Miracle Taylor

July 26th, 2022

Research Project

This research project is a content analysis research. “Content analysis assumes that study

of the manifest content is meaningful. This assumption requires that the content be accepted as a

"common meeting ground" for the communicator, the audience, and the analyst. That is, the

content analyst assumes that the "meanings" which he ascribes to the content, by assigning it to

certain categories, correspond to the "meanings" intended by the communicator and/or

understood by the audience. In other words, the assumption is that there is a common universe of

discourse among the relevant parties, so that the manifest content can be taken as a valid unit of

study.” (Berelson, 1952, p 19)

I conducted a content analysis of a social media platform for a large, social or

community-based organization that is very active in posting. The organization I chose was

Upike’s Black Student Union. I chose to look at their Instagram, which has 415 posts. When

looking through their Instagram I divided by the first 50 plus recent posts and then I scrolled

through the older posts. I noticed that each post was different, but the post would talk about a

certain thing which led me to think about what they are trying to do and how their page is run. I

would notice a certain pattern and the post that was under I would save it for later and sorted

them out and analyzed each category.

 I analyzed these posts by scrolling through, reading the caption, if the picture had words

and if not, I analyzed the picture as well to see what message they were telling. Also read the

comments and see who all interacted with the post and was able to separate their post into

sections/categories. The first thing I noticed were posts that update what is going on in our

society and I call this category “Stay Woke.” An example from their page is a picture of what a

police officer did to a black person compared to a white person. More posts on what is being

done to African Americans. The second category I thought of from their post is “Living in the

moment”, this category shows events that they held, and all the fun students have with that

organization. Even students supporting and helping. Seeing smiles on student faces and them

enjoying their time that this organization gave them. Third category is “Progressing to the

future.” This category is about the BSU progressing and making a more diverse space. They post

their meetings and times and more and more people show up. The post that really made me think

of this theme is that their diversity team and Upike was able to get an African American barber

for our students. Many students complain about having to wait to go home to get a haircut

because there's not many people down at Pikeville that can do what they want so they wanted

change and they made it happen. The last category, even though there are so many more to talk

about, is “Engaging with Students.” This category comes from many of their posts that

encourage their students, talk positively about students, and not just the ones that have joined the

organization but everyone. Telling them to be you and posting positive quotes. An example of a

post is them posting a new student, a student who just joined Upike and hasn't even stepped foot

on campus. The young man signed a scholarship to track and field and they made a post

welcoming him. Going through their Instagram showed me a lot about their organization.
 These themes give meaning to the organization, showing people they are a Union to their

students, to the organization and they have goals to accomplish and goals they have already

achieved. That this organization cares and works hard to make a better environment for their

students. Their Instagram page gives off a very kind, caring, and welcoming perception to their

followers and friends based on my findings. The organization's target audience is African

Americans but not just them, everyone is diverse and every student at Upike. The themes that I

associated with the posts and the posts on their page relate to the audience very well. They

connect with their students; the students are able to keep up with the updates and also provides

resources for the students such as the barber that is now in Pikeville.

Doing this content analysis over University of Pikeville’s Black Student Union was very

interesting and a learning experience. While going through their social media you were able to

see all the themes that were cooperated from their posts and them engaging with their students.
 References

Berelson, B. (1952). Content analysis in communication research. Free Press.