PageOneX: New Approaches to Newspaper Front Page Analysis

Authors

  • Sasha Costanza-Chock Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Pablo Rey-Mazón Independent Researcher (previous) Visiting Scientist, MIT Center for Civic Media

Keywords:

column inches, content analysis, content coding, data visualization, front page, free software, news agenda, news attention, newspaper, news analytics, online tools, software

Abstract

PageOneX is a Free/Libre and Open Source Software tool that we designed to aid in the coding, analysis, and visualization of newspaper front pages. Communication scholars have long analyzed newspaper front pages, using column inches as an important indicator of mass media attention. In the past, this involved obtaining physical copies of newspapers, coding and measurement by hand, and manual input of measurements into a spreadsheet or database, followed by calculation, analysis, and visualization. PageOneX automates some of these steps, simplifies others, and makes it possible for teams of investigators to conduct shared newspaper front page analysis online. We review scholarship in this area, describe our approach in depth, provide concrete examples of analysis conducted by media scholars using PageOneX, and discuss future directions for research and development.

Author Biographies

Sasha Costanza-Chock, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Associate Professor of Civic MediaDepartment of Comparative Media Studies/WritingMIThttp://schock.cc@schock

Pablo Rey-Mazón, Independent Researcher (previous) Visiting Scientist, MIT Center for Civic Media

See http://numeroteca.org

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Published

2016-04-28

Issue

Vol. 10 (2016)

Section

Articles

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