Christian Science Monitor Reporter Baltimore Sun Washington Daily News Kansas City Star Newark Evening News Arkansas Gazette Charlotte News ,washington Star Washington Post and Times Herald Atlanta Constitution Berkshire Eagle Greensboro Daily News Overset OWUWQQQQQCDQCDOJQOQO Total 157 It is interesting to note that the paper from which articles are most frequently reproduced, the Dayton Daily News, is not one which would be generally considered one of national influence. It is interesting also to examine the circulation figures of the most frequently used sources. Only one, the New York Times and Times Magazine, has a circulation of over 500,000. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Milwaukee Journal, New York Herald Tribune, Kansas City Star, and Washington Post and Times Herald have circulations over 300,000. In the 47. circulation range from 200,000 to 300,000 we find the Balti- more Sun, Newark Evening News, and Nashington Star. The Dayton Daily News, Christian Science Monitor, Washington Daily News, and Atlanta Constitution have circulations in the 100,000 to 200,000 range. Under 100,000 in circulation are the Charlotte News, Arkansas Gazette, Greensboro Daily News, and Reporter magazine. No circulation figures were avail- able in Ayer's Directory1 for the Berkshire Eagle and Overset. Table 4 The Geographic Distribution of Digest Reprint Sources by Frequency Area South Midwest Northeast Washington Far West Sources 22 21 18 4 8 Articles 61 74 60 23 10 Sources in top 19 5 4 5 3 - Articles in top 19 32 59 41 22 - The geographic areas were defined in the same way as those of The Voter Decides.2 To this classification, how- ever, Washington, D. C. was added as a special area. The 1N. W. Ayers and Sons, Directory of Newspapers and Periodicals, Philadelphia: N. w. Ayers and Sons, 1955. 2 Angus Campbell, Gerald Guren and Warren Miller, The- Voter Decides, Evanston, Illinois: Row, Peterson and Com- pany, 1955. 48. cosmOpolitan makeup of the pOpulation of this city makes it difficult to classify it as either Southern or Iortheastern in character. In addition to this, the city is of peculiar political importance and this is reflected in the character of its press and the number of articles chosen from its press for reproduction in the Digest. There are some further observations to be made about 3'4) the article sources 0 the Democratic Digest. Cne rather striking fact which arises from the data we have is the pre- dominance of daily newspapers as the sources of the Demo- U1 cratic Digest. tf the nineteen most heavily use; source ) seventeen were newspape s, one was a magazine, and one :as unidentifiable from the sources at hand. Considering the universe of sources, rather than the tOp nineteen, the mass circulation magazines were lightly represented. Four arti- cles were taken from Time, and one each from Collier's, m squire, Newsweek, and Fortune. I can think of three explan— ations of this phenomena, and it seems to me likely the all were operating. The mass circulation magazines are gener- ally more conserVative in their outlook than the Derocretic Digest, indeed some political observers will assert tist they show a pro-Republican bias. This being the case there may not be much in them that the T‘emocratic Digest wishes to re- print. It is also likely that the scale of reprint rates from the top-circulation magazines is ant to be higher than L 49. that of daily newspapers or of the "political magazines." In addition to this much of the material in mass-circula- tion magazines is not concerned with political problems, though this explanation does not apply to the weekly news magazines. When we consider those "political magazines" which are generally considered to be the spokesmen of "liberalism" in the United States, we find them poorly represented compared to the daily newspapers, but well represented in comparison to the mass-circulation magazines. Four articles were re- printed from the New Republic, three from Commonweal, two from the Nation and New Leader and one from Progressive. The Re orter, with a circulation of 80,000, is the only magazine in the top nineteen sources. In a classification of maga- zines it seems to fall somewhere in between the mass-circu- lation "slicks" and the "little magazines." Labor newspapers are only slightly represented among the article sources of the Democratic Digest, and no CIO papers are reprinted. During the period studied only three articles were reprinted from labor newspapers. That there is a close political connection between the CIO and the Democratic Party is a "fact" seldom questioned, but the sources of the 22mg- cratic Digest do not support this view. Perhaps the labor newspapers are too "local" in character to provide grist for the Digest's mill. Certainly they are not a major source 50. category. It is possible, of course, that the poor quality of writing and reporting of labor papers is a major reason for the slight use of these sources, but the speech sources of the Digest also reflect this characteristic, which seems to vitiate this explanation. Cartoons There were 418 cartoons in the first eighteen issues of the Democratic Digest. These cartoons were reprinted from 78 different sources including those which originated with the magazine itself. The ten most frequently used sources accounted for 248 cartoons, or 59.6% of the total. In the case of the analysis of cartoon sources it was felt that the relatively small number (compared with letterpress articles) of cartoons originating with the Digest argued in favor of treating the Democratic Digest as a source on the same level as the other magazines. There were only 57 cartoons in the period studied which were originals with the Democratic Digest, and 15 of these were individual panels of two car- toon comic strips which appeared during the period studied. The table following gives the ten most often used sources and their frequency. In the analysis of the cartoon sources of the Digest we find a much more compact group of sources than when we con- sidered the letterpress articles. The 299 articles which appeared were taken from 106 different sources, and 19 sources 51. Table 5 Leading Cartoon Sources by Frequency Source Frequency Washington Post and Times Herald 44 Original 37 Des Moines Register 31 Nashville Tennessean 27 Sacramento Bee 27 St. Louis Post-Dispatch 20 Greensboro Daily News 20 Atlanta Constitution 16 Louisville Courier-Journal 14 N33 syndicate 12 Total 248 - 59.6% were necessary before fifty percent of the articles could be accounted for. In the case of cartoon sources, however, we find that sixty percent of the far larger number can be attributed to only ten sources, while the entire body of cartoons was drawn from only 78 different newspapers and magazines. It seems most probable that this concentration is due to editorial requirements in just as large a measure as to the political character of the American press. If we assume that the Democratic Digest will reprint articles and cartoons which exgress the editorial attitudes of the maga- zine, the largely conservative nature of the American press restricts the area of harvest. Tith cartoons, still another factor is introduced. Compared to the number of people who can write a literate sentence the universe of com etent 3 H 52. cartoonists of any sort of political affiliation is small. It is my conviction that the sources of political cartoons are more restricted than that of articles because the number of competent cartoonists on political subjects is small. As the issues chapter will show, a noticeable portion of the cartoons of the Democratic Digest are not Specifically parti- san. Among the top ten those from the Des Hoines Register R and the YEA Syndicate seldom if ever mention party names or include party labels such as the donkey and elephant. This would seem to indicate that the source 01 political cartoons is so restricted that even the highly partisan Democratic Digest must reprint the not directly partisan cartoons of Interlandi and Lichty in order to fill their pages. There is another point of difference between cartoon sources and article sources. In the cartoon, the source can be traced back one step further than is generally the case with a reprinted article. For Washington Post and Times Her- ald in our table of cartoon sources one can read Herblock, for Des Moines Register, Interlandi, and so forth for all the papers of the top ten. Original cartoons are generally un- signed, except that an occasional Herblock is not cited as a reprint. We find the same under-representation of the nslick" magazines in the cartoon source analysis as became apparent in our article source treatment. One cartoon a reared from re C fl 0] o the New Yorker, and one from Th 2aturday ?venin Post. The C‘ L; labor press was represented by one cartoon from the Filwaukee Labor Press and one from The Kechinist. Te do find similar— ities between the most frequently used sources of articles and those of cartoons. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch was second in frequency~rank r? as an article source, sixth as a cartoon source. The washing- ton Post and Times Herald was fifteenth as an article source, first as cartoon. Tie Atlanta Constitution was sixteenth as an article source and eighth as cartoon, and the Greensboro Dailygiews was eighteenth in frequency rank as an article source and seventh as cartoon source. No newspaper both in the top nineteen article sources and top ten cartoon sources provided more articles than cartoons, a further reflection of the concentrated nature of the cartoon source category. Publication Quote Sources The sources chosen for the articles and cartoons of the Democratic Digest give the careful reader an impr ssion of bringing before the audience the newspaper stories and atti- tudes of a segment of the American press completely unknown outside their own bailiwiok. This is particularly apps ent in the article source category. There was a total of 92 newspapers quoted in the eigh- teen coded issues of the Democratic Digest. Twenty-four magazines were quoted during this same period, along with 17 other sorts of publications, books, special reports, etc. Table 6 ,. Leading Newspaper ;uote sources by Frequency Source Frequency New York Times 97 Lashington Post and Times Herald 58 washington Star 22 wall btreet Journal 17 St. Louis Post Dispatch 15 New York Herald Tribune 15 Christian Science Monitor 12 New York Post 11 Washington Daily News . 10 Total 255 Forty-five newspapers and fifteen magazines were quoted more than once. The total number of newspaper quotes was 442. The top nine newspapers accounted for 255 quotes or 57.6% of the total. The magazines were quoted a total of 98 times in the first 18 issues of the Democratic Digest. The top five sources were quoted 59 times for 60.2% of the total. Table 7 Leading Magazine Quote Sources by Frequency ‘ Source Frequency Time 20 Life 14 Fortune 11 Business Seek 7 New Republic 7 Total 59 55. The difference in character between the sources from which the Democratic Digest quotes and those from which it reprints entire articles is apparent in the composition of these two tables. Two of the most often quoted newspapers did not appear on the list of the nineteen most frequent sources of reprinted articles. These are the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post. However, the top two news- papers dominate even the top nine. The nine most frequently quoted papers account for 57.6% of all the quotes from news- papers, but the two most frequently quoted, the New York Times and the Washington Post and Times Herald account for | .