SAMPLE-SIZE IN MULTIYEAR CONTENT ANALYSES OF MONTHLY CONSUMER MAGAZINES

This study examined efficient sampling for content analyzing monthly c onsumer magazines during a five-year period. As with other forms of me dia content, sampling of monthly consumer magazines is move efficient using a stratified sample than a simple random sample. When sampling f rom a five-year period, a constructed year of twelve issues tone issue randomly selected from among the issues in each month) is more effici ent and accurate than twenty randomly selected issues - the smallest s imple random sample meeting standards of efficiency on all content mea sures.