V 01: Coder...................................................................................…………………..........
V 02: Case-No ...........
V 03: Newspaper................................................................………………………….........
V 04: Circulation category
1- 25,000 or less 3- 25,001 – 50,000
5- 50,001 – 100,000 7- 100,001 and more
V 05: Ownership
1- Entrepreneur 3- Chain 9- Unclear
V 06: Name of chain .…………………………………………………………………........
USE OF MULTIMEDIA
V 07: Photos used in online edition?
1- No 3- Yes 9- Unclear
V 07a) Notes:
V 08: Multi-media elements used?
1- No 3- Yes 9- Unclear
V 08a) Notes:
V 10: General e-mail address(es)/posting forms to contact newsroom?
1- No 3- Yes 9- Unclear
V 10a) Notes:
V 11: List of staff e-mail?
1- No 3- Limited 5- Yes 9- Unclear
V 11a) Notes:
V 12: Articles with e-mail link to author?
1- No 3- Limited 5- Yes 9- Unclear
V 12a) Notes:
V 13: Further notes on e-mail:
DISCUSSION FORUMS (BOARDS)
V 14: Discussion forums offered?
1- No 3- Yes, one forum 5- Yes, 2 – 15 forums
(go to V 20) (go to V 16) (go to V 16)
7- Yes, 16 – 30 forums 9- Yes, 31 or more forums
(go to V 17) (go to V 17)
V 15) Description/Notes:
V 16: Number of forums per topic category
a- General forum................................................................................................
b- Local or state public affairs......…..................................................................
c- National or international public affairs...........................................................
d- Media performance........................................................................................
e- Science/technology/computer.....................................................................…
f- Culture.........................................................................................................…
g- Hobbies/travel/leisure-time/life-style/weather...............................................
h- Sports..........................................................................................................…
i- Other/undecided...........................................................................................…
V 16k) Notes:
V 17) Forum topics
1- Diversity of topics 3- Dominated by:........................... 9- Unclear
V 18: Forum Registration
1- No Registration 3- E-mail/pass word registration
5- special subscription 7- Other :.................................... 9- Unclear
V 17a) Notes:
CHAT-ROOMS
V 20: Chat-room(s) offered?
1- No 3- Yes 5- Link to chat provider 9- Unclear
V 20a) Description/Notes:
POLLS/SURVEYS
V 21: Poll/Survey used?
1- No 3- Yes 9- Unclear
V 21a) Description/Notes:
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
V 22: Letters displayed online?
1- No 3- Yes 9- Unclear
V 22a) Notes:
V 23: Other Feedback Options
List and Description:
Coding Guidelines
General Remarks
The content analysis looks for interactive options. It explores how and how much online newspapers give readers a chance to communicate with others, above all with journalists and other readers. The study is exploratory. Coding must be open for various features that allow for feedback. Therefore the analysis will include specific categories as well as qualitative notes and descriptions.
Unit of analysis: All editorial elements of online newspapers that allow readers to present own views and communicate with journalists or other readers.
Generally, all Web sites of a selected online newspaper will be examined, excluding advertisements/classifieds. It is not required to read through every editorial text. The study is interested in structural elements. The focus is on letters to the editor, e-mail, bulletin boards, live chats, polls, and other means, such as video-conferencing or reader pages. Search options or customized delivery services, for example, are not significant here since they are not interactive according to the specific perspective applied in this study. This perspective emphasizes the conversational meaning of interactivity.
Examination Process
Browse the Web sites of each online newspaper carefully. The analysis of large papers might take up to 45 minutes. Do not waste time reading through articles, but click on as many links and articles as possible. If provided, use site maps or a site index to get a quick orientation.
Start the analysis at the newspapers’ original homepage. Usually, some coding questions can already be answered when looking at a few sections of the online paper. Look especially for sites named “About us,” “Feedback,” “Interactive,” “Forums,” “Café,” “Communicate,” “Speak your mind,” “Contact us,” “Letters,” etc. It is also recommended to go to op-ed pages early on in the examination process. However, do not concentrate on these sections only. You could miss features in other sections, like sports, local news, or business. If a newspaper offers an overwhelming number of Web sites, focus on traditional sections, i.e. news/politics, local news, business, sports, opinion. At the same time try to find out whether special sections feature interactive tools. Focus on the main pages of each section and on the most recent articles.
