The Qualitative content analysis I will be conducting is the language used to talk about NFL players and the specific injuries that they have suffered. I will be using many sports media articles such as ESPN to see how reporters discuss and the way that they frame these tragic and sad injuries. I will consider things like the language being used about the injury and how it either supports or attacks the player, team, or even the NFL as a whole. For my sampling method I will be using the non-probability sampling method of purposive sampling to gather data with my already specific perspectives in mind hoping to find data to support it.
The Sampling frame I will be looking at will be ESPN articles and other similar media companies to ESPN over 20 years, specifically 2003-2023. In this time frame I will look at media outlets from regional news sources as well as the big time sports news sources such as ESPN, Bleacherreport, Sports Center and other big name news outlets. I will examine how the media is framing these injuries and the actors that go along with the injuries, such as player, team, and league. To set up my sampling method I would reset the cache on my laptop as well as use other computers from the library or friends in order to remove the chance of any article bias. When conducting research I found that doing random sampling was not going to be
I am choosing news media because very often throughout media you see people forming their opinions based on the opinions being shown to them in the forms of media. This is a key component of the SCT (Social Context Theory) that I use heavily throughout my research and is the theoretical framework for my Research. Additionally on a more personal level I chose this topic due to me playing football for my entire life and having dealt with similar injuries to many NFL players and seeing several friends go through the same over a long course of time. This being said I can somewhat relate to NFL players who have been injured, it is not uncommon for parents/coaches to take the route of telling players to get back in the game or to not keep playing due to injury and I wonder how far that extends into the NFL within the context of News Media. Injuries are something that can seriously affect a players life outside of football and I wanted to see if news media truly see it that way or if they just write another article to make some quick cash and get some reactions.