The Album Content Analysis Project asks you to perform a critical sociological analysis of your pre-approved album choice. The required elements of the paper are outlined below and in the grading rubric at the end of these instructions.
Your completed project/paper must:
?Describe the album and artist(s) you are analyzing.
? Describe the method by which you will analyze the content. List and describe the 5 categories you will count and explain why you have chosen them. (Why did you choose the category? Is it theoretically driven?) Broad categories such as women, drugs, violence, crime, money, love, sex, etc., should be divided into subcategories to provide a deeper understanding of the material you are counting. For instance, the category drugs might be divided into references/messages that are ?discouraging? drug use or ?glorifying? drugs. If you have trouble understanding the lyrics you may find the websites ?Rap Genius? and ?The Original Hip-Hop Lyrics Archive? helpful. These links are also located in the ?Album Content Analysis? folder along with the pdf file ?Performing Content Analysis.?
? Provide a detailed description of the type of content that will be counted and used for each category and subcategory and provide examples from the album.
? Include graphs reflecting your quantitative findings for each category and subcategory. Discuss your findings, ranking categories and reporting frequencies (how often an item appears) for the entire album as a whole, as well as for each individual song. Discuss trends and patterns in your findings.
?Provide a qualitative description of the items coded in your content analysis, discussing the qualities (meanings/intentions/characteristics/attributes) of the references. (Please refer to Page 312 of the Performing Content Analysis? pdf for information on Qualitative Data Analysis.) You should describe the quality of the references. For example, if drug use is referenced, what is the meaning of the reference?
?Using a sociological perspective, provide a critical analysis of the material from the album. Use sociological theories and concepts to analyze and discuss the findings from your research.
Formatting for your papers: Arial 12 point font, 1 inch margins and double-spaced. Your paper should be a minimum of 1500 words, not counting the title and reference page, and must contain graphs representing your data. Graphs MUST be inserted into your paper ? only one document may be uploaded. Do NOT include your tally sheet.