'Content Analysis' & Your Writing...

[Earl Merkel]

by Earl Merkel

September 24, 2010, 6:39 am

There's a research technique that professional analysts (far more expert in it than I'll ever be) swear by, when it comes to finding the trends-within-the-trends. I've watched some of them in action, and often been both startled and impressed by the insights their technique can produce.

It's called "content analysis," and writers in any genre can (IMHO) certainly profit from awareness of it-- both for general non-fiction as well as to provide color and storyline points for fiction. You'll have to look at a lot of "published" media content --content analysis is a cumulative process, usually used to identify a larger trend-fact thru finding a lot of "tidbits" in individual stories-- and you'll have to steel yourself to look for the tidbits that keep surfacing in 'em.

For instance, I've been doing some light research into the topic of privacy in today's era of Google/Nexus-Lexis searches, networked surveillance cameras on every street corner (one tidbit:among cities worldwide, London has the most; Chicago currently comes in second), and the general capability now to data-mine the details of any individual's life.

That (and my general interest in all things beer-buying-related) is probably why a line in an article in this morning's Chicago-suburban Naperville Sun jumped out at me.

Here's the first few grafs of the article (boldface emphasis in text is mine):

--
Sunday liquor sales to start at 8 a.m.

By Jenette Sturges
Sep 23, 2010

The Naperville City Council voted 8 to 1 to approve expanding packaged liquor sales to 8 a.m. on Sundays, in an upset deserving of a sports analogy.

After all, it will mean no longer missing kickoff for a beer run.

But members of the City Council cited reasons other than football for allowing grocery and liquor stores to begin selling at 8 a.m. Sundays.

“When we went and researched through Jewel, we found that many of our residents were going outside the city to make purchases,” said Mayor and Liquor Commissioner A. George Pradel. “There are a lot of tax dollars going to other communities.”

The data provided by Jewel-Osco stores was compiled from shoppers swiping their Jewel Preferred Cards..."

--
A lot of people enjoy using these "preferred cards," if only because Jewel (and many other stores) generally provide discounts on prices in exchange. Similarly, the convenience of-- say-- the Illinois Tollway's iPass system speeds drivers along their way without the delays of (all too frequent) toll-booth stops.

But the latter provides detailed information on location, time, movement, etc.; it's already been ruled admissible evidence in lawsuits and criminal prosecutions. The former-- which identifies such activities as liquor purchases (what, how much, how often... and, given the identifier numbers on the card, who) has now been provided (at least, in some form) to a governmental unit. (It's also likely to be available for data-sale to other entities, including an insurance company looking into a policy application.)

I'll leave the ramifications and/or implications of this to the real privacy-rights' experts (or at least to folks who have recently spent a night at a Holiday Inn Express).

But strictly from a writer's POV, could this real-life situation create, revise or enhance some aspect of the book, story or article YOU are writing? Might it provide additional drama, conflict, etc. to YOUR storyline?

My friend Shane Gericke, who has written three nationally-popular thriller-novels set in Naperville IL, might well think so; specifically, he might want to include the info as a factual basis for a fictional turn-of-events right there in his hometown... and including real-life stuff in fiction almost always helps readers in their own quests to suspend disbelief and more fully engage with the non-real-life story.

But you can't write it "real" unless you see "it," and recognize that "it" might be useful to your writing.

I suspect, given the potentially sensitive nature of telling people you've just checked their liquor-purchase records, the Naperville IL City Council/Jewel Foods cooperation isn't something the two parties would have publicly announced -- but if you're on the lookout for such tidbits, you can "content analyze" your writing in an interesting (and potentially profitable) manner.

--Earl Merkel

[Earl Merkel]

i>grin > If I were more photogenic, I might agree, Jack; I'd certainly try to dress better than I usually do if I knew I was on-camera constantly.

I intentionally steered away from making my original post a "privacy" issue-- the research is for a thriller I'm working on, and right now I'm interested more in the technology details than the ethics. But if forced, I can see possible problems that relate to the Constitutional right involved.

Surveillance cameras are, IMHO, relatively neutral tools; they can be used for good or ill-- depending on who is using them, how they're being used, and the motives involved. In today's world of flux, the "man behind the camera" can be replaced by a person using them for different motives that may be benign... or not.

But the information obtained by the cameras, or by any of the data-mining technologies, stays around for a long time. It probably behooves us (and society) to set up some rules and guidelines and perhaps even prohibitions to ensure that, when and if we no longer share the team jersey with the watchers, there are some legal, ethical and Constitutional protections we can count on.

[Jack Getze]

A camera on every street corner, every store, every public place sounds great to me.

[Earl Merkel]

The fear is that insurance companies could use the wealth of info on your habits --say, you've just bought a parachute and sky-diving outfit-- and purchases (you've bought two bottles of Jack Daniels in a single week, so you "must' be subject to the health problems of alcohol abuse) and either jack your rates into the stratosphere or deny coverage/payment at some point. Buying info from, say, Jewel could provide much of this information (tho not the sky-diving stuff; that might come from the insurer looking at your website). But don't automatically welcome a still ill-defined government health insurance program-- it's likely healthcare services will be overwhelmed anyway, and a decision on who "deserves" any given treatment will have to be made: "should a 'drinker' get a new liver, even if he/she suffers from a non-booze related liver ailment?'

But this kind of thing is the whole basis for concerns about personal privacy. And most of us have given Jewel Foods (and other retailers) "permission" to store info about our lives... in exchange for 10 cents off on a can of Campbell's Pork 'N Beans. My guess is that many people haven't realized the potential problems they've bought into --have we given 'informed consent' for retailers to sell our info to third-parties or government bodies?-- and don't understand how much info their purchasing records reveal. It's one of the still-unresolved dilemmas of the Information Age.

[I. J. Parker]

Are you kidding? Insurance companies check our purchases? I hate insurance companies anyway -- greedy bastards -- and was looking forward to national health insurance, which would have done away with the money-grubbing, unreliable, and immoral businesses that control life and death in this country.

[Earl Merkel]

Trust me, I'm glad to hear it; my confessions are, I'm convinced, already the high point of the week for many clerics. But I'm also sure most churches would be more forgiving of it than Mutual Of Omaha. Ditto for proof re: purchasing tobacco, racking up "too much" sugar-'n-salt laden snack foods, or other sinfully delightful vices available at the various "preferred customer -card" stores I frequent. Fair's fair, I suppose: insurers have actuarial tables that have to help 'em show a profit-- I'm just slightly uneasy about the prospects of such open access to my sinfulness, even if it provides a benefit to Mutual Of O (and, of course, to Jewel Foods when it sells 'em my info). I suppose churches and/or other zealots may be in the mix here somewhere... but any adverse impact via bell, book, or candle is pretty far down my list of potential concerns... i>chuckle> at least, unless Sharia law becomes binding locally.

[I. J. Parker]

Ah, but the Catholic church (if that is what you refer to) has an enlightened view of alcohol consumption.

[Earl Merkel]

i>grin> My church already knows about all my bad habits; they call it 'confession,' a process that's probably good for the soul, but not something I'd want to share either with my mayor or my insurance underwriter.

[I. J. Parker]

Interesting! No doubt, the churches are behind this. I'm constantly amazed at how many voices speak up against alcohol consumption and sales. It's as if we could return to prohibition any day now. It probably goes along with a whole lot of other "prohibitions" by which pople would like to restrict individual freedoms.