Appendix A: Content analysis variables

Variables for story analysis

In addition to the ones shown here, each story was given an individual id-code and three variables
indicating from which genre, newspaper group, and newspaper the story was extracted.
variable
story topic
story size
connected elements on same spread
continues on another page
links to website
additional layout layers
background colour or photo
number of charts
number of maps
number of other diagrams
number of timelines
number of factboxes
number of cartoons
number of pull-out quotes
number of clippings from other sources
number of illustrations
number of writer banners
number of photos

type
textual
nominal 17 (supermini, mini, small, medium, large, major, and
standalone-photograph
textual
binary (yes / no)
numerical (ordinal variable)
numerical (ordinal variable)
nominal 14 (none, colour, photo, both colour and photo)
numerical (ordinal variable)
numerical (ordinal variable)
numerical (ordinal variable)
numerical (ordinal variable)
numerical (ordinal variable)
numerical (ordinal variable)
numerical (ordinal variable)
numerical (ordinal variable)
numerical (ordinal variable)
numerical (ordinal variable)
numerical (ordinal variable)

Variables for photo analysis

In addition to the ones shown here, each photograph was given an individual id-code and three variables indicating from which genre, newspaper group, and newspaper the photo was extracted.
variable
content type
colours
number of people
camera distance
camera angle
camera held level or canted
subject gaze
cropping form
width, mm *
height, mm *
area, mm *
effects used
alignment to layout grid

type
nominal 17 (people, scene or location, vehicle, animal, object, symbolic, other)
binary (full colour / black and white)
numerical (ordinal variable), exact value entered if less than 8 people were
depicted, otherwise coded as group
nominal 110 (from extreme close-up to wide-shot)
nominal 14 (low, eye-level, high, behind)
binary (level / canted)
nominal 14 (direct, to side, contained, obscured)
nominal 15 (rectangle, circle, ellipse, cutout, other)
numerical (scale variable)
numerical (scale variable)
numerical (scale variable)
textual
binary (level / canted)

*Only area was measured with cut-out photographs.

Appendix A: Content analysis variables

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