AMSI Research Project

Overview of Research Option 1: The Tennessee News Agenda Database

"The press," Bernard C. Cohen wrote in 1963, "may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think. But it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about." Cohen's famous quotation summarizes the basic idea behind what media scholars Maxwell E. McCombs and Donald L. Shaw would subsequently call the agenda-setting function of mass media. The idea is that media tend to set the agenda for public discourse - a tendency that amounts to a subtle, but overwhelmingly significant, form of media power. The Tennessee News Agenda Database tracks the agenda set by major newspapers in Tennessee. The data, which students compile from an online archive of newspaper content, is made available to researchers for academic purposes. It also helps identify issues that need to be covered by the MTSU Poll.

What's required:

This option requires you to look up an assigned edition of a Tennessee newspaper in the "Newsbank" online newspaper archive, and perform a content analysis of each archived article for that edition. The content analysis involves reading each article, entering specific information about each article into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, and copying the text of each article into a Microsoft Word file. After all text from all articles in your edition has been copied into the Microsoft Word file, you must run a Microsoft Word template that will produce a word frequency analysis for the text, copy the results of the word frequency analysis into the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, and upload the completed spreadsheet to the appropriate drop box on your class D2L site.

Accuracy check

As a check on the accuracy and completeness of your work, your spreadsheet will be compared electronically to the spreadsheet uploaded by a second AMSI student who has been randomly assigned to work on the same edition as you. The comparison is bound to produce minor differences. If the comparison finds major differences, though, you will be required to correct any inaccuracies in your work and resubmit it.

Get started

Find a computer you can use that has both Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word installed and also is connected to the Internet.
- You may use your own computer if you have one that meets these criteria
- If not, you can use any of the computers in the Business/Aerospace Building's student computer lab. It's open 24/7 during the semester.
Create a blank Microsoft Word file.
Download and open this Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.
Log into the Newsbank newspaper archive.
- If you are logging in from off campus, you will be taken to the site after you provide your PipelineMT username and password.
- If you are logging in on campus, the link will take you directly to the site
Click "Tennessee" on the list of states
Choose the name of your newspaper
Enter the date of the edition to which you have been assigned
If you have trouble accessing or using Newsbank, ask a reference librarian in Walker Library for help.

Completing the "Step 1 - Article data" tab in the spreadsheet

Complete one horizontal row on the "Step 1 - Article data" tab of the spreadsheet for each item in the archive for your newspaper edition.
- An "item" is anything Newsbank lists as content - articles, of course, but also photo captions, editorials, letters to the editor, obituaries, lists of sports scores or stock quotes - anything and everything in the archive.
- In general, you need to do each of the following for every item in your edition's archive:
  - Read the item
  - Enter your edition's date (mm/dd/yyyy format, please. Like this: 01/11/2009 for Jan. 11, 2009) and the item's headline along with the number of paragraphs in the item.
  - Enter five key terms or phrases from the item, one under "Item1," another under "Item2," and so on through "Item5."
    - These key terms or phrases could be seemingly significant people, places or things mentioned in the item.
    - They also could be words or phrases that describe what the item is about. For example, "health care," "education," or "the economy."
    - Try to keep phrases to five or fewer words
  - Highlight all text between the item's header and footer.
  - Copy and paste that text into the Microsoft Word file
  - Enter your "M number" (Not your Social Security number, please! Neither we nor you want someone stealing your identity.)
- If you'd like to watch some YouTube videos of the process:

This video explains how to enter data for an item that is a collection of several brief articles, each with its own headline.
This video explains how to enter data for an item that consists of a single article, whether short or long.
Both videos can be played in high-definition resolution if you use a computer with a broadband connection to the Internet.

If you encounter any item that's not a single article or a collection of briefs:
- Complete the spreadsheet's "MNUMBER," "DATE," "Headline," and "Paragraphs" columns for that item.
- In the "Term1" column of the spreadsheet, enter some word or phrase that describes what the item is (e.g., "Obituaries," or "Letters to the Editor," or "Sports scores")
- Copy the items' content - that is, all material between the item's "header" and "footer" into the Microsoft Word file.
- Move on to the next item

Remember to save your work often & back it up in a reliable place.
- If you choose to work on one of the computers in the library or a student lab, do not rely on the computer's hard drive to store your work, even for the short-term. Instead, buy a cheap USB drive and work from it. It'll be more reliable.
- Any version of "The computer ate my work" will not be a valid excuse for failing to meet the submission deadline.

Completing the "Step 2 - Word counts" tab in the spreadsheet

Do this step only after you have completed Step 1 above. Specifically, you should have:
- A Microsoft Word file containing the text of every item in the Newsbank archive for your edition
- A Microsoft Excel file with a row on the "Step 1 - Article data" tab completed for every item in the Newsbank archive for your edition
Find a computer that's connected to the Internet and has both Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel installed. If you have trouble finding such a computer, any of the student computers in the Walker Library or the 24/7 Business/Aerospace lab will work just fine.
Use the computer to open the Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word files you completed when working on the "Step 1 - Article data" tab.
Download this .zip file, decompress it by double-clicking on it, and extract and open the "Word Usage and Frequency.dot" file. (If .zip files befuddle you, you can try downloading the uncompressed file, but the download may not work.)
Give Word permission to run the macro in the template (If you don't know how to do this, watch the videos listed below)
Copy and past the text from your Word file into the template file
Run the macro
Select the table that the macro produces, copy it, and use "Past special / text" to paste it into the last two columns of the "Step 2 - Word counts" tab in the Excel file.
Save the Excel file. Better back it up somewhere, too.
Watching this video, followed by this video, will help you understand the process described above.

Submit your work and get your credit

Upload the completed spreadsheet to the "Project submission" drop box on your course's D2L website.
Late submissions cannot be accepted, so be sure to submit your work by the Option 1 deadline listed on the Home page.