Methodology
SatCan, short for the Satire Canada Media Study, is an attempt to promote Canadian political satire by demonstrating how the country’s satirists, collectively, can bring issues to the public's attention. It’s our unusual take on the idea of 'strength in numbers.'
Here’s how it works. Each week, we examine the editorial cartoons published in 30 newspapers taken from newspaper clippings and publisher websites (great morning reading) as well as segments from CBC's Rick Mercer Report and This Hour has 22 Minutes. Each item is reviewed by one of three readers who fill out a custom-designed content analysis questionnaire. The questionnaire contains a number of variables, including: author, news outlet, owner, the presence of social issues (such as privacy, human rights violations, media censorship, pollution, police brutality, etc.), topic, the context (national, local, international), key stories, the subjects used/targeted by the satirist, and even their relative tone to one another. Moreover, each item is weighted within the survey based on its estimated audience reach. We use NADBank (the annual survey of Canadian newspaper readership) and Nielsens television data to weight each item based on the number of Canadians the satirical item would likely reach. That’s what we mean by a story or subject’s “profile” or "exposure" – the estimated size of the audience that subject or topic would likely attract that week. Intercoder reliability tests are also conducted to ensure that our coding is consistent over time. By examining the data, we hope to point out what issues political satirists are highlighting, where and to what effect.
The study is the brain/love child of the staff at Cormex Research, Canada’s leading media content measurement and analysis firm.
As America comedian Jon Stewart has proven to brilliant effect, political satirists occupy unique real estate in the media universe to enlighten and entertain us in their role as both artists and journalists. At least that's our view, so you won't see anything here in terms of critiquing the appropriateness of their work, as in whether its right to show Michelle Obama slinging an AK-47 over her back. To turn Shakespeare on its head, we come to praise satire, not to bury it, and we welcome any and all comments.
Andrew Laing
President, Cormex Research