This is a methodological analysis of Brent and Maria (2018) study on the visual war between the presidential candidates in the American 2016 campaigns, Trump and Clinton. The study was investigating genderization of the American political parties; Democrats as being feminine and Republicans as being masculine
Brent and Maria (2018) used a content analysis research method to determine the truth about the genderization of democratic and republican parties in the American elections. Content analysis is a research technique that is used in determining themes, concepts, or words within a qualitative data. The researcher is in a position to identify these words or phrases from newspapers, interviews, videos, or audios to determine some meaning or relationship. In this study, the authors tried to identify trends using phrases and traits like “physical stamina”, “intelligence”, “courage”, “honesty”, “charisma” and others to determine relations whether the political parties are gendered ( Shaughnessy, Zechmeister, & Zechmeister, 2000) .
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Using content analysis for such a study is suitable but it is prone to many challenges. First, the types of phrases used to determine genderization are very broad, the author picked only a few which will lead to biased results. The results are likely to be biased because there was no control group for this study. The content analysis method is very difficult to calculate or automate ( Christensen et al., 2011) . The authors try to deduce meaning from these phrases, but it is so abstract and out of place, without any scientific proof. This result cannot be reliable or valid because there is no way to prove the outcome.
This study does not indicate any policy modifications. Content analysis is used to make inferences and speculate over perceptions ( Downe ‐ Wamboldt, 1992) . It is not easy or reliable using content analysis results to inform policy.
References
Christensen, L. B., Johnson, B., Turner, L. A., & Christensen, L. B. (2011). Research
methods, design, and analysis.
Downe ‐ Wamboldt, B. (1992). Content analysis: method, applications, and issues. Health care
for women international , 13 (3), 313-321.
Hale, Brent & Grabe, Maria. (2018). Visual War: A Content Analysis of Clinton and Trump
Subreddits During the 2016 Campaign. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly. 95. 107769901876650. 10.1177/1077699018766501.
Shaughnessy, J. J., Zechmeister, E. B., & Zechmeister, J. S. (2000). Research methods in
psychology . McGraw-Hill.
