Professors notes about this proposal.

One problem with it is it is written more like a letter than an academic document.
This person had to take out the first person. It should not read like I thought this
and I wonder about that
I include this proposal as an example because it has nice theory, significance,
and method sections.
This person did not need to have an abstract and an operational hypothesis.
It is important to make sure students are following the formatting and content
guidelines in the 680 handbook.

Introduction
With my research project I propose to address the mainstream media during
the housing bubble which lasted up until just a few years ago. My goal is to get
a sense of what the general tone of the media was during these few years when
it seemed as if homes were just going to keep appreciating and that there was no
end in sight for the supposed bounty provided by the appreciating home. I want
to get a sense of what those in mainstream media were saying about the practice
of subprime mortgage lending that eventually turned out to be quite disastrous for
the health of the American and global economy. The period of time I will be
considering will be 2003 until 2005. Home appreciation rose sharply in 2003
while in 2005 subprime delinquency spiked and homes began to depreciate
(Silvia, 2008, p. 15); so I will consider this to be the heart of the bubble. I am
quite interested to know how approving or how critical members of the
American mainstream media were of the practice. Specifically, I would like to
learn about the underlying tone of the discourse in the media regarding the
housing boom.
I believe this kind of research is important because the media plays an
important role in meaning construction in society. The media inculcate[s]
individuals with the values, beliefs, and codes of behavior that will integrate them
into the institutional structures of the larger society (Chomsky & Herman, 1988,
p. 1). I believe its important to consider what the media says about issues and
especially how political or economic issues are portrayed by the media because

of their influence and the potential consequences of the messages of the media.
Im not exactly sure how the most mainstream of the news sources were
covering the real estate boom and the unprecedented practices of subprime and
adjustable-rate mortgage lending, but I really only remember hearing positive
discourse about this phenomenon. I dont know for sure that the rhetoric was
unqualifiedly positive but my experience as a consumer of media during this time
period leads me to believe this was mostly the case. I dont remember there
being many people pointing out the dangers of the practice, the high risk
involved, the possible exploitation of those who might not be able to afford the
loans they were receiving, or the potential negative economic consequences of
the excessive loan defaults that were around the corner.
Much of the empirical research for this project would be analysis of the
media and their messages. While conceding that I will not be able to analyze the
content of multiple news media outlets for a two-year period given the limitations
of this project, I do believe that I may get a semblance of the mainstream medias
tone by analyzing the content of the USA Today newspaper. It is the most widely
read newspaper in the U.S. with more than 4.3 million readers daily (Zimmerman,
2007). The USA Today demographics also make it a very relevant newspaper
for this particular study because 74% of its readers own homes (USA Today MRI
Demographic Profiles). Such a high percentage of homeowners increases the
likelihood that many of the readers would be interested in articles about the
housing market and many would presumably give the papers coverage credence
if they are both readers of the newspaper and owners of homes.

My research will consist primarily of content analysis of USA Today. I have

not found much scholarly information related specifically to the millennial housing
bubble and the medias role in it, perhaps because it is so recent that everything
has come to light regarding the severity of the consequences of subprime
mortgage lending. I have, however, found considerable literature about the
housing bubble and subprime mortgage lending. I have also been able to locate
scholarly, peer-reviewed articles that are more general in nature regarding the
handling of economic and political issues within the media.
There are two important theories addressing mainstream medias coverage
of stories that the government might have a stake in that I will be framing my
argument around. One is Bennetts (1990) indexing theory, in which he
postulated that mass media news professionals, from the boardroom to the beat,
tend to index the range of voices and viewpoints in both news and editorials
according to the range of views expressed in mainstream government debate
about a given topic (p. 106). The other is Nivens (2005) economic theory of
political journalism, in which he attempts to synthesize many of the findings that
spawned from Bennetts seminal index theory. Niven found that indexing did
indeed occur in mainstream media with topics with high levels of governmental
consensus in part because it is so much more efficient to do so; but on dissensus
issues the overall tone and shape of the coverage is not limited by the
governments voice (p. 259). Mainstream media are more likely to have more
varying coverage and conflicting sources included and journalists enjoy freer rein
when covering dissensus politics. I will also research what the range of views

and the levels of consensus were in the public governmental discourse to

contextualize the medias commentary within the framework of Bennetts
indexing theory and Nivens economic theory of political journalism.
Abstract Hypothesis
My abstract hypothesis is that during the housing bubble of the early and mid
00s, mainstream media portrayed the housing market in an exceedingly positive
light with little accommodation for detractors of the practices that allowed for the
housing boom to flourish (e.g., subprime lending, adjustable-rate mortgages, nomoney-down mortgages) or analysts who portended the possible negative
consequences of these practices that might result in national or global economic
ruin.
Operational Hypothesis
My operational hypothesis is that during the period of 2003 2005 the
articles within USA Today regarding the housing market were overwhelmingly
positive and that there was very little coverage about the potential negative
implications of subprime lending.
Procedure
In order to find data to support, or disprove, my hypothesis, I will be
conducting content analysis of USA Today from January 2003 to January 2005. I
will be using a content analysis methodology because I think it will be the most

appropriate one to get an overall feel for the tone or general big picture of the
USA Todays coverage. A content analysis will yield numerical data that will
hopefully demonstrate an overall tendency toward covering the housing market in
a certain light. For initial research, this is preferable to other methodologies such
as discourse analysis, which would provide richer detail about what was being
said. For the purposes of this study, however, a content analysis is appropriate.
Future research should include discursive analysis of the coverage of the
housing boom during this period to further support the findings of this study and
glean what exactly was being said and perhaps what the subtext of the
messages were.
According to the Academic Search Premiere database, there are 398 articles
in USA Today from January 2003 to January 2005 that contain the terms real
estate or housing. This will be my population and, since I will be looking at
every article in the population, the procedure will constitute a census. I will use a
content coding scheme (Hoyle, et al, 2002, p. 390) to determine the gradations of
the articles tones on a positive/negative spectrum. I will also be looking for any
mention of subprime lending in the articles and will rate the coverage of the
practice on the same scale. The scale would be as follows:
Positive Article is unqualifiedly positive in reporting of the subject.
Mostly positive Article is positive in general but may have qualifications
which pose negative points or questions.
Neutral/indeterminable Article is purely informational, such as only

providing statistical data; or the tone of the article is not easily discernible.
Mostly negative - Article is negative in general but may have qualifications
which pose positive points or questions.
Negative - Article is unqualifiedly negative in reporting of the subject.

References
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