445461

12445461MessingerTeaching Sociology
2012
TSOXXX10.1177/0092055X

Teaching Note
Teaching Sociology

Teaching Content Analysis 40(4) 360­–367

© American Sociological Association 2012
DOI: 10.1177/0092055X12445461
through Harry Potter http://ts.sagepub.com

Adam M. Messinger1

Abstract
Content analysis is a valuable research tool for social scientists that unfortunately can prove challenging
to teach to undergraduate students. Published classroom exercises designed to teach content analysis
have thus far been predominantly envisioned as lengthy projects for upper-level courses. A brief and
engaging exercise may be more beneficial for introductory social science courses in which less time
can be allotted to any one topic, such as content analysis. With this in mind, this article presents
a highly engaging and temporally compact classroom exercise designed to teach introductory social
science students about content analysis. In the exercise, students are guided through a content analysis
of the music in Harry Potter films. An evaluation study suggests that the exercise improves students’
understanding of content analysis and that students find it both highly helpful and enjoyable.

Keywords
classroom-based exercises, qualitative methods, sociological research

Introductory social science courses typically expose
undergraduate students to a suite of research meth-
ods. This serves both to begin training the next
generation of researchers and to help students
understand how social science knowledge is shaped
by the methods used to acquire it. Content analysis
is one of the more challenging research methods to
teach. Teachers often lament that students have dif-
ficulty grasping qualitative analysis in general (e.g.,
Blank 2004; Clark and Lang 2002; Hood 2006),
and, piling on this confusion, content analysis exists
in a gray area that is neither distinctly qualitative nor
quantitative (see Dougherty 2005; Krippendorff
2004). One possible solution for teachers is to have
their classes engage in the complete content analysis
process, from a literature review, to study design,
sampling, coding, and finally, theory development
(for example, see Carpenter 2009; Finley 2004;
Papademas 1983; Taylor 2003). While this is viable
for specialized courses using a content analysis to
illustrate a point, introductory courses require a
compact approach to leave time for other pressing
topics. With this in mind, the present article intro-
duces a temporally compact, engaging content
analysis project in which students analyze Harry
Potter film music. In addition, a quasi-experimental
classroom evaluation study illustrates the effective-
ness of this exercise.
Defining Content Analysis
Content analysis is conceptually straightforward:
It is the study of social artifacts (human creations,
such as books, laws, art, and media). Highly
detailed data from social artifacts (e.g., a book) can
be made more manageable to analyze by selecting
a small, random sample of units within the social
artifact (e.g., randomly sampled chapters from
the book). These data are then coded (divided
into categories), a process that typically involves
counting the frequency of and/or comparing the
1
Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, IL, USA
Corresponding Author:
Adam M. Messinger, Northeastern Illinois University,
Justice Studies Department, 5500 North St. Louis Ave.,
Lech Walesa Hall, Room 4062, Chicago, IL 60625
Email: amess002@gmail.com
Messinger 361
co-occurrence of categories. Often, the goal is to
develop theories inductively that can help explain
patterns in the data. (For a more in-depth descrip-
tion of content analysis and its many variations,
see Krippendorff 2004; Neuendorf 2002.)
Understandably, it may be harder for students to
visualize content analysis than other research
methods they have encountered more frequently in
their everyday lives, such as survey research.
Teaching Content Analysis
This may be a topic that students will grasp best
when going beyond a textbook by actually per-
forming a content analysis. However, the type of
course being taught in part determines the best