‘ 155 quotes, or 55.1% of the total. Obviously, the relative stress between the Times and Post and Times Herald as article sources, where they accounted for six percent of the total reprinted articles, and quote sources, where they account for 55.1% of the total coded quotes is worthy of note and attemp- ted explanation. First, however, it should be noted that Time, Life, and Fortune all had frequencies comparable to the top nine newspapers, and that none of these were represented as frequent article sources. It is in the discussion of these facts that a "qualitative" element must necessarily be introduced into the analysis, though not for the first time. As was mentioned earlier, the most frequently cited newspaper, as article source, is not one which would be gener- ally considered a ”prestige" or "nationally-significant" pap er. On the other hand, the New York Ti es and the Wash- ing ton Post and Times Herald are definitely closer to an "ideal-type" of "prestigeful" paper than the Dayton Daily _jg&§. Indeed, the entire list of nine frequently used quote- sources gives the reader more of an in pression of authoor1mt tive sources of news and. political cozmentary th n does that of the most frequent nineteen. Almost all of the quotin was done in those articles which originated with the Demo- cratic Digest, so that we are faced with the task of explain- ing this difference in the character of the two lists. Interpretation The article and cartoon sources categories do not dis- play what we would normally consider a cross- section of the "prestige" press. They are, in fact, heavily weighted with newspapers which are relatively unknown outside their local area. The quote-source categories, on the other hand, are much closer to being a sample of the American "prestig a" press. This probably displays a difference in purpose inso- far as use of sources is concerned. I should suggest that the weighting towards little known papers in the article source category is tie esult of the heavily Republican character of the nation's press. Perhaps it sious attempt to bale nee the Diees regionally. The argument could be made that the Divest distorts the views of the prestigeful sources by quoting out of context. 57. This is true insofar as any quote is “out of context" and therefore changes meaning. It seems likely that the Demo- cratic Digest draws different conclusions from those maga- zines which it quotes as to the matters discussed. If not, the editors would probably use article-length reproduction in order to take advantage of the "authority" of the quote- sources. This study did not attack the problem of the con- textual accuracy of Democratic Digest quotes; however, it would seem that this could be done. I should hazard the hypothesis that such a study would find that the quotes were largely factual statements on economic or political affairs which were used by the Digest in a new interpretation. Ili- ’ it'll!- ' ill- .III III" lllalll'll Chapter V INDIVIDUALS AND ORGdflIZflTIONi 43D THE DEMOCRATIC DIG-JL:)T The Code and the Coding A mere examination of the publication sources of the Democratic Digest is not sufficient to describe the places from which that magazine draws its news. The individuals and organizations which it quotes are also a part of this study. Individuals quoted in the articles of the Digest were classified into four categories for tle purposes of analysis. These were Republican, Democratic, Columnist, and Other. An individual was coded as Republican whenever he was a member of the Eisenhower Administration, or a present or past member of Congress of Republican affiliation, or was otherwise identified as a member of the Republican Party during the process of quotation. The category Democratic was used to'describe an individual prominently affiliated with the Democratic Party, present or past members of Congress affiliated with the Democratic Party, and those individuals identified with the Democratic Party during the process of quotation. An individual was coded as Columnist when he was so identified during the process of quotation. Other, the residual category, was subjected to a detailed analysis re- ported later in the chapter. An organization was coded as the quote source whenever a statement was identified as coming from an organized, titled group or an individual identified as the spokesman for such a group during the pro~ cess of quotation. In the cases where an individual was identified as both Columnist and Party-member the identification as Columnist took precedence. Further, one identification as party- member or columnist was enough to commit repeated quotes by that individual into those categories. During the coding process it was seldom necessary to cross-check the identifi- cation of individuals, but all those who were assigned to the Other category were screened for possible previous iden- tification as members of one of the other three categories. More than ninety percent of the total individual and organi- zation quotes occurred in the articles which originated with the magazine, and as there were no significant differences in the composition by categories between the two types of articles there will be no presentation of a cross-analysis by article type. In the original research design it was intended to code all individual mentions as a technique for examining the focus of Democratic Digest attention to individuals in the political arena. During the trial coding period the coding of three random issues disclosed that the individual quote category covered approximately the same group of individuals as did the coding of individual mention. Upon reflection 60. this fact was easy to explain. In the first place, any quote of an individual would have been coded as an individual mention, so that quotes, already coded in another category, formed a sizable proportion of the total sample. Further, a quote of an individual typically led to repeated mentions as the quote was discussed. Some frequency changes were appar- ent when individual mention totals were compared with indivi- dual quote totals, but the positions of the most frequently- coded individuals did not change, and the proportional differences between categories did not differ significantly. It was therefore decided that the use of the individual men- tion category would be an inefficient addition to the total analysis, since the sample period disclosed that a sizable proportion (37$) of the entries would be duplicates of the individual quote entries. Also, it seemed improbable that any further information would be produced which would change the analytic conclusions of the attention that the Democratk: Digest paid to individuals. Spot checks of articles which contained a high frequency of individual mention during the formal coding period tended to confirm this decision. Party Members During the period coded there were 1568 quotes in the Qamocratic Digest. Republicans were quoted 725 times, 53% of the total. Democrats accounted for 219 quotes or 16%. Columnists were quoted 102 times, 7.5? of the total. 61. Organizations had 65 quotes which is 4.7% of the total num- bar, and Other individuals were quoted 257 times for 18.8% of the total individual and organization quotes. Let us first consider the party-member designations. The difference in quote frequency between party members is carried out when we examine the numbers of party members quoted. Only 76 Democrats were quoted as opposed to 137 Re- publicans. The histograms below graphically illustrate these differences. Figure I Individual Quotes by Party T" Z 5 ‘7' l 2 3 l 7 7 9 6 Republican Democratic Republican Democratic Quote-Frenuency Individuals ouoted Freouency We shall now examine the breakdown of Republican indivi- duals. As might be expected, President Eisenhower is the 62. most frequently quoted Republican individual. He was quoted 187 times. This also makes him the most frequently quoted individual in any category by a wide margin. Among Republi- cans, Secretary of State Dulles was second with 55 quotes and Senator McCarthy third with 51. Members of the Republi- can administration were quoted a total of 479 times, and the President, Vice-President and the Cabinet accounted for 585 of these. Of the remaining 96 quotes by other members of the Republican administration, R. Scott McLeod and Philip Young of the Civil Service Commission lead with 16 and 11 quotes re- spectively. The following graph shows relative frequencies of Republican members of the cabinet when compared with Adlai Stevenson, who must be considered the nation's most prominent Democrat. As the frequency graph shows, five members of the Republican administration surpassed Stevenson in quote fre- quency for the first eighteen issues of this Democratic pubs lication. Dulles' high position as a quote-originator is probably due to the heavy attention which the Democratic Digest pays to foreign affairs. Ezra Taft Benson is repeat- edly quoted in connection with the Digest's attack on the Republican handling of the farm problem. Nixon does not give the impression of being connected with any particular issue, but rather with the Republican position generally. Brownell is often connected with the Loyalty-Security program. Speci- fic information on the connection of various individuals with particular political issues will be found in the next chapter. 