3. Methodology
3.2 Unit of Analysis
國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
18
3. Methodology
This study aims to understand and to expand the knowledge of the agenda-setting in the relationship between the news release and news coverage in the public relations academically and practically. To do so, this study uses a quantitative content analysis and it describes sample selection, unit of analysis, variables, and reliability as following.
3.1 Sample Selection
In order to conduct the content analysis of local print news coverage in Taiwan and the corporate news releases from HTC, according to the circulation, four major local newspapers in Taiwan are chosen in this study and they are United Daily News, China Times, Liberty Times, and Apple Daily. The China Times, United Daily News, Liberty Times, and Apple
Daily are the best-selling newspapers in the circulation in Taiwan. Here two other financial
newspapers, Commercial Times and Economic Daily News, are not selected due to the reason that both of newspapers only focus on specific categories but not complete ones, for instance, main focuses on stock markets and industries. Therefore, this study intends to analyze the relationship of agenda between these four aforementioned local newspapers in Taiwan and the HTC corporate news release.
3.2 Unit of Analysis
The unit of analysis is the individual news story and corporate news release. For retrieving news articles, this study would use electronic data services. News articles from
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
19
four Taiwanese newspapers, the United Daily News, China Times, Liberty Times, and Apple Daily are culled via Wise News, United Daily News data(UDNdata), and Knowledge
Management Winner (KMW) databases. Besides, in order to make sure that there would not
be missing samples, the study would also double-check each of electronic newspapers on the official website online. And the HTC corporate news releases would be collected from the
"Newsroom" on HTC Taiwan official website. All samples are collected through typing the keyword and searching for "HTC" or its Chinese brand name, "Honda Dian" at first, showing 3107 results. Moreover, after sorting out irrelevant coverage, including visual advertisements, editorials, and articles not related to corporate reputation. Take Figure 3.1 as the example of visual advertisements.
Figure 3.1 A piece of HTC visual advertisement in Apple Daily
‧
Furthermore, take two other news articles not relevant to HTC reputation and just passing by for the example,
...王文淵昨天也被眼尖的媒體發現手機從 hTC（堂妹王雪紅的宏達電手機品牌）換 成 iPhone，被調侃：「是否因為要投資蘋果所以連手機都換成蘋果？」他大笑看著
iPhone 說：「對ㄟ，這裡也有一顆蘋果，沒有啦！是企業友人送的。」希望媒體不
要想太多。(Apple Daily, Nov. 11th, 2012)
...台北商旅於 2006 年推出「商旅行動生活手機」，有如飯店秘書隨伺身邊，取有台
灣智財局 20 年的專利權。今年再將房卡與悠遊卡晶片置入手機，三合一功能，讓 短期來台洽公的旅客，甚至不必兌換外幣，也能完成工作。
台北商旅創辦人劉季強表示，已訂購 300 支 HTC 智慧型手機旅客入住時即發給一 支，手機可感應電梯、開啟房鎖；旅客持手機至櫃台加值後，即可搭乘捷運、公車 及在提供悠遊卡付費的商店內消費。(United Daily, Aug. 28th, 2012)
However, the content analysis in this study tends to search for news articles related to its reputation in the context, including six dimensions (attributes in the study) with twenty sub-items (sub-attributes) referred to the Reputation Quotient. For example,
宏達電衝品牌 今年推中低階手機
‧
(China Times, Jan. 27th, 2010)
The example news coverage includes that HTC market opportunities, clear vision for the future, growth prospects, etc. within the dimensions of "vision and leadership" and "financial performance." Compared to the news coverage, all HTC corporate news releases from the Newsroom on HTC official website are qualified as the sample units and selected. A sample article is shown as following below.
HTC 宣布持續擴展創新投資 增加招募 1,000 名研發人才 行銷到全世界。」他更進一步表示：「HTC 一向秉持『Quietly Brilliant』的精神以及
‧
www.htc.com。(HTC Corporate News Release, Apr. 29th, 2011)Finally there are 137 corporate news releases and 538 print news articles in four newspapers selected. The present study only analyzes news coverage related to the HTC reputation from January 1st, 2010 to December 31st, 2012, when the time HTC started to record the corporate press release on the official website. Moreover, during this period of time, the reputation and the financial performance of HTC Corporation had peaked and then it also had several crises and challenges, for instance, the controversial lay-off issue in July, 2012, or the "country-of-origin" issue in February, 2012, that a politician and netizens put HTC under a boycott.