Introducing a means of quantifying community reputation: the print media as a data source.
A community's reputation may have implications for self-esteem, morale, or other health outcomes of residents. In this study, we introduce a means of quantifying the reputation of communities in Calgary, Canada based on their portrayal in the daily citywide newspaper. Publication dates were selected from an 8.5-year period using constructed week sampling. For communities designated as high or low in well-being, sampled references were rated as positive, negative, or neutral in topic, by two independent raters who were blind to community identity. Findings suggest that the print media represent a convenient and discriminating data source for characterising some aspects of community reputation.
McLaren
Lindsay
L
Centre for Health and Policy Studies, Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary, 3330 Hospital Dr., NW, Calgary AB, Canada T2N 4N1. lmclaren@ucalgary.ca
Perry
Rosemary
R
Carruthers
Lesley
L
Hawe
Penelope
P
D001955:British Columbia; D006801:Humans; D009524:Newspapers as Topic; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012938:Social Perception; D012940:Social Problems