63. Figure II Eisenhower and Cabinet and Stevenson - Individual Quote Frequency O! 1 R 7 '11 5 5 3 i 3 F— 2 ? ”'1' R 6 :r l l 6 1 l O O sussumnow am “no“ WW .6 ‘ Wit-$0“ Mom ‘ “Mm " “we“ m‘r‘cueu. 64. When we consider the comparison of Republican versus Democratic Senators we find a lone exception to the standard “igest practice of emphasizing the Republican position. The two most prominently quoted Senators were Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin with 51 quotes and Democratic Senator Albert Gore of Tennessee with 46 quotes. Forty-one of Senator Gore's quotes occurred in one interview article with the Senator on the Dixon-Yates problem, while McCarthy's prominence is to be expected in the light of his close con- nection with the question of the government Loyalty-Security prOgram. Including these two heavily quoted Senators we find that 16 Republican Senators were quoted 101 times, while 23 Democratic Senators had a total of 111 quotes. Perhaps this reversal, slight though it is, of the usual Pepublican domin- ation may be attributed to an attempt on the part of the Digest to emphasize the role of various Democratic Senators as spokesmen of party policy. After Gore, the most fre- quently quoted Senators were Barkley, 15 quotes, and Douglas and Humphrey, six each. These are "liberal" Senators when compared with Senate Majority Leader Johnson, who was quoted only once. One might consider that Democratic superiority in Senator-quotes is merely a reflection of the Democratic control of the Senate. However, the Democrats also control the House of Representatives and here the usual pattern of Republican quote-superiority was carried out. Eighteen 65. Republican Representatives were quoted a total of 46 times and 11 Democrats were quoted only 16 times. Representatives Reed, Velde, and Martin, all staunch conservatives, led the Republicans with seven, five, and five quotes respectively. Speaker Sam Rayburn was the most frequently quoted Democra- tic Representative with four quotes. We shall examine the breakdown of quotes of those Demo- crats who are not members of Congress. Adlai E. Stevenson, the recently defeated presidential candidate, usually con- sidered the ”leader" of the Democratic Party was quoted 22 times. Stephen Litchell, who was Chairman of the Democratic Rational Committee during the period of this study, and for- mer President Harry S. Truman were the next most frequently quoted non-congressional Democrats with nine each. The re- maining 52 quotes by non-congressional Democrats were scatter- ed among 39 individuals. It is interesting to note that Eleanor Roosevelt was quoted four times, while her husband, the four-time elected Democratic president was cited only thrice, and fltodrow Wilson received six quotes for the period studied. It seems reasonable to compare the other non-congress- ional Democrats category with that of the "other" Republicans. That is to say those individuals who were neither members of the current Administration nor of the Congress. There were 99 quotes attributed to a total of 33 "other" Republicans. 66. The histograms below compare the leaders in both the non- congressional Democrats and "Other” Republicans categories, and the totals for the two subdivisions. Figure III Quote and Individual Frequencies for Leading Non- Congressional Democrats and "Cther" Republicans W . , "l h 1 -—n 3 8 8 STnmNflH tuna» 1wnunu. «mama ommw' Lfi~+ Iflflm Quotes 9 9 3 3 “‘— : A Non-Uonvressional "Other" Non-Connressinnal "Other" Democrats Renuhlicans Democrats Republicans Quote Total Individuals 67. Organizations The remaining categories of individual and organization quotes are not specifically partisan in the sense that every member of these analytic divisions is definitely classified as an adherent of one or the other of the major political parties. In the Organization quote category, however, we do have certain politically affiliated groups, even though not every quote originator can be ascribed a political label. There are 65 direct organization-quotes in the Democratic Digest during the period studied, and they represent state- ments by 38 different groups. Again we have the Republican Party more heavily represented than the Democratic. The Re- publican Platforms of various years are quoted eight times and the Republican National Committee, six. A resolution by the Wisconsin Republican State Convention is quoted once. This gives a total of fifteen quotes by various organizations of the Republican Party. By contrast, the Democratic Nat- ional Committee is quoted twice, and the Young Democrats once, for a total of three quotes for organizations of the Democratic Party. Business and business organizations are quoted eight times, unions five times and farm organizations once. The table below gives a breakdown of organization quotes by type of organization. The non-partisan classifica- tion includes such organizations as the Rational Planning Association, three quotes; Rational Education Association, 68. L 1 four quotes; Council for Federal Aid to education, four quotes; Houston Minute Women, six quotes, etc. Table 8 Orga.ization luote Sources by Type of Creanization and Frequency Type of Organization Frequency Republican Business Ron-partisan organizations Non-partisan Government Committees Unions Farm Veteran Polling organizations Democratic I--' amt—'Hmmmmoi N) Total 0) ()1 The total number of organization quotes is probably too small to permit any detailed conclusions as to the editorial policies of the Digest, even though it is the complete uni- verse of organizations quoted for the eighteen month period. There certainly seems to be a continuation of the pattern of Republican emphasis which we saw in the analysis of the quotes of individuals. In addition to this, we find that businesses and business organizations are more heavily quoted than unions and farm organizations put together, although here the absol- ute frequencies are so low that no statistical measure of significance is possible. 69. Columnists and "Others" During the period coded the Democratic Digest quoted 29 different newspaper columnists a total of 162 times. We shall adopt the technique used in the chapter on article sources for the tabular pr sentation of information of these men. We find that the columnists in the table below account for 57 of the total of 102 quotes, or 56%. Table 9 A .~‘- ‘ Columnists as ,uote Source by Frequency Columnist Frequency Joseph and Stewart Alsop 17 Walter Lippmann 12 Thomas L. Stokes 8 Eric Sevareid 5 Sylvia Porter 5 David Lawrence 5 Dorothy Thompson 5 Total 67 It seems likely that the use of columnists as quote sources in the Democratic Digest relates closely to their use of prestige newspapers which was explored in the pre- ceding chapter. Certainly the two most frequently cited columns are prestigeful sources par excellence, and if any comment can be made at all about the general choice of col- umnists as quote source of the Democratic Disest it is the C4 70. apparent emphasis of the “think" men over the "inside-dope- sters." This emphasis, coupled with the dearth of "liberal" columnists seems to have structured the choices of the Digest as to who to quote most frequently. The remaining category of the individual and organiza- tion quote code is the "Other" individual category. Two- hundred fifty-seven quotes were attributed to the 177 indivi- duals who were classified in this category, and it seems necessary to supply detailed information as to the breakdown of the individuals in this category in the light of the high (18.8%) proportion of total quotes whose originators fell in this category. For this detailed breakdown a nine-fold sub- classification of individuals was used. The categories were: (1) Literary and Historical figures; (2) Foreigners of cur- rent political prominence; (3) Experts, including college professors, ministers, judges, and all those individuals cited as experts during the process of quotation; (4) Indivi- duals of current political interest not specifically affilia- ted with any major political party; (5) Businessmen; (6) Farmers; (7) Union representatives and individuals identified as working men; (8) military figures; and (9) Residual. The table below gives the frequency breakdown on these different sub-categories. The relative dominance of literary and historical figmms as a sub-category of this classification is explained by a 71. Table 10 "Other" Individuals as Quote Source by Category and Frequency Category Rumber of Fumber of Individuals Luotes Literary and Historical Figures 57 81 Experts 47 66 Foreign Political Figures 16 26 Domestic Political Figures 11 2O Businessmen 10 18 Farmers 12 15 Labor and Union Spokesmen 6 6 Military Figures 7 11 Residual ll 14 Total 177 257‘ particular type of article which was commonly contained in the Democratic Digest during the period studied. Every coded issue of the Digest contained one or two one-page arti- cles which consisted entirely of brief quotations or aphcr- isms on a given topic by a number of individuals. The sub- jects for these articles ranged from "Springtime” to "Reli- gion and Politics." The eXpert category was used to account for all those individuals who were referred to as experts in one field or another in the process of quotation. Also in- cluded in this category are all those individuals who were identified as college professors, ministers, or judges. It is assumed that the common characteristic in all of these appelations is the appeal to the superior knowledge of the individuals quoted as giving added weight to their views. More individuals were quoted in this category than in the ca tea gory of non- con; ”r as ion (1') 1 Democrats (47 as Opposed to 42) so that it would seem that the Digest editors seek the appeal to authority on the same level of frequency as the appeal to partisan individuals. As regards the rest of the table, it is probably a reflection of the Divesfis empha- sis on foreign policy which leads to the relatively heavy uotetion of Foreign Political Fi:.Lures. They are quoted more frequently than non-partisan domestic political figures, a category including such diverse ind ividua ls as Ee rnard Earuch and Harvey Matusow, and also lead businessmen, farmers, union spokesmen, and military figures, both in frequency of quotes and numbers of individuals. The frequencies involved are not high enough to call for statis stical te ch.iques of signifi- ance testing, as ecially when we consider that the only in- formation such V chniques could produce would be that the distribution of individuals among these rather arbitrarily assigned categories of classification might, or might not be due to chance. Speeches In the first eighteen issues of the EC mocratic Digest 38 speeches were reprinted. There seems to be no particular pattern to the choice of men whose speeches were re :rinted, except, of course, tip at the y were generally of profe ss:ions with some bearing on politics. The speeches of eight 75. Senators were reprinted, and Lyndon Johnson, the Democratic Eenate Leader, was chosen three times. Six sp so (1) .es repro- ,— duced were by men in the radio and newspaper business. Four Representatives had speeches reproduced, and two of :am Ray- burn's were chosen. There were no speeches by Stevenson re- printed as separate articles, but he was often quoted. Ex- rresident Truman had one speech reprinted. The speeches of three Republican political figures were reprinted. Senator Jenner of Indiana, Representative Eow of Ohio, and Alf Landon, the defeated presidential candidate of 1936 were the men so honored. General Findings When we consider the total findings of this section of ‘1 the code the emphasis of the Democratic ‘iggst on Republican activity is the cardinal fact which is repeatedly thrust be- fore us. Only one of the sub-classifications of partisan- quotes, that of :enators, showed Democratic superiority in quote frequency. Republican Eenators were not quoted as fre- quently as Democrats, but the most frequently quoted single Senator was a Republican, IcCarthy, and his quotes were scat- tered throughout articles in the early portion of the coding period while the most frequently quoted Democratic Senator, Gore of Tennessee, rar up his high total as a result of one interview article. Certainly the Femocratic Digest spends L most of its time