format of such a content analysis student project.
In the case of a specialized course, students could
conduct a content analysis on the course’s main
topic, thereby justifying an extension of the level
of detail and time required for the project. For
example, in line with the core purpose of her
Introduction to Criminal Justice course, Finley
(2004) dedicated three weeks to a student content
analysis of film, television, and music portrayals of
the various types of players in the criminal justice
system, and then students compared these public
personas with more realistic data. Likewise,
Papademas (1983) dedicated an entire semester of
his Sociology of Communications and Media
course to a mixed-methods content analysis on the
mass media. In reflecting on the success of the
project, Papedemas (1983:394) aptly noted, “Done
well, the context/content analysis projects are
time-consuming both in and out of class, some-
times taking time away from other teaching
modes.” Indeed, the full process of content analy-
sis projects—from literature reviews to data selec-
tion, sampling, coding (possibly iteratively), and
data analysis—can be quite time-consuming, but
this may be acceptable in topic-specific courses
wherein the content analysis illustrates a core
course concept.
It is less feasible to allot so much time to cover-
ing content analysis in an introductory-level course
where many other topics still need to be addressed.
In an example striking a balance between detail and
temporal brevity, in his Introduction to Sociology
course, Taylor (2003) devoted one class period and
a short take-home assignment to a content analysis
his students conducted on gender stereotypes in
children’s books. To enhance adoptability of such
exercises for introductory social science courses, the
ideal content analysis project could be even briefer,
as many core sociology textbooks—and in turn,
most likely, many sociology teachers—devote only
a handful of paragraphs to teach this concept.
Why Harry Potter?
In designing a temporally brief, highly engaging
content analysis exercise for lower-level social sci-
ence courses (e.g., Introduction to Sociology,
Methodology, etc.), Harry Potter film music is an
excellent data source for three key reasons: This
data source should be an appealing and therefore
memorable data source for students, its reliance on
musical rules lends itself to coding, and a social
science research goal can be illustrated.
Regarding the first point, a memorable data
source has the potential to make an exercise more
impactful for students. Not surprisingly, engaging
students through movie-related exercises has a rich
tradition in the social sciences (e.g., Berg 1992;
Demerath 1981; Finley 2004), as do exercises
focusing on music (e.g., Ahlkvist 1999; Albers and
Bach 2003; Armstrong 2001; Walczak and Reuter
1994). The Harry Potter franchise’s overwhelming
popularity makes it a particularly ideal data source:
More than 400 million of the books have been sold
worldwide (BBC 2008), and not adjusting for
inflation, the movies based on the books represent
the highest-grossing film series ever (Box Office
Mojo 2011). The Harry Potter book-movie fran-
chise has been employed in classroom exercises to
teach students about a wide range of topics, such as
forensic science (Palmer 2010), political science
(Deets 2009), copyright infringement (Striphas
2009), the empirical use of reflexive journals
(Gerstl-Pepin and Patrizio 2009), underage drink-
ing (Welsh 2007), and linear modeling (McShea,
Vogel, and Yarnevich 2005).
Beyond its potential for making an exercise
more memorable, Harry Potter film music also
employs composition rules that lend themselves
well to coding. The composer of the music for the
first three Harry Potter films, John Williams, is
one of the most accomplished, award-winning
362 Teaching Sociology 40(4)
Hollywood composers of all time (The Internet
Movie Database 2011). His success in part draws
from the music rules he uses to aid in a film’s sto-
rytelling. For example, as Webster (2009) noted,
among many other techniques used in the early