Watch the URL to make sure that you do not enter sites of a different content provider when you follow a link. For example, homepages of a news agency, or of a media group which owns the newspaper are not part of the papers’ own sites. Make a note, though, when a newspaper has specific links, which lead readers to chat areas, forums, or polls by other content providers.
Large online newspapers are sometimes the center of a whole region’s web presence. In such a case, concentrate on the journalistic sites of the paper. Still count forums, chats etc., unless they clearly belong to another provider.
If necessary, register with e-mail and password to get access to certain areas of an online newspaper. This will frequently be required when you enter discussion forums or chat rooms. Stop the examination (and make a note) if the newspaper would charge you for access.
Variables of the Coding Sheet
Circle appropriate response categories on the coding sheet. Write down everything noteworthy related to matters of feedback and not captured by the categories. Specify problems whenever you mark “unclear.”
The first six variables are provided as a result of the sampling process (using AJR NewsLink and Editor & Publisher International Yearbook 1997)
USE OF MULTIMEDIA
Photos and multimedia are not related to matters of interactivity, as discussed in this study. The variables are nonetheless included to check whether newspapers consistently exploit opportunities of the Internet.
V 07: Mark “3-Yes” if you find at least one editorial photo.
Mark “1-No” if there is no photo in the entire online edition. Do not count as photo if it is:
- a passport photo of a writer (columnist)
- an advertisement
- a cartoon
- a graphic, chart, or drawn picture
V 08: Mark “3-Yes” if you encounter at least one multi-media application:
- an audio sequence
- a video sequence
- an audio-video sequence
- a 3-D or animated graphic, i.e. a graphic that changes its appearance without or with activation by the user. Hyper-links do not count as animation. Nor do pictures that enlarge when clicked.
Name/briefly describe encountered multimedia elements in V 08a)
V 10: Mark “3-Yes” if there is at least one general (impersonal) e-mail address provided that readers can use to contact the newsroom. Also mark “3-Yes” and specify briefly in V 10a if:
- posting forms are provided that readers can use to send comments, questions, or letters to the editor
- different e-mail addresses are provided, e.g. for each department or for different types of feedback (comments/questions vs. letters intended for publication)
Mark “1-No” if there is no general e-mail address or response form provided. Also mark “1-No” and specify in V 10a if:
- only e-mail of Webmaster or online editor
- only e-mail of departments not belonging to the newsroom, e.g. advertising department, distribution service.
V 11: Mark “5-Yes” if the editorial staff (not only of the online edition) is listed in a directory with individual e-mail addresses. Also mark “5-Yes” if only a few editors/reporters in the list apparently do not have e-mail.
Mark “3-Limited” and specify in 11a if:
- the majority of listed journalists have no e-mail
- only online staff is listed with e-mail
- only top editors/managers are listed with e-mail
- only columnists are listed with e-mail
Mark “1-No” if:
- there is no staff directory
- only staff of non-editorial departments is listed with e-mail
- list does not contain personalized e-mail addresses (notify in 11a if list has individual telephone numbers)
V 12: Look for articles written by the newspaper’s staff (not by news agencies). You will find these especially under local news, editorials, columns, and local sports.
Mark “1-No” if you cannot find articles that have an e-mail link to the author (attached on the top or the bottom of the story, in the text or as by-line). Also mark “1-No” if there are general e-mail links to contact the newsroom, but not specifically to the author of the text.
Mark “3-Limited” if you find at least one e-mail link to an author of a story, but this does not appear to be a general pattern.
Specify in V 12a if e-mail links are, for example, only set up for columnists.
Mark “5-Yes” if e-mail links to authors appear as general pattern and are attached to all kinds of stories in different sections, even though you might still find a few articles without e-mail links to the author.
Mark “9-Unclear” if, for example, e-mail addresses are provided but not as a link. Note all kinds of peculiarities in 12a, for example a link to a journalist’s own homepage.
V 13: Note additional aspects of the paper’s use of e-mail to solicit feedback and stimulate communication. Mention, for example, if e-mail addresses of politicians or members of civic organizations are provided.
