Appendix II

Sample selection of newspapers: year-wise

The universe and the sample

The universe for this study comprises all the editions of the four selected dailies

published during the calendar years i.e., January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2017.

Sampling procedure. While selecting the sample, keeping in view the time and

financial resources available for the researcher, it was thought that a sample of 10% of

all the editions of the four newspapers would be sufficient. This sample, selected

randomly, would be adequate for generalising to the universe (Stempel, 1952; Riffe et.

al., 1993). Two methods were adopted to select the editions to constitute the study

sample:

1) continuous week, and 2) constructed week.

The sample selection was done in two stages:

i. Stage one. A continuous week sampling method was adopted to select
randomly three continuous weeks (one continuous week comprises days from
Monday to Sunday) from all the weeks in the designated time period – 2009 to
2013 ( But, each year was considered as January 1, to December 31). In order
to select the required weeks through this method, the sample year was divided
into 3 sub-periods, for each year that is, i) January, February, March and April;
ii) May, June, July and August; iii) September, October, November and
December. Then three weeks that is one each from the three sub-periods were
randomly selected for each year.
ii. Stage two. The second stage comprised a constructed week method (Budd
et. al., 1967). For this purpose seven days of the week were randomly
selected from each sub-period to construct a week. That means, a Monday, a
Tuesday, a Wednesday, a Thursday, a Friday, a Saturday and a Sunday were
selected randomly from all Mondays, Tuesdays …etc., of each of the sub-

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 period. Thus, three constructed weeks were selected from the three sub–
periods of the sample year.

Over all, the following days came up for analysis.

2008
All in all, the following weeks were selected through continuous week method
making up for three weeks of the sample.
Sub – period -I :February 10- February 16
Sub – period - II :May 11- May 17
Sub – period - III :December 14 – December 20
No. of days : 21
Total No. of editions: 84

The following days of the week were selected through constructed week method
making up for the three weeks of the sample.
Sub – period -I: January 17, January 28, March 11, March 22, April 9, April 25, April
27.
Sub – period - II: June 22 , June 12, July 1, July 16, August 1, August 4, August
16.
Sub- period - III: September 19, September 25, September 30, October 19,
November 5, November 15, November 24.

No. of days: 21
Total No. of editions : 84

2009
All in all, the following weeks were selected through continuous week method
making up for three weeks of the sample.
Sub – period -I : March 22 - March 28, 2009
Sub – period - II : June 7- June13, 2009
Sub – period - III : December 20-December 26, 2009
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No. of days : 21
Total No. of editions: 84
The following days of the week were selected through constructed week method
making up for the three weeks of the sample.
Sub – period -I : January 7, January 25, February 16, February 28, March 11,
April 3, and April 30
Sub – period - II: May 12, May 31, June 22, July 10, July 22, August 8 and August
20
Sub- period - III : September 8, September 30, October 3, October 25,
November 26, December 11, and December 27
No. of days : 21
Total No. of editions : 84

2010
All in all, the following weeks were selected through continuous week method
making up for three weeks of the sample.
Sub – period -I : April 5-April 11, 2010
Sub – period - II : June 20- June 26, 2010
Sub – period - III : October 31-November 6, 2010
No. of days : 21
Total No. of editions: 84
The following days of the week were selected through constructed week method
making up for the three weeks of the sample.
Sub – period -I : January 8, January 24, February 8, February 18, March
17,March 28, and April 29
Sub – period - II: May 5, May 17, June 11, July 24, July 31, August 8 and August 19
Sub- period - III : September 5, September 28, October 11, November 18,
November 17, and December 24,
No. of days : 21
Total No. of editions : 84

2011
All in all, the following weeks were selected through continuous week method
making up for three weeks of the sample.
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Sub – period -I : April 17-23, 2011
Sub – period - II : August 21-27, 2011
Sub – period - III : September 4-10, 2011
No. of days : 21
Total No. of editions: 84

The following days of the week were selected through constructed week method
making up for the three weeks of the sample.
Sub – period –I: January 1, February 4, February 14, March 6, March 23, March 31,
and April 5
Sub – period - II: May 8, May 31, June 9, June 25, July 11, July 22, and August 17
Sub- period - III: September 24, October 9, October 17, November 15, December 14,
and December 30
No. of days : 21
Total No. of editions : 84

2012
All in all, the following weeks were selected through continuous week method
making up for three weeks of the sample.
Sub – period -I : April 22-28, 2012
Sub – period - II : August 19-25, 2012
Sub – period - III : December 16-December 22, 2012
No. of days : 21
Total No. of editions: 84

