An analysis of the use of report and inference/judgment in The Advocate : a study of social movement rhetoric, A content analysis, 1971, 1973, 1976, 1978, and 1983

This study analyzes the use of fact, and inference/judgment in the gay periodical The Advocate. The purpose of this study was to better understand social movement tactics by determining whether the news of a publication used in the gay movement differed in content in crisis and noncrisis years. The Advocate was content analyzed to determine whether the proportion of adversarial issues conformed to a pattern consistent with the stages of dialectical confrontation and to determine whether the proportion of reports, statements characterized by fact, or the proportion of inference/judgment, statements characterized by opinion, was greater in crisis years as compared to noncrisis years. This study found that the use of inference/judgment varied significantly as a function of year. The use of inference/judgment was greater in noncrisis years, while the use of report was greater in crisis years.