DISCUSSION FORUMS (BOARDS)
V 14: A discussion forum is a bulletin board to which readers can post comments by e-mail. Others can read the postings that are publicly displayed on the Web site, and may add own statements.
Mark “1-No” if an online newspaper does not provide such a discussion area. If it provides one or more forums, mark the appropriate other categories.
Rules for counting: Often times, forums are ordered by newspapers according to topic categories. Sometimes they are combined to bigger entities (“folders”) and then called, for example, “Community,” “International,” “Sports,” etc. These categories may contain many forums on different issues within the broad genre. Each of these forums around a specific topic counts as one forum.
At times you could encounter a forum that is split up into different sub-discussions. Take for example a forum on the “Chicago Bulls.” The newspaper might display different discussion threads within that forum in the same manner as it puts different forums into folders. For example, a couple of messages deal specifically with Michael Jordan, others with the Bull’s last ball game. Nonetheless, they are all part of only one forum dealing with the Chicago Bulls.
On the other hand, when newspapers lists, say, the forums “Bulls,” “World Cup,” “NCAA,” “Indy 500” as subcategories under a big “Sports” folder, each of them counts as an own forum, of course.
You do not have to read postings. Look how the newspaper structures the forums by headlines. This helps you decide whether something is actually a forum, just a combining folder, or a specific thread within a forum.
Do not count archived forums (inactive).
The number of messages that are posted to forums will not be considered.
V 15: Describe aspects of the forums that you are able to capture without reading through all the postings.
- Are there indications that forums are hosted/moderated or that journalists or invited experts participate in the discussion?
- Are there special features in how the forums are designed?
- Are forums linked to articles/sites with background information on the discussion topic?
V 16: Presumably, you will find quite many forums when an online newspaper provides this feature at all. When you encounter less than 16, though, classify topics and list the number of forums for each topic category.
a- General forum
No specified topic. This might happen especially when only one forum is offered overall. These types often have names such as “guestbook,” “readers’ forum,” or “opinion board”.
b- Local or state public affairs
c- National or international public affairs
Public affairs include politics (all areas), economics, law/crime, religion, values/norms, and education.
Local/state includes public affairs in the community and the state in which the newspaper is located. It also includes state elections, Congress members and their action.
National/international includes public affairs of other states in the US, plus the national and international arena.
Forums that have a local/state as well as a national/international perspective, count as c (e.g., a general “politics forum”).
Examples for b, which were taken from forum headlines of the New York Times online (NYT):
“The President under Fire,” “Elections in Cambodia,” “Sexual Harassment,” “Medicaid,” “Unions and the Labor Movement,” “The Battle over Tobacco,” “The Conflict in Kosovo,” “Domestic Terrorism,” “IRS Reform,” “Gun Control,” “Education and Affirmative Action,” “The Euro Countdown,” “The Stock Market,” “The Encryption Debate.”
Examples for c (forum headlines from NYT):
“New York City’s Police Department,” “Mayor Giuliani and New York City Politics,” “The Governor’s Race in New York,” “New York News of the Day.”
d- Media performance
Forums that specifically deal with how issues are covered in the mass media (journalism). This includes forums that are set up around editorials or columns/columns writers. Eventually, it includes forums that are open for general comments on the performance of online media, or specifically on the newspaper that provides the forums.
Note that most issues that involve media belong to other categories. The Microsoft lawsuits, for example, would fall under national public affairs. Discussions about computer software would fall under Science/technology/ computer. A forum about “Seinfeld” would fall under culture. A video-game forum would fall under leisure-time.
Examples for d (forum headlines from NYT):
“About the New York Times on the Web;”
“Thomas Friedman,” “Frank Rich,” “A.M. Rosenthal” (NYT opinion writers).
e- Science/technology/computer
All matters of technology and natural science, also medicine (health), plus forums dealing with technological aspects of computers and its use (hard- and software).
If these topics are discussed from a political or economic angle, they belong to public affairs.
Examples for e (forum headlines from NYT):
“Future of Cloning,” “Pi in the Sky,” “How the Brain Works,” “Black Holes.”
f- Culture
Forums dealing with all forms of “high” and “popular” culture. This includes discussions about books, music, TV-shows, theater, movies, arts, architecture, history.
