ABSTRACT
Content analysis has changed drastically since the end of the 19th century, when former newspaper editor John Gilmer Speed (1893) published his report on sensationalism in New York daily newspapers, including Joseph Pulitzer’s World. Working by gaslight or early incandescent lighting, Gilmer hand-tallied published columns devoted to 13 topics in two Sunday editions —12 years apart —of four competing dailies. It was a simple matter to hand-calculate the percentages devoted to each topic and to illustrate a 6,000% increase in “gossip” in Pulitzer’s newspaper across the 12 years (Sumpter, 2001).
