Content Analysis Analysis

I'm taking my senior seminar for Communication and Media studies this semester and as part of the course, each student has to do her own research paper/project.  Four of the seminar students (including me) are doing a content analysis where we code some type of media content.  Three of us are looking at TV shows and one is looking at video game game play.  We have to code our own projects and at least one other student's project.  I'm looking at the portrayals of characters according to their age in Nickelodeon programs and I coded the video game project and two episodes of Top Chef for one of the other content analyses in the class.

The funny thing is, comm students get a lot of flak for being comm students.  We have it "easy" because "all we do" is watch videos and talk about them in class.  Most people don't take communication and media studies seriously, so likewise our work is not considered serious or important.

With content analyses, though, you have to pay so much attention to what you're coding.  You have to watch for details and you have to take careful notes about what the analysis is looking for.  Then after you spend hours coding episodes and collect notes from students who coded the same content, you have to somehow make sense of what you have.  You have to find a pattern, make an argument, or organize support for your idea.  All of this on top of regular course readings, essays, and exams.

Maybe it's because I'm at a small liberal arts college, but there's definitely a hierarchy of majors that I see.  The natural sciences get the most respect and prestige because they have three-hour labs and independent research projects.  The theater students spend hours and hours rehearsing so of course they're working hard.  The communication students read a lot and spend some time watching movies and TV.

See how it sounds bad when I say it that way?  But that's the way most people think of those majors.  Everyone watches TV and browses the internet, so it can't be important that we study them, but the fact that everyone is exposed to and uses media is the exact reason we should pay attention to and understand all aspects of the media.