Examples for f (forum headlines from NYT):
“The Current Cinema,” “ Jazz Corner,” “Good Shows on Television,” “The Writer’s Room,” “19th Century Literature.”
g- Hobbies/travel/leisure-time/weather
Forums dealing with weather issues or all kinds of leisure time activities. This includes fashion, cosmetics, cooking, games, traveling, but neither sports nor culture.
Examples for g (forum headlines from NYT):
“Exploring the Country-Side,” “Road Trips,” “Fashion and Style,” “Antiques and Collecting,” “Wine,” “Meat,” “New York Restaurants.”
h- Sports
All kinds of professional and popular sports.
Examples for h (forum headlines from NYT):
“WNBA,” “Baseball: Cities and Stadiums,” “Baseball Trivia,” Baseball: The New Jersey Nets,” “Wimbledon.”
i- Other/undecided
Count here if you think that the topic is not captured by any of the categories above. Write down the topic.
V 17: When you find more than 16 forums, look at the topic range and decide whether there is “1-diversity of topics” or a clear domination by one or two of the topic categories (see V 16).
Domination means that one or two categories account for about half or more of all forums. If this is the case, write the corresponding letters of the one or two dominating topic categories (see V 16) into the marked space after “3- Dominated by:...”
V 18: Mark “1-No registration” if you get access to the discussion forums without any registration.
Mark “3- E-Mail/Password registration” if you have to register by e-mail/pass word first before you get access to a forum. Mark this also if you get access to read postings without registration, but would have to register to send own comments.
Mark “5-Specal subscription” if you would have to sign a special subscription in order to get access.
CHAT-ROOMS
V 20: Chat-rooms are areas readers can use for synchronous online communication. All participants’ messages appear on the screen as soon as they are written and sent. One can respond immediately to others’ messages. Do not count as a chat room if it consists of asynchronously posted messages (i.e. a discussion forum). Also do not count as a chat room if it involves video transmission (i.e. video-conferencing).
Mark “1-No” if no chat-room is provided.
Mark “3-Yes” if at least one chat-room is provided.
Mark “5-Link” (and specify) if the newspaper has a link to a chat area set up by another content provider.
When you find chat-rooms, please make notes in V 20a:
- Is there a schedule according to which journalists/experts/celebrities join in the chat or moderate it, respectively?
- Are there any topics given, or is it a free chat without specific focus?
POLLS/SURVEYS
V 21: Online polls and surveys typically involve a questionnaire that readers sent back online. A quick voting poll may contain just one question with a few answer categories, plus a “submit” button. Surveys will include a longer questionnaire that readers can fill out and submit.
Mark “1-No” if an online newspaper apparently does not run a poll or survey. Note that general posting forms for submitting letters to the editor or for any kinds of comments or announcements (e.g., weddings, dates of festivities) do not count as a poll/survey!
Mark “3-Yes” if you find at least one poll or survey.
Describe polls/surveys briefly in V 21a, especially answering the questions:
- Topic?
- Are multiple votes possible (i.e. can one manipulate the results by voting more than once)?
- Are results displayed, including number of votes/participants?
- Is the poll/survey embedded in/linked to background information on the topic, or to discussion forums?
- Is there a possibility to send comments in addition to a simple vote?
- Are questions asked in a “horse-race” manner or do the questions point out trade-offs, alternatives, etc.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
V 22: Letters to the editor are comments/reactions by readers that have been sent by snail mail or e-mail. Often, online newspapers will simply put their letters-page from the print edition online.
Mark “1-No” if you do not find letters displayed in the online edition.
Mark “3-Yes” if you find at least one letter displayed.
Posted comments that are part of a discussion forum do of course not count as letters to the editor.
OTHER FEEDBACK OPTIONS
V 23: List and describe all other elements where readers can present something and are invited to communicate, respectively.
Examples: video-conferencing; reader homepages as part of the newspaper’s sites; special Q & A sections with journalists; editorials written by readers.
Also note elements that might not really fit the idea of this study, but that are advertised by the newspaper as an “interactive” feature. Example: Online quizzes, or online postcards that readers can send to their friends.