I am looking to do a content analysis on how left and right wing UK newspapers presented the link between MMR and autism. However, the number of articles I get back when searching the terms 'autism' and 'MMR' on Nexus for each newspaper is huge. The number also differs for each newspaper.
How can I decrease these articles into a manageable size? Stratified sampling?
There are a number of online programs that allow you to determine sample size for estimating the value of a parameter such as a percentage. Another alternative is to examine what is known as the power of your test such as a t-Test, using the software G*Power.
Typically you narrow down the size of a sample by specifying inclusion and exclusion criteria based on your research question. I find in working with my doctoral students that the kind of question you are asking often requires a careful re-examination of you research questions. The more precisely you can define what it is you are wanting to know, the clearer your criteria for including and excluding articles will become. One approach you might take is to begin reading through headlines and initial topic sentences of articles and see if there might not be a kind of informal taxonomy that emerges--- e.g. articles that are personal stories about parents or children, articles focused on medical findings, some concerning legal problems, some having to do with public policy. As you begin to see some patterns emerge you can ask yourself again, what it is that you are setting out to understand which will in then help you to realize what is relevant and irrelevant to your particular inquiry.
Have you considered adding more exclusion criteria or an additional level of screening prior to your Nexus search? What is your research question? Is it specifically about the "belief" that MMR may influence the "manifestation" or expression of ASD? You may also have to consider only selecting specific newspapers a priori--I would assume you would want to go through a systematic process to make sure you were selecting the newspapers that were most reflective of your operationalized definition of "left wing" and "right wing" in the UK and control for your own biases (perhaps send out a survey asking how others categorize or rank the newspapers you are considering by the "left" or "right" slant). Perhaps then you could use just select newspapers to code for your project.
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