talking about Republican individuals. The 74. fact that a Republican administration is in power must be assumed to account for some of this emphasis, but there is also the strong possibility that the editors of the Digest have adopted the old ponitica 1 ca ign technique of concen- :13 trating their attention on their opponents' misdeeds. In the months since the coding of the Digs st ceased, the Democratic Party has announced that they will run against the record of Eisenhower in the next election. The figures on individual attention which this study produced show that the Democratic Di est, at least, began talking about the Ere s1 Md nt in great ——L—-—_ H) requency far in advance of any public announcement. The role assumed by the Democratic Di gust as a news disseminator seems to be that of concentrating attention on Republican mistakes, not only the mistakes of the present ad- ministration but of preceding ones (Hoover is quoted more frequently than Stevenson). his would seen to raise an im- portant question in terms of the future course of the mega- zine. Assuring that the Democrats successfully recap ure the sumed that this is an end to (I) Administration, and it must be a which Demo atic DiLest activities are directed, what will the Digest have to talk about? Jill the proportion of atten- tion devoted to Republican individuals and stands on political issues, the subject of the next chapter, re main the same? Or, will the actions of a Democratic Administration receive a share of coverage similar to that which the Republican Admin- istration now receives? Considering the empha sis J.hi oh the magazine places on the statements and activities of s eyesha- man of an administration out of office for OVrr tuvnty your ‘1; t I would venture to predict that, should the Tiqost continue as a publication after a Democratic victory, its omphusis would still be on the Opposition party's activities and statements, though perhaps not such an overwhelming emphasis as now exists. This interpretation, however, is strictly an unt>rtud hypothesis, based on, but not tested by, the informution in this study. The position of the Democratic party as un "out" group in American politics precludes positive policy acti- vity, since the Republicans control this function of the government. In addition to this, the national orgunizotion of the Democratic Party faces the problem of avoiding die- sention in the ranks and it is much easier to get aurwcmunt on dislikes than on a positive program. There are muny run- sons which can be given for the present emphatis on Republi- cans and Republican programs. These cannot be winnUWUd and tested by a study of this type. Given this data it is pecu- ible to assert the hypothesis that the ppmocrutic Uidflfifi would change significantly should the Pepuhlicanu lone con- trol of the Administration. Ky preference for the other hypothesis is based on a tentative theory of the purpose of the Democratic Digest and political party communication generally which will be put forth in the final chapter. 76. To shift now from the analysis of the specific informa- tion to the general impressions of a reader of the magazine, we find, as might be expected, that the two reinforce each other. When one reads the Democratic Digest he is immedia- tely impressed by the fact that the magazine spends most of its effort and space in the discussion of Republicans. The concentration is upon Republican statements, Republican actions, Republican stands, and Republican plans. These are occasionally, but only occasionally, balanced by reference to associated Democratic individuals and activities. In dis- cussion and argument it is generally easier, and sometimes more effective to force your opponent into maintaining a position and then attack him for it, than it is to put forth and defend a coherent statement of your own position. The Democratic Digest seems to be a magazine committed to this technique. Without information as to the actual characters of the individuals who read the Digest it is impossible to Judge the efficiency of such a technique. To the critical reader the wholesale adoption of it seems to reflect a steri- lity of positive views. Perhaps this may be the result of the long years during which the Democratic Party was on the taking and of this method of attack and had little opportun- ity to retaliate in kind. Certainly the Republican campaign of 1952 was largely based upon this sort of argument. The success of that campaign may be a reason for the adoption by 77. the Digest of this technique. One gets the impression that this magazine, at least, is perfectly willing to forget that the Democratic Party ever was in control of the governuent, and is equally willing to neglect any positive suggestions based on the assumption that it will one day again assume control. "Throw the rascals out," is the dominant theme of the Digest. many of the articles present shrewd analyses of the capabilities of the present Administration's individuals for coping with the problems of government. One receives the impression that none of them suggest any specific reasons to suspect the Democrats would be an improvement. These general comments on the perceived purpose of the Digest are, I think, consistent with the emphasis on Republi- cans and Republican stands which the empirical study found. There remains the problem of politically expedient alterna- tives to this “pproach. First let us make two commonsense assumptions: (1) The Democratic Party is only precariously held together and a major portion of this fiagazine's efforts must be bent towards achieving party unity. (2) The major political parties of the United States are not prima'ily policy-oriented organizations. It then becomes clear that the tactics of the Digest are sound, and perhaps the only ones possible in the present situation. If th (0 t1 ’emocratic Digest had attempted to forward the aspirations of one candidate or "wing" of the party in these 78. early months of its existence, the possibility of opening newly-healing scars would have been much too great. The only thing that all factions of the party can agree on is that Republicans are the opponents. Assuming as a fact that the Labor-Liberal wing of the party had nowhere else to go, and could thus be depended on for support even if it was ig- nored, the Digest could best aid the party by underplaying those policy questions which gave most offense to the South (segregation, offshore oil), and by emphasizing those areas of agreement within the party (Dixon-Yates, McCarthy, For- eign Policy). Along with this placation of the south, accomplished by choice of sources as well as choice of fissues, the conservative economic wing of the party was soothed by the soft-pedaling of direct labor support. This ignoring of labor unions as news and policy sources was the "safe" approach. When Labor was used as a ews source it was Meany rather than Reuther for, after all, where else can Reuther go? Perhaps the impending elections will produce policy planks on which the party can unite, thus giving the D323- cratic Digest the possibility of assuming policy leadership. As it stands, however, the policy of the Digest must be political expediency. Chapter VI TIE POLITICAL ISSULS The task of the content analyst in discussing the the- matic, or issue, content of communication is the most com- plicated and difficult one which he faces. In this area the researcher must first decide what his uniVerse will be. It is possible to adopt a system of abstraction which does not reflect the major issues as they are seen by our society in general. For example, themes could be divided into appeals to action in economic, military, or psycho-political areas of behavior, or by appeals to reason, conscience, or animal appetites. If the researcher chooses to use a scheme of classification which preserves some resemblance to the "com- mon-sense" way of talking about political life, there are still alternative possibilities of organization. In any case, the thematic area of a content analysis is certainly one which is quite "latent” in Berelson's use of the concept)’ Using Berelson's argument, it is therefore the area of anal- ysis which is least likely to produce reliable information. Earlier it was said that a "common-sense" classifica- tion of political issues was adopted. This was done, not l n . . see discuss1on in cnapter II. 80. because the researcher felt that any intrinsic theoretical value resided in the "common-sense" way of talking about- political problems as Opposed to another scheme of theore- tical classification, but because this choice was in keeping with one of the major purposes of the thesis. It was hoped that this exercise would serve as an exploratory study which might make further research on this publication possible. But, there was also an intention to produce precise informa- tion which might be of use to the widest possible range of students who mi ht wish to talk about the Democratic Digest L a, at some future time. The issue code was framed in a way re- lated to "common-sense" discourse, then, not because this way of talking about American politics was assumed to be parti- cularly "sensible” as Opposed to any other approach, but be- cause it was "common." The Purposes of the Issues Code The issues code used in this thesis was devised in an attempt to produce a system of classification which would give us information on the relative frequency with which the Democratic Digest talked about major political issues of government. It was also designed to give information on the degree to which the Digest associated with these discussions of political issues any specific policy statements or stands attributed to either of the major political parties. In de; signing the code one issue was chosen at random from each of 81. the three six-month periods which composed the entire time- span of the Democratic Digest study. These issues were care- fully read and the code was then devised which, in the im- pression of the researcher, explored the major issues which the articles and cartoons of the Digest discussed. 10. 11. R. D. 1. The Code and the Coding Foreign Policy Farm Policy Natural Resources Tariff Policy Tax Policy Other Economic hatters Loyalty-Security Program Relations between President and Congress Defense Policy Other Political Issues Non-Political Issues Republican stand Democratic stand When an articlez made reference to organizations, or individuals in terms of their effect on the actions of the United States with respect to its behavior 2 In the following definitions article means article or cartoon. 82. towards particular foreign nations, international organiza- tions, or the rest of the world, it was coded as discussing category 1, Foreign Policy. 2. Articles which discussed past, present, or proposed governmental activity in terms of its effect on the farmer or the agricultural industry were coded as 2, Farm Policy. 3. Any article which discussed the past, present, or projected exploitation of the mineral, v-getable, or power (1) resources of the United States, such as soil conservation, hydroelectric power, atomic energy as a source of power, national parks or national forests, water resources, etc. was coded as discussing 3, hature Resources. 