The following days of the week were selected through constructed week method
making up for the three weeks of the sample.
Sub – period -I: January 7, January 31, February 5, February 13, March 14, March 29,
and April 6
Sub – period - II: May 12, May 27, June 5, June 20, July 19, July 27, and August 11
Sub- period - III: September 9, September 24, October 9, October 31, November 15,
November 30, and December 8
No. of days : 21
Total No. of editions : 84
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2013
All in all, the following weeks were selected through continuous week method
making up for three weeks of the sample.
Sub – period -I : January 6-12, 2013
Sub – period - II : August 25-31, 2013
Sub – period - III : December 22-December 28, 2013
No. of days : 21
Total No. of editions: 84

The following days of the week were selected through constructed week method
making up for the three weeks of the sample.
Sub – period -I: February 4, February 19, March 6, March 21, April 12, and April 27
Sub – period - II: May 12, May 28, June 10, June 26, July 18, July 26, and August 10
Sub- period - III: September 8, September 23, October 30, November 14, November
26, December 14 and December 20.
No. of days : 21
Total No. of editions : 84

2014
All in all, the following weeks were selected through continuous week method
making up for three weeks of the sample.
Sub – period -I : February 23 – February 28 & March 1st
Sub – period - II : July 1- July 6 & 7th
Sub – period - III : November 30th , December 1- December 6th
No. of days : 21
Total No. of editions: 84

The following days of the week were selected through constructed week method
making up for the three weeks of the sample.
Sub – period -I: January 13, January 31, February 4, March 15, March 23, April 10,
April 23.
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Sub – period -II: May 8, May 17, June 1, June 30, July 29, August 6, August 15.
Sub- period -III: September 14, September 30, October 29, November 10,
November 21, December 18, December 27.

No. of days: 21
Total No. of editions : 84

2015
All in all, the following weeks were selected through continuous week method
making up for three weeks of the sample.
Sub – period -I : January 18- January 24.
Sub – period - II : May 3- May 9.
Sub – period - III : November 8 - November 14
No. of days : 21
Total No. of editions: 84

The following days of the week were selected through constructed week method
making up for the three weeks of the sample.
Sub – period -I: January 2, February 10, February 21, March 9, March 25, April 5,
April 16.
Sub – period-II: May 12, May 30, June 5, June 17, June 22, July 23, August 9.
Sub- period-III: September 6, September 28, October 9, November 25, December 3,
December 12, December 22.

No. of days: 21
Total No. of editions : 84

2016
All in all, the following weeks were selected through continuous week method
making up for three weeks of the sample.
Sub – period -I : April 3,4,5,6,7,8&9
Sub – period - II : June 26,27,28,29,30 and 1&2(July)
Sub – period - III : November 25,26,27,28,29,30 and 1st October
No. of days : 21
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Total No. of editions: 84

The following days of the week were selected through constructed week method
making up for the three weeks of the sample.
Sub – period -I: January 19, January 31, February 8, March 3, March 16, March 26,
April 15.
Sub – period - II: May 19, May 22, July 15, July 19, August 13, August 15,
August 24.
Sub- period - III: September 2, September 14, September 24, October 17, November
1, November 24, December 4.
No. of days: 21
Total No. of editions : 84
2017
All in all, the following weeks were selected through continuous week method
making up for three weeks of the sample.
Sub – period -I : March 5,6,7,8,9,10&11
Sub – period - II : July 23,24,25,26,27,28&29
Sub – period - III : October 15,16,17,18,19,20&21
No. of days : 21
Total No. of editions: 84

The following days of the week were selected through constructed week method
making up for the three weeks of the sample.
Sub – period -I: January 23, February 1, February 16, March 28, March 8, April 14,
April 23.
Sub – period - II: May 5, May 27, June 5, June 11, June 29, July 19, August 9.
Sub- period - III: September 21, September 27, October 28, November 10,
November 12, December 5, December 18.

No. of days: 21
Total No. of editions : 84

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Since no public holidays occurred during these 42 days, all the editions of the four

newspapers published on these days were considered for analysis. Thus, basing on

the continuous and constructed week methods, there were 42 editions per daily and a

total of 168 editions for four sample dailies came up for analysis in each year of the

study. Similarly, the sample for other four years has been drawn basing on the above

criteria. Since the same sample has been applied for the other four years i.e 2010,

2011, 2012, and 2013, a total of 840(168X5=840) days have come for analysis during

the study period of five years.