Harry Potter films, Williams regularly employed
(1) visual-matching music (music that closely mir-
rors and therefore emphasizes movements on the
screen), (2) dialogue rules (music is either mute or
soft during character script lines to make them audi-
ble), (3) leitmotifs (musically reoccurring themes
usually attached to a certain character or idea; see
Darby and Du Bois 1999), and (4) music rule break-
ing (breaching a previously established music rule,
such as the above, so as to emphasize another rule).
Students may be able to treat these first three tech-
niques as coding categories for a “music type” vari-
able, and they can then discern when and why the
fourth technique, rule breaking, occurs.
Last, a content analysis of this data source can
illustrate the use of this method in the service of
achieving a social science research goal. Specifi-
cally, students can employ content analysis to
illuminate the types of national and gender stereo-
types displayed by the Harry Potter film music.
These findings have particular social science rele-
vance, given that cultural norms can shape the
creation of films as well as socialize media con-
sumers (Dowd 1999; Hoeckner et al. 2011). It is
with these points in mind that I designed a content
analysis classroom exercise.
The Harry Potter Content
Analysis Exercise
In addition to detailing the content analysis
exercise, this section also reports on a quasi-
experimental classroom evaluation study of the
exercise.
Sampling
In 2010, at a New York City four-year college,
with the approval of its institutional review board,
I contacted faculty members teaching sections of
Introduction to Sociology. After receiving permis-
sion from two instructors—neither of whom
had yet taught research methods and content analy-
sis to their students—I met their students in
their classroom in the second half of a regularly
scheduled class meeting time. To decrease the
possibility of perceived coercion on the part
of students, I required that the instructors leave
the room for the duration of the exercise. I orally
introduced the study’s purpose to the students
(to conduct the exercise with them and test its
effectiveness through two brief questionnaires),
after which I distributed consent forms. Of the
59 total students in attendance at these two classes,
49 were at least 18 years of age and consented to
participate.
Study Design
Pretest questionnaires given to students included
closed-ended items on gender, year in college,
whether they are majoring or intending to major
in sociology, whether they have taken a research
methodology course before, their likelihood of
taking research methods courses in the future
(ranging from 1 = very unlikely to 6 = very likely),
and their level of understanding of qualitative
analysis, content analysis, social artifacts, and
coding (ranging from 1 = very unfamiliar to
6 = very familiar). After collection of the pretest
questionnaires, the exercise (detailed below)
was conducted for 30 to 35 minutes, and then
posttest questionnaires were distributed that,
through closed-ended questions, inquired about
the respondents’ interest in taking future research
methods courses and their familiarity with quali-
tative analysis, content analysis, social artifacts,
and coding. Posttest questionnaires also asked
how enjoyable it was to participate in the exercise
(ranging from 1 = not at all enjoyable to 6 = very
enjoyable), how helpful the exercise was in add-
ing to their knowledge of content analysis (rang-
ing from 1 = very unhelpful to 6 = very helpful),
and whether they would recommend this exercise
for other courses.
Given that some professors may wish to pro-
vide additional content analysis practice for their
students, an optional extension of the exercise
that takes approximately 30 to 40 minutes is also
discussed in this article. However, in light of the
previously stated importance of brevity for class
exercises in introductory social science courses,
the posttest questionnaire was distributed after
completion of the main exercise, and the exten-
sion was excluded from evaluation.
Messinger 363

