Perceptions of Social Change

100 Years of Front-Page Content in The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times

Bibliographic Data

ID20052352
AuthorsWayne A Danielson, Dominic L Lasorsa
Year2020
Pages103-116
Publication date2020-07-24
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenueText Analysis for the Social Sciences (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.4324/9781003064060-7
OpenAlexW3042028783
ISBN9781003064060
LanguageEN
Citations received5

This chapter illustrates a thematic content analysis in which theme prevalence is examined—in this case, during 100 years of front page news in The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times. The disappearance of references to individuals from the flow of frontpage symbols may be due to a growing tendency of the media to observe society from the point of view of single persons but from the point of view of groups or “publics”, “masses” or other collective entities such as “consumers”, “viewers”, “voters.” The Gemeinschaft-Gesellschaft formulation is rich, and it has provided one of the most enduring interpretations of the direction and character of social change in the modern world. As H. D. Lasswell, D. Lerner, and I. de Sola Pool would have expected, the flow of symbols through time does seem to reflect real social change. The flow of front-page symbols depicts a decrease in emphasis on the individual and an increase in emphasis on the group

Front page · Geography · Media studies · Meteorology · Perception · Sociology · History · Mathematics · Media Studies and Communication · Medicine · Neuroscience · Psychology · Gerontology

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