Read All About- Analysis & Data Collection

Authors Avatar

Statistics Coursework: Read All About It

I am investigating whether or not sentences in broadsheet newspapers contain more words than sentences in tabloid newspapers.

My main hypothesis is that sentences contain more words in broadsheet newspapers compared to tabloid newspapers. 

I believe this because broadsheet newspapers are generally targeted at a more intellectual audience and articles in that type of newspapers paper are more detailed and informative.

My sub hypothesis is that there are more pictures per page in a tabloid newspaper compared to a broadsheet newspaper.

To avoid confusion this will also include adverts. This links into my main hypothesis that sentences contain more words in broadsheets; as in a tabloid newspaper more space is given to pictures so there isn’t as much space to write on.

To collect data I will be using two mainstream broadsheet and tabloid newspapers; The Times and The Daily Mail. Bias may occur if a major story breaks that might contain more information than usual; (journalists may have more to say about a devastating natural disaster than an MP’s latest antics) so to try and minimize this I will use two editions of the two newspapers- bringing the total number of newspapers to four. For my main hypothesis I will use simple random sampling, stratified sampling and systematic sampling to collect data. Firstly I will randomly choose 20 pages in each newspaper. Then, after counting all the sentences in the selected article on the page, I will use stratified sampling to find out how many sentences from that article I need to collect data from. For instance if there are 24 sentences in an article, out of a total of 329, then I will collect sample 7 sentences in this article (24/329 x 100= 7.29 rounded down to 7). My aim is to get 100 pieces of data from each newspaper, bringing the total sample to 400 which I believe is a good size. Once I have done this I will then use systematic sampling to choose the specific sentences; so for instance if an article has 15 sentences and I want to test 5 sentences, I will collect data from every 3rd sentence. For articles I will collect the appropriate number of sentences. This way I get a range of sentences throughout the article and my results will not be biased. Systematic sampling is a simple and quick method to select a random sample and it is unlikely that a pattern will occur in a piece of writing. When I am counting the number of words I may encounter problems such as how to count numbers; to solve this, when counting words numbers will be counted as all one word for example: 7528= Seven thousand five hundred and sixty, would be all one word.

Join now!

I will use simple random sampling for my sub hypothesis. I will randomly choose 20 pages from each newspaper. Then I just have to count how many pictures are on the sample page. There are a variety of problems that could be encountered; for instance whether or not to include diagrams, logos and adverts in the count. I will not count diagrams and logos but to avoid too much confusion I will include pictures that are a part of adverts.

I will not be using cluster sampling, quota sampling, convenience sampling,  opinion polls or questionnaires. I am collecting ...

This is a preview of the whole essay