4. Articles which discussed tariffs or reciprocal trade agreements were coded as discussions of 4, Tariff Policy. 5. Articles which referred to the existing tax struc- ture and taxing activities of government, or to past or pro- posed changes in this structure or activities were coded as 5, Tax Policy. 6. Articles which discussed any other activities of in- dividuals, groups, or the United States Government with refer- ence to their effects on the economy generally were coded as discussing 6, Other Economic Matters. 7. When an article mentioned the laws or executive orders of the Government which relate to the security programs of the government, past, present, or future, or to the methods of enforcing the laws or regulations, or to the effects of this enforcement on individual cases, or the efficiency of government, it was coded as discussing the Lovalty-Security Program, 7. 8. Articles which made reference to disputes or co- operation between the executive branch of government and the Congress, or members thereof were coded as 8, Relations be— tween President and Congress. 9. If any mention was made of the armed services or civil defense, the article was coded as a discussion of Defense Policy, 9. 1C. The mention of any other governmental activities or of the actions or discussions of political parties, or in- dividuals and groups as they might effect government was coded under 10, as a residual category. 11. When an article was not perceived as mentioning the actual or potential effects on government of any other sorts of actions by any other individuals or groups it was coded as 11, Non-Political. This entry was used only when none of the other categories applied. R. When the article was coded in one or more of the preceding categories, and mention was made of statements or actions by individuals linked with the Republican party or by the party itself which were connected with a coded refer- ence, the category R was checked. 84. D. The category D was checked when similar reference was made of an individual prominently associated with the Democratic Party or of the party itself. The way in which the categories were applied meant that one article might be coded as discussing several of the various issue categories and either, both, or neither of the party stands categories. The summation of issue references will therefore not equal the total number of articles. The Data - Articles As applied, the code proved to be a better example of the difficulties of thematic analysis than of the success which a communication analyst hopes to attain. In this sec- tion of the chapter a report will be made on the data which the code produced, along with commentary on its deficiencies and the things which I think were responsible for them and suggestions on possible changes which might make it possible to avoid these mistakes in the future. The issues code produced the following results when applied to all the articles and cartoons of the Digest. Obviously, the relatively large frequency with which category 10, Other Political Issue, was used demonstrates a deep week- ness in the code as a description of the total political con- tent of the magazine. As reasonably exhaustive as the cate- gories seemed at the time of design, they obviously did not 85. Table 11 Issues by Category and Frequency for All Articles and Cartoons Category Frequency of Reference Total Article Cartoon 1 7O 48 118 2 41 13 54 3 21 2D 41 4 l2 4 16 5 27 35 62 6 51 61 112 7 55 47 102 8 43 67 110 9 35 21 56 10 126 104 230 11 227 41 268 R 413 523 736 D 71 82 133 specifically classify many "governmental activities . . . actions or discussions of political parties, or individuals and groups as they might effect government . . ."3 Let us examine the sub-classifications and see if dif- ferences can be found which help explain this deficiency. In the table below are the issues as the were discussed in Articles of Type Two, those which originated with the Demo- cratic Digest. In those articles which originated with the Digest, the political issues code was used 289 times and only 47 of two- hundred articles of Type Two contained no discussion of 3 Definition of Category 10, page 83. Table 12 Issues by Category, Frequency, and rarty Stands for Original Articles ategory Total Republican Democratic Frequency Stand Stand 1 34 51 5 2 21 21 O 5 9 9 2 4 12 12 1 5 10 9 2 6 27 24 2 7 32 32 1 8 27 27 O 9 16 16 O 10 54 48 5 11 47 -- - 289 210 14 political issues. The remaining 153 articles produced 242 issue references of which 54 or 22x fell into the residual category. This is still a sizeable preportion of the issue references but not as extreme as the 126 out of 461 issue references or 29% that resulted from considering all arti- cles. The code does a little better job of describing the original articles than it does of talking about the entire universe of articles. In both cases, however, the residual category is the one most frequently coded and this is not good. For those articles which were condensed from other sources, the code is even more defective. As the reader may 87. remember from Chapter IV, nineteen sources accounted for more than half the reproduced articles of the Democratic Digest.4 Analyzing the articles which were condensed from these sources in terms of the issues discussed produced the table below. Table 15 Issues by Category and Frequency for Reprinted Articles from Leading Reprint Sources Source Code Categories Total Articles 1 2 5 4 5 6 7 8 9 I>D.R D Dayton Daily News ------ 5 - - 515 5 1 19 St. Louis Post Dispatch l ------- 2 2 7 5 1 12 New York Times --------- 1 Ell l 11 Milwaukee Journal - 2 1 - 2 - 5 5 - 10 New York Herald Tribune 1 - 1 - - 5 4 5 1 9 Christian Science Monitor ----- 1 - - 5 5 5 — 9 Reporter 2 l - - - l 1 - - 1 2 2 l 8 Baltimore Sun 1 --------- 7 l 1 8 Washington Daily News 1 ----- 4 - - 5 5 - 8 Kansas City Star 1 ------ 1 1 5 2 - 8 Newark Evening News --------- 1 6 - - 7 Arkansas Gazette ------ 1 1 - 2 5 2 - 7 Charlotte News --------- 2 5 2 - 7 Washington Star - - 1 - - l 1 - - - 4 2 1 7 Washington Post and Times Herald ------ 1 - 1 2 5 2 - 7 Atlanta Constitution 1 1 -------- 5 1 2 5 Berkshire Eagle - 1 - - - 1 - - - 1 5 1 1 5 Greensboro Daily News --------- l 4 - - 5 Overset --------- 1 4 1 - 5 Totals 8 5 l O O 6 11 4 5 219644 10 157 4 Chapter IV, p. 45. (D (I) o istribu- Q) Several things can be seen in the frequency tion of this table. The residual category of politics issues (category 13) dominates the political issues totals; Republican references to party stands far exceed Democratic; Foreign Policy (category 1) and Loyalty-Security (category 7) are the most frequently used Specific issue categories. In these matters the reproduced articles resemble the original ones in the emphasis on political i sues, but the most impor- (I) tant fact disclosed by the table is the dominance of articles coded in category 11, non-political. Ninety-six articles of the 157 which came from the most frequently used sources of the Democratic Digest did not discuss political issues with- in the definition of the code. This fact was particularly important in my development of a tentative theory of national political party mass communication. It is referred to in this context in Chapter VII. The Data - Cartoons The political issue code was also applied to the car- toons of the Democratic Digest and the following table shows the results of this analysis. The 418 cartoons of the Democratic Digest showed a greater concentration on political issues than the articles which were reproduced from a prior source; only 13% of the cartoons did not refer to a political issue under the defin- ition of the code. The weakness of the code as regards 89. Table 14 Issues by Category, Frequency, and Party Stand for Cartoons Category R D So Party Stand Frequency 1 42 5 6 48 2 O 1 5 15 5 19 - 1 2O 4 5 - 1 4 5 27 2 6 55 6 47 2 12 61 7 5 2 9 47 8 66 1 1 67 9 8 - 15 21 10 65 21 51 104 ll - - 41 41 Totals :25 52 124 461 category 15, however, is still pre Cf) ent. Category 10 is still the most frequently used of the political issues categories. By or ss-classifying the issue-references by party stands, however, we can see that in the most frequently used party 1‘ stand category, Republican, the Other Political issue sec- CD tion, though large, 1 2xceeded by the Relation between President and Congress category, 8. The cartoon category of the article—type code was the only one in which a cross- analysis produced this result. It seems that the political nature of the cartoons s compared to articles in the magae (D zine can only be explained by tautology at this sta investigation. Cartoons are naturally more political. The Shortcomings of the Code The code as it stands does not 93 rpear to have been satisfactory for the description of the political issu’ themes of the Lcmoor'tic Ligest. The residual category of (D was so heavily used that one is C); the political issue 0 O forced to question the results which the code produced in regard to the other political issues sections. The writer encountered little difficulty in applying the definitions during the coding procedure. It is unfortunate that all coding was done by one person since this males a thorough reliability cross-check impose 1318, but spot checks were made from time to time by recoding articles done early in the code period and the results were quite satisfactory. When the results were first tabulated it was thought that the category 10 articles might be subjected to some fur- ther coding in an attempt to salva.g e the original classifica- tion system. This was attempted, but the range of political and governrental activities covered under this category was so wide that the residual category of the sub-code was run- ning to about 40% of the entries in the early issues and the effort was abandoned. In the light of this failure, the remaining categories of the code can be considered as sug- gestive of the relative weight WIICh the Ligest placed on various political issues, but not as reliable info metion to the overall issue emphasis of the Digest. 91. It is possible that this is an overcautious interpreta- tion. The scattering of issues in the ”Other" category could be assumed to mean that no one issue of major import- ance was omitted and that the code, as it stands, gives a reasonably good idea of what were, in fact, the dominant issues of the Diges . For the purnoses of future research, however, the criticism of the issues section of the code must stand. Cne would not wish to be compelled to make such an gx post facto study of his residual cstegory in order to interpret his findings. Explanations of the Shortcomings In this thesis, framed as it is as an exploratory study, the author must consider the reasons for the code's failure so that these shortcomings may be avoided in future research. If we refer back to Chapter III for the moment, it is appar- ent from the findings reported there that the articles which originated with the Digest were longer and given more promi- nent treatment than those which were reprinted. This code was designed after reading three issues of the Digest. The researcher tried to attend to the political iss es which the magazine seemed to emphasize in creating the code cate- gories, and it seems likely that the prominence given to original articles affected the code formation in such a way that the code was slanted towards exploring those articles. 