INSTRUMENT TO MEASURE QUALITY FROM THE TELEVISION NEWS IN PANAMA

Abstract

The present investigation, "Instruments to measure the quality of newscasts in Panama," has the objective of providing scientific rigor, a tool to measure the quality of newscasts in Panama, facilitating self-analysis media, and provides information to the population. We apply the analysis of quality communication theories, especially the model of the fundamentalist theory of Communication of Harold Laswell. A sociological analysis of the information is carried out that address’s aspects of environmental supervision, correlation-interpretation, and transmission of culture. The theories of effects used on the function of newscasts, the Agenda Setting, and the Communication and Attitude Change Model, by Carl Hovland, are analyzed. Methodologically, the study was evaluated by the Bioethics Committee of the University of Panama and developed two processes of validity and reliability, integrating into the validity analysis, the content and the construct, with its two approaches of individual aggregates and Delphi. To achieve the instrument's reliability, the Internal Consistency Method is used, factor analysis for the construct's validity; the KMO index and Barlett's sphericity test, which measures no correlations between variables and the sample used is adequate. The Crombach Alpha Coefficient is analyzed for the instrument's internal consistency to improve the quality of newscasts.