WSEAS Transactions on Environment and Development
Print ISSN: 1790-5079, E-ISSN: 2224-3496
Volume 12, 2016
Using Content Analysis to Discover Underlying Themes: Belle Isle State Park, Detroit, Michigan
Authors: ,
Abstract: Content Analysis as a research method has been successfully used in multiple fields to tap into the public conscience to identify trends of feeling and thinking. Early content analysis has been defined as only taking the meaning of the studied media that is agreed by everyone involved, but used in this sense invokes limitations that may not be present. If content analysis is used in the broader sense, which is what this research does, media content opens itself to interpretations contextual with background information. This research finds both diversity and adversity through the headlines of two Detroit-area newspapers. It uses content analysis to identify the public’s sense of place, or cognizance, of a geographic area. Detroit, Michigan is a large US city that has experienced race riots, one of its earliest in 1943 originating at Belle Isle City Park, one of the largest island parks in the United States. High crime rates have become commonplace in Detroit, which has propelled the City to the top of many lists for negative reasons, i.e., most violent city, most murders in a US city, and one of the most segregated cities in the nation. In the past decade, city parks were closed and basic maintenance ceased, and Belle Isle City Park began attracting a volatile group of users. This study utilizes a content analysis of two newspapers: the Michigan Chronicle and the Detroit Free Press for the purpose of comparing the headlines to begin a study of the different target audiences.
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Pages: 226-236
WSEAS Transactions on Environment and Development, ISSN / E-ISSN: 1790-5079 / 2224-3496, Volume 12, 2016, Art. #23