Harry Potter & the Sorcerer’s Stone

* Scene One *

EVENT: MUSIC TYPE (Circle One Per Number)

1. Opening Theme Fits Quiet

2. Scene Setting Theme Fits Quiet
3. Dumbledore Walking Theme Fits Quiet
4. Snatching Lamplights Theme Fits Quiet
5. Dialogue 1 Theme Fits Quiet
6. Cat Shape-Shifts Theme Fits Quiet
7. Dialogue 2 Theme Fits Quiet
8. Flying Motorcycle Theme Fits Quiet
9. Dialogue 3 Theme Fits Quiet
10. Dialogue 4 + Carrying Baby Theme Fits Quiet

Figure 1. Coding sheet for Harry Potter content analysis exercise

The Exercise power of movie music, distributing the coding

Between questionnaires, the exercise was con-
ducted, which began with a five-minute lecture
defining qualitative analysis, content analysis,
social artifacts, and coding. I then explained that
we were going to conduct a content analysis on a
scene from a Harry Potter film. I briefly explained
how music can play an important role in support-
ing the visual storytelling in a movie, but film
music is often consumed almost subconsciously.
Content analysis is an excellent tool to uncover the
messages of such music. I then handed out a cod-
ing sheet vertically listing labels representing the
10 segment “events” in the first scene of the film
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Columbus
2001), and horizontally displayed next to each seg-
ment were three music types: “theme,” “fits,” and
“quiet” (see Figure 1). To help the students recog-
nize the three music types, I hummed for them
what I termed theme on the coding sheet (which
John Williams calls “Hedwig’s Theme” and is the
main theme of all of the Harry Potter films); I
described how at other times, music will fit the
action on the screen, which I labeled as fits on the
coding sheet, and at times the music will be low in
volume, which I labeled on the coding sheet as
quiet. I then instructed the respondents to circle
one music type for each event in the film scene I
was about to play. Discussing the subconscious
sheet, and providing instructions on its use took
approximately five minutes. We then watched the
four-minute opening scene of the movie. During
the viewing, I notified the students when we had
reached the next event so that they were prepared
to listen to the music and to circle the appropriate
music type on their sheet. To remind them of their
goal, for the first several events, I provided them
with prompting by asking, “Are we hearing the
theme, music that fits the actions on the screen, or
quiet music?”
The first 15 seconds (00:00 to 00:15), which is
when the Warner Bros. logo appears, is labeled on
the coding sheet as “Opening,” the first event. This
is where we first hear the theme music. To ensure
that the respondents recognize this music type later
on in the scene, I pointed out that we were listening
to the theme and that they should circle this next to
the first event, “Opening.” The “Scene Setting”
event (00:16 to 00:35) involves an owl sitting on
the Privet Drive sign in the dark and then flying
around a dark, misty, forested, suburban area while
listening to eerie music involving what sounds like
chimes. While the music is certainly quieter in this
event than in the opening, it is still quite noticea-
ble, and furthermore, the music’s eeriness matches
the eerie visuals on the screen; thus, the music here
fits the visual actions. The “Dumbledore Walking”
364 Teaching Sociology 40(4)
event (00:36 to 00:51) involves the wizard Dumb-
ledore walking around the dark suburbs, with
music that slowly and repeatedly ascends and
descends in pitch, suggesting movement like walk-
ing—again, music that fits the visual actions. In
the “Snatching Lamplights” event (00:52 to 01:18),
Dumbledore sucks the balls of light from the sub-
urban lampposts into a handheld magical device,
with an ascending rush of chimes and music
accompanying each lamplight he takes; this music,
again, fits the visual actions. When Dumbledore
stops to speak to a cat in “Dialogue 1” (01:19 to
01:26), the music gets so quiet as to be almost
nonexistent; this should be labeled on the coding
sheet as quiet. The cat shape-shifts into the wizard
Professor McGonagall in the “Cat Shape-Shifts”
event (01:27 to 01:37), with ascending instrumen-
tal and choral music in the background that fits the
size increase and supernatural actions on the
screen. Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall
have a discussion in “Dialogue 2” (01:38 to 02:03),
and just as in “Dialogue 1,” the music is quiet. In
the “Flying Motorcycle” event (02:04 to 02:23),
Hagrid’s flying motorcycle appears from the sky
and lands in front of the two wizards, carrying
what we will soon learn is a baby; the music here
is the same theme we hear in the “Opening” event.
There is another discussion that occurs in “Dia-
logue 3” (02:24 to 02:43), for which the music is
quiet. Now Hagrid hands the baby to Dumbledore,
and Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall carry
the baby to the doorstep of the Dursleys’ home
while continuing their discussion (02:44 to 04:04);