92. Fifty-four articles (27p) which originated with the Democra- tic Digest contained references coded in category 10, and these were 22% of the total references. However, only 24 articles contained references ggly to category 10 and these made up only 10% of the total political references and were 12% of the total of articles of Type Two. These figures indicate that the code did a better job of describing the articles which originated with the Digest than any other article type, and it seems reasonable that‘dm method of code construction explains a large part of this difference. Even for the articles of Type Two, however, the issue code was not a satisfactory research tool. The major weakness derives from the fact that the first nine categories of the code were devoted to areas of positive governmental action, while the definition of the last category included all references to political competition which was not coudhed in terms of specific governmental policies, as well as dis- cussions of those governmental policies which did not fall into the earlier categories. Category 10 therefore includes references to Civil Service, Housing, and Education among others, as discussions of governmental policy, and to cam- paign techniques, corruption, business in government, govern- mental efficiency, and elections as examples of discussions impinging on governmental decisions but not couched in terms of specific policies. The ways in whi ich a code might be constructed for fur- ther research will be discussed later in this chapter; for now, let us see what use ul and dependable information this code did reveal even granted its unsatisfactory nature relative to the original ta sk of research. There are two major aspects of the issues code whose usefulness was not impaired by the sub-divisions of the political issue es section. These are: (l) The association of political issues with stand as of the major parties; and (2) The division between all political issues and the non- political ce egory, ce.tegory 11. The party-references sec- icn of the code re-ihforces the findings of the individual- quote section as to the relative frequency of mention of Q" Democratic and Republican stands. It adds as much weight s can be obtained from this sort of study to the soundness of the hypothesis that the emocratic Di 1ge .t discusses Republi- ans and Republican stands on issues with much more fre- quency than Democrats and Democratic stands. The following table shows the distribution of party references to issue stands in articles and cartoons for th de ma gazine over the time-pa ricd studied. There is another comparis son which can be drawn from the data which the code produced which is not affected by the weakness of the political issues code. This is the compari- son of the frequency of political 1ssues with non-political issues articles. 94. Table 15 Party Stands on Issues for Articles and Cartoons by Frequency and Percentage of All Issue Referencess Republican Democratic Articles 413 71 Cartoons 325 32 Total 736 105 Party Stands as a Percentage of Total Frequency of Issue References Republican Democratic Articles 86% 15% Cartoons 77% 8% All Issue Reference 82% 11% *These percentages will not sum, since they are based on total issue references. Some issues are linked with both parties, some with neither. The non-political issues category of the issues code was the most frequently used single code category for arti- cles in the code. It was found that 227 articles for the entire period were coded as containing no discussion of poli- tical issues. This is 42% of the 537 total articles. For the articles which originated with the magazine the percent- age of non-political issues was lower than those which were reprinted. Of the two-hundred articles of Type Two only 47 or 23.3% were non-political. As we saw in the table on page 87 of this chapter the top nineteen sources contributed 157 of the 299 articles of Type Three which came from 95. publications, and the percentage of non-political articles from these sources was 61%. For the reprinted articles as a whole, there were 180 non-political articles out of the 299 so that the percentage for the entire source universe is practically equal to that of the top nineteen sources, 60%. These results will be fully discussed in terms of their implications for further research in Chapter VII. In that chapter I will suggest some hypotheses which might be adopted for a further study. These hypotheses will be framed in terms of a low-range theory of political party propaganda in the United States. Possible Variations of Approach on the Political Issues Code The political issues code as used in this study of the Democratic Digest was Judged to be unsatisfactory. It seems profitable to discuss possible variations in approach which might be adopted for further research. From a careful reading of the Digest in the light of the shortcomings of this research, several conclusions were reached regarding possible revisions. The existing code might be changed to concentrate on those categories which were heavily coded in this study. Further research would probably be more profitable, however, if the issue-code were devoted to a more specific purpose. Since the Presidential campaign is approaching, the findings 96. of this research might well be used to aid in the construc- tion of a code which would detect the issues which the editorial staff of the Democratic Digest wished to emphasize in the campaign. The heavy concentration on Foreign Policy, the Loyalty-Security Program, and Relations between the President and Congress seem to indicate that these are like- ly to be points of emphasis in the coming campaign. This approach would make it possible to include in the code state- ments about election returns, campaign techniques, and cor- ruption in government which swelled the Other Political Issues Category, category 10 in the code of this study, if these appear to be emphasized. If this purpose is adopted, the coder will not necessarily face the problem of developing a set of categories which are exhaustive. It might be possible to develop a symbol-count code for the exploration of the political-issue universe. This would be particularly true if the issues code were designed to ex- plore the campaign issues. It seems likely that the re- searcher could define a precise set of words and/or phrases which would be invariably connected with the discussion of each of the major campaign issues. A symbol-count code has particular advantages in coding speed and reliability, but it is more difficult to design and is not well suited to 97. exploratory study of this type.5 In pursuing any further research on this magazine it would certainly be wise to con- sider the possibility of adopting a symbol-count code for the exploration of political issues. In any case it would be essential to include in the code construction precise categories which take into account those political discus- sions which are not related to specific governmental policies. 5 A symbol count code is one in which specific words or phrases are selected as significant by the researcher, in that the frequency of their use implies attention to certain subjects. These symbols are selected on the basis of an ex- tensive pre-study and are counted as they appear in the material to be studied. This technique generally requires a more specific, explicit theoretical model than thematic analysis. It has advantages in that training of researchers is simplified and high reliability is possible. For a fur- ther explanation of the symbol-count technique see Harold D. Lasswell, Daniel Lerner, and Ithiel De Sola Pool, The Com- pg_ttive itudy of gymbols, Stanford, California: itanford University Press, 1952. Chapter VII fiUmmaRY, CChSLUSICNS, ADD LVALULTICNS Summary of Findings In summary, the research on the Democratic Diges_ pro— duced information on the article-types, sources, issues, in- divid uals , and organizations cited by the magazine. he re- ards article types, the title ”Digest" was in some respects a misnomer. True, most of the articles were reprints or con- densations of previously published; mat arials, but by far the largest part of the magazine‘s pages "ere devoted to arti- cles which originated with the publication itself. The de- tailed inforn1ation on this point will be found in Chapter IIL The sources of the Democratic Digest were divided into two major categories; publications, and individuals and oganiZations. Insofar as publication sources were concern- ed, the reprinted material of the magazine was weighted heavily with regional sources with less representation of nationally known newspapers and of the labor press than one might expect. In quoting sources for its own articles, how- ever, the Dive st leaned heavily on what might be loosely termed the "prestige" press, but continued to ignore the union newspapers. The analysis of individual and organiza- tion sources showed the same sort of soft pedaling of labor (O (O and unions, but the really significant fact disclosed by this section of the analysis was the heavy concentration on Republican individuals as sources for quotation. This higher frequency was particu arly noticeable in those arti- cles which originated with the magazine, but existed in both article types. Chapters IV and V contain the detailed in- formation and analyses of publication and individual and organization sources. The issue-analysis section of the code proved generally disappointing but several conclusions were still possible in the light of its findings. Most striking was the reinforce- ment of the findings of the individual-quote category as to relative emphasis of parties. Republican stands on issues were stressed in far greater frequencies than Democratic in both articles and cartoons, just as individuals of the Repub- lican party were quoted more frequently. In addition to thks finding, this part of the analysis also revealed the inter- esting fact that the reprinted articles of the magazine con- tained a very low proportion of "political" issues when com- pared with those articles which originated with the Digest. Meaning for Future Research At the outset of this research it was hoped that the project would produce information of value to the field of political science generally. For this reason the categories \ of investigation were broadly defined. This production of 100. detailed accurate information was the primary purpose of the study, but the contribution of this activity to the task of explaining political behavior is, at best, minute until the data have been framed in some sort of general theoretical context. The