Your text describes critical methodology as follows:
This methodology takes as its main task pointing out to the reader things they have likely not realized: the ways
in which words and images are being used to fool, manipulate, or indoctrinate the audience. Critical
methodologists seek to reveal the ways in which power operates in mundane ways without the audience even
being aware of it. Thus, critical social scientists think of themselves as activists, but also as objective. While
these two terms normally do not go together, for critical methodologists, they are not contradictory. Objectivity
to the critical social scientist means questioning the taken for granted so that you are seeing things as they
really are, rather than as what you have been led to believe. (Gordon 2015)
Usually in a content analysis we report what we do find. However, one of tactics critical methodologists can use
to achieve their critical stance is by asking what is MISSING or what is not shown in their content analysis.
Thinking about what is not in the content tells us what might be unexpected and out of the ordinary where the
ordinary is how society is structured and taught to us as “Common Sense.” For example, what can be missing
from a newscast is information pertinent to workers such as labor union news and legislation that might benefit
them in terms of employer-sponsored healthcare, wage increases, and the gender pay gap. Generally, the
news discusses business, stocks, and other human-interest stories, not worker rights. When is the last time
you heard a business report include information specifically pertinent to workers?
Sample Solution