the music, although faint, is distinctly the theme.
We then collectively discussed the students’
answers on the coding sheet. For each event, after
reminding them what happened in that scene, I
polled the class on their answers. We attempted to
arrive at a mutually agreed-upon resolution for any
disagreements. Finally, we discussed what conclu-
sions we could draw from these data. Specifically,
I asked them in what types of events does John
Williams use music that “fits” the scene (answer:
generally when nondialogue actions occur) and
why (to emphasize the visual actions), and when
does he use “quiet” music (when dialogue occurs)
and why (to enable the audience to better hear the
dialogue). I also asked when does he use the
“theme” (beyond the Warner Brothers logo, only
when Hagrid flies in on his motorcycle and the
wizards walk to the Dursleys’ front door while
talking). Despite the presence of visual actions and
dialogue, the two previously established music
rules were broken to play the theme. In noting this,
I asked the students what is distinct about these
two events that might explain this. The connection
is that the baby is present in those events, and in
that situation, all other music rules are ignored
while the theme is played. Subconsciously, this
signals to the audience that this baby is impor-
tant—indeed, because the baby is none other than
Harry Potter. This discussion of their results lasted
approximately 10 minutes.
To reaffirm their understanding of these study
results, we watched the four-minute scene again.
Last, I ended the exercise discussing with them the
process it took to create the coding sheet they were
provided with (taking approximately five min-
utes). In particular, I talked about how qualitative
data are so detailed that unless one knows exactly
what one is looking for in advance (e.g., the num-
ber of times characters say “Harry Potter”), one
needs to begin by looking for any pattern at all. To
find these three eventual music types, I explained,
I began by breaking the scene down into events or
periods and then listed the music type in each
event. I initially found 10 distinct types of music,
which were then merged into fewer, similar cate-
gories. (As a simple example, I merged events in
which the theme was played, irrespective of
whether the theme was played loudly or quietly).
This iterative coding process (sometimes referred
to as grounded theory method) allows one to con-
struct variables and, ultimately, to test hypotheses
or develop theories out of highly complex, qualita-
tive data. To help students understand coding
beyond content analysis, I suggested that a very
similar iterative coding process can be used for
other types of qualitative analysis, such as when
trying to make sense of lengthy, typed interview
transcripts. Not including the time spent on recruit-
ment, consent, and data collection, the exercise
itself took approximately 30 to 35 minutes.
Supplemental Exercise Extension
If time permits, instructors may wish to add an
optional extension of the exercise that both can
Messinger 365
highlight the use of content analysis in achieving a
social science goal and can provide students with
an opportunity to practice developing coding cat-
egories. After completion of the previously
described exercise, students can be shown a key
scene (16:55 to 19:12) in Harry Potter and the
Goblet of Fire (Newell 2005) in which Harry
Potter’s wizard school, Hogwarts, is introduced to
the “lovely ladies from the Beauxbatons Academy
of Magic” and the “proud sons of Durmstrang,”
students from what are alluded to as all-female
French and all-male Eastern European wizard
schools. Either in small student groups or collec-
tively as a class, students could break the scene
down into events (e.g., by camera cuts). The vari-
ous music types heard can be listed and iteratively
combined into broader music-type categories (e.g.,
military march vs. romantic period, use of percus-
sion, music pace, the diegetic utterances of “huh”
and “ahh” by the visiting students during the
music, etc.). After several film scene viewings,
students should be guided in a discussion regard-
ing the ways in which gender is made salient in
this scene both visually and musically, with the
Beauxbaton students being painted as hyperfemi-
nine, Durmstrang students as hypermasculine, and
both sets of students as objects of the heterosexual
romantic gaze (Webster 2009).
Thus, for these foreign-born students viewed as
“others” within the context of the largely white,
British environment of Hogwarts, their minority
status appears to be made musically visible, not
necessarily through emphasizing their national ori-
gin but through emphasizing their abnormally
extreme gender performances. By comparison, the
theme music associated with Harry’s white, Brit-
ish, male character—as illustrated in the scene
watched for the first part of the exercise—does not
allude to Harry’s gender, thereby reinforcing his
insider status. In many respects, this pattern