hypothetical form was rejected at the begin- ning of this study as unsuited to an exploratory effort of this type. To adopt such a mode of expression would disguise the real form of the study. To adopt it because it was "scientific" would require the researcher to define science as the random testing and verification of ad hoc hypotheses. The individual scholar cannot, however, disassociate himself from the task of explaining and organizing his results. Moreover, he also inherits the job of tying his efforts into a larger matrix if his efforts are to be of that "summary" form which scientific activity endeavors to produce. It was felt that the data produced in this effort were sufficient to permit the development of a ”low-range" theory of political party communication with reference to the Ameri- can party system. Of course, the data do not provide a test for such a theory--thet is a task for future research--but they do suggest some explanations which seem likely to be verified. A major assumption must be made clear before this theory can be presented. Symbol productive behavior is assumed to be an integral part of the political process, and the symbolic mafirial produced by such behavior is in no sense 101. a "secondary" sort of information. The basic postulate of this theory is that the purpose of me as political communica- tion, at least on th, national level, is that of promoting commitment of the rank and file to the party at large. It is generally ossumed that most of the pee oplo in the Uniteo Etates are irrevocably cormitted to one or the other of the two major parties, and earlier reSearch in the area of com- 0 munication -us Et‘~S ts the fact that the previously committed individual pre-selects his infori.a tion in such a way that conversion is practically impossible.1 This being the case, the communication activities of a party must nec3s ss- rily be largely self-directed. It is perhaps ironic that the self- directedn ness of mass political communication must be combined with an overwhelming attention to the existence and activi- ties of the opoo ition party. This must be the case, since the federal character of the Americ can party system, includ- ing as it does almost as much variation on policy positions within each party as betv een the two, makes issue or policy orientation a shaky base for creating a party identity and encouraging commitment. Each party therefore defines its identity in terms of its Opposition. The parties aChlGVa their identity not in terms of policy orientation, but by reason of competition 1 Paul Felix Lazarsfold and Hazel Goudet, The People's Choice, New York: Duell, sloan and “earce, 1946, 2nd ed., p. 124. 102. for political office. To be a Democrat implies being an anti-Republican. In fact, being a Democrat is almost equi- valent to being an anti-Republican. To sum up: (1) Nat- ional political party mass communication is self-directed; (2) National political party mass communication is oppositiai oriented; (3) National political party communication attempts to create an identity for the party and to strengthen rank- and-file commitment to that identity; and (4) The loose organization of American political parties makes it impoli- tic for either party to define itself on the basis of speci- fic policies. From this general theoretical statement follow these specific hypotheses concerning national political party mass communication. (1) It will emphasize the activities and statements of the opposition party over those of its own members. (2) If any concentration of attention on a specific policy does take place, and this is unlikely, it will be dis- cussed in terms of the activities of the opposition party and will avoid specific policy statements except where con- sensus exists within the party. (3) A national political party mass communication pro- gram must take account of the program of the opposition party in its choice of identity-defining sources of reSpect, in- formation, and power. That is to say, the Republicans must 103. know what the Democrats are saying to themselves, about whom it is being said, and what sources of authority are being used, and vice versa. It is assumed that programs of both parties will reflect this knowledge. (4) National political party mass communication will be self-directed. There are at least three likely sources of national political party mass communication. The national platforms, the public statements of members of the National Committees of the major parties, and the publications of these National Committees. The platforms are the source of communication data which supply the longest continuity, but their research value is reduced by the fact that they pay lip-service to the policy-statement form. The public statements of members of the National Committees are valuable sources of informa- tion, but they are generally available from news sources which do not have an audience or editorial staff which is completely politically polarized. Therefore we can test neither the intended audiences nor the filter effect of the news organ. Even the most Republican newspaper must report some Democratic activities and must have some Democratic readers. Fortunately, both major parties now engage in dir- ect publication activities to a known audience and this ex- plification of political party mass communication activity makes the research task much simpler. Alternative Methods of Study As has been said before, this work was originally de- signed to produce reliable information for the discipline of political science on a new magazine which was assumed to be important to the area of political parties and political communication. In addition to this it was hoped to get background information and ideas for a more systematic study of the problems of political communication. The study was therefore an attempt to combine the loose theoretical re- quirements of pilot research with strict research techniques so that the findings would be more generally useful to the field. It was also a hope that this study would include general comments on the purposes of the magazine and its significance for students of partisan political activity in the United States, drawn from the less rigorous impressions of the magazine which were garnered during the research period. Given these tasks, the broad approach of thematic con- tent analysis seemed particularly relevant. Cne might have omitted the rigorous aspects of this approach and depended on uncontrolled reading of the magazine to supply the neces- sary information for theory formation and impressionistic corments, but this would have had two major deficiencies in comparison to the work as it has been done. In the first place there would have been no rigorously collected information upon which other students of the problem could rely and which might help their work if they should wish to attack this subject. In addition to this, some important findings, particularly those of a negative character, might have been overlooked which added much to the theoretiCal construction reported in the first part of this chapter. On the other hand, the discursive impressionistic comments might have been more penetrating and the study certainly would have been completed with more speed if the time-con- suming content analysis had been omitted. Some of the material which the content analysis produced which might not have been apparent under a plan of careful, but uncontrolled reading are the relative slighting of labor unions as an information source for the Democratic Digest, and the heavy reliance on the regional press as a source for reprinted articles. No one could have missed the emphasis on Republicans and Republican policies as a topic for dis— cussion, but it might have been possible to overlook the non- Digest character of the magazine. Since the magazine would have been read with an eye to discovering what was in it, the essentially non-political character of most of the re- printed articles would almost certainly have been neglected. Even if all of these things had been noticed in the uncon- trolled reading of the magazine, it gives the commentator an added sense of security to know with presicion that at 106. least some of his impressions of tie magazine are based on verifiable evidence rather than on vague impressions. Another aspect of the problem of alternatives of study is that of additions which could have been or should have been made in attacking the problems of research. It certain- ly would have added valuable information to the study to have data on the readership and explicit editorial policies and intentions of the magazine. Indeed, for any total study of the magazine's importance for e: (plaining political stra- tegy or behavior this information would be essential. The major reason for excluding this was the :ilot study char- acter of the research which was being undertaken. Any studies of readersnip or en itorie l pol icy would have required such a massive investment of time thzt they c :uld not have been profitably attempted without a rather specific frame of reference, and the purpose of this research was to gather in- formation to create such a frame of reference. In addition to this, the research project was, after all, adopted, at east in part, as one of manage a le size for a ifas te er's . thesis and it was felt that including such material, w thout extreme theoretical necessity would he ve eXCanded this pro- ject beyond a size which could have been completed within the practical time limitations of that purpose. 107. General Impressionistic Summary The impressions of the researcher contributed as much to the theory which emerged from this research as did the rigorous content analysis. Indeed, the emergent theory might actually be considered as a part of t a general impressionistic material which the researcher gathered. In addition, there are certain conclusions as to the political V‘x tactics and purposes of the oemocratic Dig st which are (D drawn from the research task, but not verifiable by it. First, the Democratic Digest is certainly a publication for Democrats to the same extent that it is by them. The general intent and tone of the magazine is not persuasive but rein- forcing in character. There seems to be a basic assumption that the reader is already Opposed to Republicans and Repub- lican policies. The organ supplies him with verification for his opinions and perhaps ammunition in argument, with a sort of negative party line, rather than attempting to argue with an opponent. The articles of the magazine are never chal- lenges to Republicans. Another important facet of the Diaes which was apprehended during the research was its emphasis on the person of President Eisenhower. Of course the quote source ca egory of the code demonstrates this fact as well, but the peculiarities of the image of the President which the magazine seems to construct are not susceptible to detection by this code. The Iresident himself is seldom directly attacked, but at the same time he is_never praised. Great stress is placed upon the differences of opinion within the Republican Party, and the question as to who is actually leading the organization is often raised in articles and cartoons. The Digest does not directly attack the image of the President as a personally honest, pious, well-meaning man, but much emphasis is placed on his political incompe- tence. The general image of the Republican party is the somewhat inconsistent one of a group of highly privileged, anti-democratic, menacing bumblers. A general, personal impression which resides after long 'mmersion in the-maga- zine is that the Disest would have its readers realize that Eisenhower is the best of the Republicans, and that isn't saying very much at all. In the matter of emphasizing individual Democrats, the magazine gives little opportunity for comment. Stevenson is the most frequently quoted non-Congressional Democrat but there were no overt attempts to further his aspirations for candidacy during the period studied. It may be assumed that the same reasons put forth in Chapter V as explaining the emphasis on opposition individuals and policies operate in this context as well. The emphasis of one individual might have just as divisive an effect as the emphasis of one set of political policies. Generally the magazine seems to be a spokesman, a cautious spokesman, for the "liberal" wing of 109. the party. This is the case in economic matters at least; Senator Byrd is never quoted, and the researcher cannot re- member his ever being mentioned. Eut any touchy political issues such as segregation are certainly not stressed. 