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Research Design
In order to answer the research questions previously outlined,
this researcher conducted a qualitative content analysis of posted
messages discussing the Muslim culture as it was portrayed in the
telenovela “El Clon” on the web site http://foro-telenovela-world.com.
According to Babbie (2001) content analysis is the study of recorded
human communications and posted messages are one of the forms suitable
for study.
Media content analysis has been a long tradition of communication
research. Content analysis has been utilized to investigate various
media formats such as advertising, news, cartoons, and also issues
present in the media such as violence, sex, health, and race issues.
Through a quantitative approach, content analysis was defined as
a research method to analyze the manifest media content in a systematic,
objective and quantifiable way (Berelson, 1952). The quantification
of manifest content means that it must be coded as it appears, rather
then as the coder feels it is intended (Stempel III, 1981). Critics
to Berelson’s work, represented by Siegfried Krakauer (1952),
argued that the quantitative strategies were inadequate. They contended
that when attempting to establish the meaning of texts by breaking
them down into quantifiable units (words, expression, statements,
etc), analysts defeat the main objective of their study. For the
fragmentary characteristic of the resultant data hampered the examination
of the text as a meaningful whole (Jensen & Jankowski, 1991).
Responding to the qualitative versus quantitative debate, Berelson
(1952) replied:
Much “qualitative” analysis is quasi-quantitative:
first we must make the obvious, though often overlooked, observation
that there is no strict dichotomy between “qualitative”
and “quantitative” analysis. Just as quantitative analysis
assigns relative frequencies to different qualities (or categories),
so qualitative analysis usually contains quantitative statements
in rough form. They may be less explicit but they are nonetheless
frequency statements about the incidence of general categories (p.
116).
The situation presented once more, was where this researcher faced
the duality and the duel of choice between contrasting traditions.
The matter of the question was not of preference for quantitative
versus qualitative methodologies when posed as either/or strategies.
The methodology of choice in this study was caused by the need to
investigate the meaning of the text through the analysis and interpretation
of the posted messages as a latent content, instead of a manifest
content, in order to reflect the answers for the research questions.
On the other hand, it was also a quantifiable exercise. The emphasis
however, was on the interpretation of the meaning of the text as
its latent content, instead of its apparent content. Nevertheless,
both exercises will be presented in the results of this research.
Some of the previous research on audience response to entertainment-education
programs has been conducted with the content analysis of audience
letters. Law (2000) favors the study of soap opera audience letters
as a unique way to obtain information and insights that would be
inaccessible otherwise. He argues that audience letters could be
a significant cost-effective, practical, and realistic information
source for evaluating media interventions. A parallel can be traced
here to the analysis of the posted messages, which are cost-effective,
practical and public information with easy accessibility through
the Internet. Previous studies that explored the information potential
of audience letters were Sood 1999; Rogers et al, 1997; and Sood,
Singhal, and Law 1997. Law (2000) praises the value of audience
letters as one of the most conveniently available information sources
for evaluating the impact of mass media interventions. However he
also points out that letter writers are a group of highly involved
individuals, and most of the times are not representative of all
audience members who might have been influenced. The same applies
to the participants of the forum. These are highly involved individuals;
furthermore, they are self-entitled “Clonaholics”, meaning
that they are “El Clon” fans, which challenges the results
of the study to be correlated to the general population. However,
this study might be important in providing the basis for further
research, and given the sparse amount of online telenovela audience
research, this study might be contributing to the enrichement of
current literature.
Other positive aspect of studying audience correspondance is that
they provide an unbiased self-report, since the writers are usually
unaware of the research (Singhal & Rogers, 1999). The study
of posted messages can be traced as a parallel to the study of audience
letters; it is also a description of the audience response to the
content of the telenovela, in their own words, without the researcher’s
interference. The value of this methodology can also be compared
to the ones specified by Law, and the same criticism applies.
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