reflects the research literature on the invisibility of
privilege. Scholars have posited that dominant
demographic groups often appear to lack a gender,
race, ethnicity, class, and sexual orientation—they
are just human beings. Conversely, minority demo-
graphic groups often view themselves and are
viewed by others in terms of their minority status
(Lucal 1996). This can serve simultaneously to
render the privilege of dominant groups (e.g.,
Harry Potter) invisible and to enhance the stigma
and discrimination of minority groups (e.g.,
Beauxbaton and Durmstrang students). It is recom-
mended that an additional 30 to 40 minutes of
class time be reserved for this supplemental exer-
cise extension.
Results
Given the decreased power from the small sample
size, and given the study’s focus on temporal
changes for outcome measures, only descriptive
statistics and bivariate analyses are reported
regarding the evaluation study. Of the 49 students
surveyed, two-thirds were female; most were
sophomores (60 percent) or freshmen (24 percent),
with few juniors or seniors (16 percent); only one
student had declared as a sociology major, and
only two had taken a research methods course.
On the key measures of student learning, after
completing the exercise, respondents self-reported
greater familiarity with the concepts of qualitative
analysis (Time 1 [T1], M = 2.31; Time 2 [T2], M =
4.22), social artifacts (T1, M = 2.21; T2, M = 3.88),
coding (T1, M = 1.81; T2, M = 3.82), and content
analysis (T1, M = 2.19; T2, M = 4.22). For the
most part, therefore, self-reported familiarity with
content analysis and its component concepts
increased from unfamiliar (coded as 2) to some-
what familiar (coded as 4). The exercise did not
affect students’ interest level in taking research
methods courses in the future (T1, M = 3.51; T2,
M = 3.58). However, in answering 4 or higher on a
measure ranging from 1 to 6, 71 percent of stu-
dents reported that the exercise was helpful in
learning content analysis (M = 4.19), and 74 per-
cent of students found the exercise enjoyable (M =
4.22). Only one student did not recommend the
exercise for future courses.
Discussion
As with all studies, this evaluation is not without
limitations. In particular, the small sample size
limits generalizability. Relatedly, the small sample
size precluded the possibility of a control group in
which only the initial lecture was provided; how-
ever, the exercise was specifically designed to
include the initial minilecture because without it,
366 Teaching Sociology 40(4)
the video-based exercise would lack context and
purpose. Additionally, students were not asked to
write out descriptions of concepts in part because
their understanding of the overlap between taught
concepts would have been difficult to assess in a
standardized measure, but at the same time, the
reliance on measures of self-reported familiarity
with key concepts may possibly inflate actual con-
cept familiarity for some students. Last, because
the aim of this temporally brief exercise is to
increase comprehension of content analysis rather
than breadth of knowledge of or competency in
conducting content analysis, the exercise’s lecture
component is focused on only core concepts, and
students are not asked to conduct the full content
analysis process. Therefore, while the exercise is
well tailored for an introductory-level course, it
may be less suited for upper-level courses, which
may require covering the different types of content
analysis and having students engage in a complete
content analysis study.
Content analysis is a valuable research tool for
social scientists that can prove challenging to teach
to undergraduate students. This article presents a
classroom exercise designed to teach students
about content analysis in a highly engaging and
temporally compact manner well suited for intro-
ductory social science courses: Students are guided
through a content analysis of Harry Potter film
music. The evaluation reported on in this article
suggests that the exercise can improve students’
understanding of content analysis, and further-
more, students generally found the exercise highly
helpful and enjoyable and would recommend its
implementation in other courses.
NOTE
Reviewers for this manuscript were, in alphabetical order,
Laura Finley, Shirley Jackson, and Dustin Kidd.
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Bio
Adam M. Messinger, PhD, is an assistant professor of jus-
tice studies at Northeastern Illinois University. He is also
continuing his research collaboration spanning the past
several years with the Centers for Disease Control and Pre-
vention’s ACE (National Academic Centers for Excellence
in Youth Violence Prevention) at Columbia University.
His research focuses on youth violence prevention—par-
ticularly regarding intimate partner violence, child abuse,
sexual violence, and youth bullying—and its intersections
with gender identity, sexual orientation, stigma, and the
criminal justice system.