Jamelah Mantalaba Dangnan BAELS

Title: What’s in A Face: A Content Analysis of TIME MAGAZINE’S Person of

the Year Since 1927

1. What is the research all about?

This study set out to discover what exactly it takes or to determine what
demographics make up a person TIME Magazine’s “Person of the Year”. Time
Magazine’s “Person of the Year” is given to an individual every December, and
sometimes a concept or group of people, who has had the largest influence on
history in the previous year. A quantitative content analysis method was used and
results show that a wealthy, white, American politician, age 56, who is also a U.S is
the most likely candidate to receive the title.

2. How content analysis is used?

This study uses a quantitative approach by counting the occurrences of

specific characteristics. Steve Stemler summed up content analysis in his definition:
“Content analysis has been defined as a systematic, replicable technique for
compressing many words of text into fewer content categories based on explicit
rules of coding.” Stemler defines two separate types of coding, emergent and a
priori. Emergent coding has categories established after an examination of the data.
A priori establishes categories prior to examination of the data. This study uses an
emergent approach to coding.

In this study the researcher established different categories or concepts by

demographically speaking that makes a person become TIME Magazine’s “Person of
the Year”. Recipients’ categorical breakdown was put into a category that best
correlated with what the individual recipient was known for (U. S. Political and
Military Leaders, International Leaders, Business and Technology, Science and
Medicine, Religion and Philanthropy, etc.). Racial breakdown was also used to
determine what race recipients most closely resembled (Caucasian, Asian, Middle
Eastern, Jewish, Latino, Indian). Also, gender and age were put into analyzation.
However, it is stated in the study that body language and posture were beyond the
scope of this study.

3. What meaning or inferences are drawn or made from the research using
content analysis.

TIME has been known to surprise its readers by recognizing a movement or

group of people that has played a major role in that year’s news. We can infer that
a “Person of the Year” is chosen not for likability but for their impact on history.
They may not always be popular or well received but it is undeniable that they have
a place in the minds of people. Therefore, we can insist that the title “Person of the
Year” is not an award, it is an honor given by the world for the recognition of
creating history and it is a hard one to bear.

There’s also a lack of equal gender representation in recent discussions about

the magazine. Though the Magazine changed the name of the annual award in
1999 from “Man of the Year” to “Person of the Year” there has been no real change
in more equal representation of male and female. As what the study resulted there
were only three women that have won the award as individuals raising many
questions about equal gender representation in the media.