ABSTRACT
The study of motion pictures is part of the Center's ongoing inquiry into the influence of the mass media on American life. It relies on the same basic research method as our studies of journalists in The Media Elite and creators of prime time television in Watching America, combining systematic content analysis with attitudinal data. College students were hired and trained to do both character and thematic movie coding, using a set of adapted instructions. The coding scheme was modified to improve the intersubjective reliability of coded information. Reliability tests were performed on both the character and the thematic analyses. The character content analysis itself involved a series of demographic and 'role-descriptive' variables. Victimizations could include a wide range of circumstances but to quote from the coding instructions 'victimization takes place when the character is by deliberate action, negligence, or circumstance injured, held back, persecuted or in some way disadvantaged by the acts of another'.