'The only article on that subject dealt with the desegregation of the armed forces. Tidelands Oil is similarly slighted. It is hOped that the foregoing impressionistic conclu- sions, as well as the more organized interpretation of the theoretical model will be verified by the further research which is planned. Personal Value of the Study It only remains to comment on the importance of this project for my own training. This importance cannot be over-emphasized. I have isolated four particular benefits which I have derived from the research and writing of this thesis. First, and most important, it has afforded oppor- tunity to practice such skills in research and theory form- ation which I may have developed in training. These skills are never fully tested until they have been applied to an original project of some magnitude. York on assigned tasks as a research assistant, or on projects of term paper length, provides no real proof of the skills which the stu- dent is assumed to have acquired, not even to the student's satisfaction. 110. This task also has great disciplinary value. No exter- nal pressure, personal or institutionalized, can match that of accepting responsibility for the design and carrying out of a project for which the student takes personal responsi- bility. No decision is more difficult than that which forces one to discard material which represents long and arduous effort as inadequate or unnecessary. In addition, the thesis is a critical test and method of training in the area of communication. From the begin- ning of his academic career the student is faced with re- peated demands to organize his thoughts on a subject and communicate them; in the Master's thesis he faces the first large scale test of those skills. For those who do not find writing an easy task, the problem of describing and reporting the results of a large scale research program is greater than that of designing it and carrying out the research. As a method of training an individual in the essential skill of organizing and coherently writing about a specific problem, the thesis is probably surpassed only by the doctoral disser- tation. Certainly this skill is one which is essential to the political scientist. Lastly, the information which this particular thesis produced was invaluable in my theoretical work on the problem of political party mass communication. I plan to continue working in this area and this research has that value which adheres to all original attempts. If nothing else, one can learn from the mistakes. Article 2. A a. AP P E N 13 IX Part I - Code Type Code "Talk of the Nation" Articles not attributed to a prior source a. signed b. unsigned Articles attributed to a prior source a. speech b. reprint of previously published article Cartoons and Eictures Source Code 1. 2. Issues 1. 2. 3. 4. Code For those articles attributed to a prior source the source will be noted. Within an article, mention is often made of the sources from which the article was drawn, both by direct and indirect methods of quotation. These sources will be noted and coded separately from those of category 1, above. a. Individuals quoted in the Digest will be classified into four categories. 1. Republican 2. Democrat 3. Columnist 4. Other Foreign Policy Farm Policy Natural Resources Tariff Policy 112. Issues Code (continued) 5. Tax Policy 6. Other Economic Matters 7. Loyalty Security Program 8. Relations between President and Congress 9. Defense Policy 10. Other Political Issues ll. Iion- -political Issues R. Republican Stand D. Democratic Stand Part II Core Definitions Source Code 2a. Cod as Republican: 1. Members of Eisenhower adminis- tration. 2. Present and past Republican Congressmen and Senators. 3. Any other individual cited as Re- publican in process of quotation. Code as Democrat: 1. Individuals prominently affilia- ted with Democratic Parts. 2. Present and past Democratic Con- gres semen and Senators 5. Individuals cited as Democrats in process of quotation. Code as Columnist: 1. Individuals so identified in pro~ cess of quotation. 2. Identification as olumnis t takes precedence over identification as party- -member. 113. Code as ”Other": 1. All remaining individuals quoted. 1. One identification as party—mem- ber or columnist assigns all quo- tee of individual to that categmuh When an article makes reference to organizations, programs, or individuals in terms of their effect on the actions of the United Sta as with respect to its behavior towards particular foreign nations, inter- national organizations, or the est of the world, code as Foreign Policy. Wlen an article discusses past, present or preposed governmental activity in terms of its effects on individual farmers or agriculture generally, code as Farm Policy. When an article discusses actual or prOposed ex- ploitation of past or present mineral, vegetable or power resources, code as Natural Resources. When an article discusses tariffs or reciprocal trade agreements, code as Tariff Policy. Wien an article discusses existing tax structure and t.xing activities or discusses past or proposed cianges, code as Tax Policy. D "J ’1‘? When an article discusses any individuals or groups or the United States Government with respect to the effects of their activities on the economy gener- ally, code as Other Economic Hatters. When an article mentions the laws or executive orders relating to the security programs of the government, or the effects of the enforcement of these on individuals or groups, or the efficiency of government generally, code as Loyalty-Security Program. When an article mentions disputes or c00peration_be- tween the executive and legislative branches of government with respect to any matter, code as rela- tions between President and Congress. When an article mentions the armed services or civil defense, code as Defense Policy. 114. 10. Ehen an article mentions any other activities with reference to their actual or potential effects on government or the political parties, or the poli- tical process generally, code as Other Political. 11. When none of the preceding categories can be used, code as hon-political. R. When one or more of the preceding categories is used and mention is made of statements or actions by individuals linked with the Republican Party, or of the party itself, code R. for each issue with which it is connected. D. Use as R, above, for Democratic stands. After coding and analysis the "Other" individual category was broken down as follows: 1. Literary and Historical Figures 2. Foreign Political Figures 0. Experts 4. Non-partisan political Figures o. Businessmen 6. Farmers 7. Labor and Union Spokesmen 8. Military Figures 9. Residual Category The critical information for the purpose of classification was that which was supplied by the magazine during the pro— cess of quotation. The expert category was composed of college professors, ministers, judges, and any person cited as an expert during the process of quotation. The other categories seem self explanatory. Only one identification was necessary to consign all of an individual's quotes to the relevant category. BIL LIOanainf Books syers, h. N. and Sons. Directory of Newspapers and Periodi- cals. Philadelphia: 1. A. Ayers and sons, 1955, 1521 pp. Berelson, bernard. Content Analysi search. Glencoe, Illinois: 220 pp. in Communication Re- .9 s Tr Free Eress, 1952, Campbell, Angus, Guren, Gerald, and Miller, Terran. The Voter Decides. Evanston, Illinois: Row, Peterson and Company, 1955, 242 pp. Ferguson, LeRoy C., and Smuckler, Raloh H. Politics in the Eress. Host Lansing, Michigan: K chigan State College Coverra ental Research Bureau, 1954, 100 :1 L‘ I \ I (1‘ Fine, Nathan. Labor and Farmer Parties in the United tate s. New Ybrk: Rand pchool for soc ial science , 1928, 445 pt J '( Langer, Suzanne K. Philosophy in a Few Key. Cambridge: Harvard University Eress, 1942, 315 pp. Lasswell, Harold D., L rner, Zanie el, and Fool, Ithi el de Sola. he Compa ative mt dy of gymbols. "ta nford California: wt nford University Eress, 195 , 87 pp. relson, iernard, and Goudet, Hazel. Jew York: Duell, Sloan and do, 178 pp. L4 H‘“ O (D (D [101 o Pearce, 1940, En" Lenin. Collected Eorks (IV) 1, 114. ;uoted in Inkeles, Alex. Public ppinion in Soviet Russia. Camoridge: HarVard University frees, 1951, 579 pp. hannheim, Karl. Ideology and Utop‘ lia. (Translated by Louis Eirth and id."ard shils ), new York: Harcourt Brace and Company, 1955, 518 pp. McKean, D. D. Party and Pressure Politics. Cambridge: The Riverside rress, 1949, 712 pp. hichels, Robert. Foliticol ;arti C. Eaul), Glencoe, Illinoi 1s 416 pp. Lott, Frank Luther. Americ n Journalism. Lew York: The .icmillcn vOnrJuy, 1947, 772 pp. Overdyke, T. Farrel. Th Ynow--otn1rg Party in the South. Eaton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana Ltate Lniversity rresg, 1950, 522 pp. zapir, Edward. Lanpuese. Few York: Harcourt Trace and Company, 1921, 258 pp. 1‘; EOpulism in th Cld Dominion. 5he1don, William Du 5 e. " ersey: Erinceton Tniversity Tress Princeton, . .r- '_ u (1 ‘4 Wilson, Logan and Kolb, Zilliam L. 353101 New York: Harcourt irace and Gov " Articles Kracauer, Siegfried. "The Challenge of Quantitative Con- tent Analyses," Public Cpinion Quarterly. Volume 16, no. 4, Tinter 1952-55, pp. 651-541. Thurstone, L. L. "Attitude s Can Be Measured," American Journal of ice ioloa“ y. Volume 55, 10. 4, 928, pp. 529‘537 o 1:311 JSE GE‘ELY Nov 22 '58 v .. - - 3 .' . L‘.‘u“".-‘.—_- "W' " 4.,7~ ' H" r) w 4 .. “J 1’. 4b “41‘ M g’7’w‘8 $5 3 'Q/ ‘3’ 7 "b( 35 " ur [APR 3 13.17.? 49 L 1, 3.. ‘ilmfifllflfliflimflflfifl'ifltiflfli'flT