tralized administration and an increase in emphasis on downward transfer of authority, in the later months. Our data on administrative organization show quite clearly that there was a tremendous increase in the references to local authoritative and administrative organization in the later months when compared with May. In May, only one out of six references are on local organization; but in August eight out of 11, and in December, 14 out of 22 references are on local organization. The number of references to national organization in August was the smallest of the three months; this was likely to be related to the minimization of communication in the rectification campaign. Since central or national authority and administration were challenged in the "Flowers" campaign, there was consequently a greater restriction on the discussion of national organization in the rectification period. This restriction in communication on topics related to the sources of strain in the system again confirms the minimization of communication hypothesis formulated earlier. REFERENCES TO FOREIGN COUNTRIES On the basis of favorable, neutral and unfavorable references to foreign countries in the People's Daily, an index of evaluation of foreign countries was computed using the following formula: (favorable references multiplied by 1) plus (unfavorable references multiplied by -1) divided by all references. The range of the index is from 1.000 to -1.000 (i.e., from completely favorable to completely unfavorable). Using this index, we found in Table IV that in comparing the countries which recognized Communist China in 1957, Asian countries received the most positive evaluation, African countries second, and European countries the least. It is suggested that the "Bandung spirit," together with the historically-rooted suspicion of European nations may be the cause of the variation in evaluation. 13 With regard to the countries which recognized neither Communist China nor TABLE IV REFERENCES TO FOREIGN COUNTRIES IN THE PEOPLE'S DAILY Taiwan, a similar pattern prevails, but evaluation of European countries had become definitely negative. Looking at countries which recognized Taiwan, we find again a similar pattern for Europe and Asia. For countries in the Americas, an additional factor of geo-politics seems to be operating: Central America, being closer to the United States, was given a highly positive evaluation while South America was given a neutral evaluation. The highly positive evaluation seems to be related to an effort to persuade the countries of "Central America"14 to join the world Communist movement, thus isolating the United States from her neighbors. CONCLUSION In this paper, an effort has been made to adopt the methods of survey analysis to the analysis of documentary materials from Communist China. Combining the traditional qualitative method with a quantitative treatment of the same materials, we have shown that, with proper treatment, documents provide not only "impressionistic evidence" but may be used as a tool to give a meaningful and logical "explanation" of empirical phenomena occuring in Communist China. One critic of quantitative analysis has maintained that this mode of analysis tends to preclude a judicious appraisal of the role which qualitative consideration might play. At the same time, however, he admits that: quantitative analysis includes qualitative aspects, for it both originates and culminates in qualitative considerations. On the other hand, qualitative analysis proper often requires quantification in the interest of exhaustive treatment. Far from being alternatives the two approaches actually overlap. . . . 15 Therefore, the problem is not to make a choice between qualitative and quantitiative analyses-since both are obviously indispensable-but to use both in conjunction with each other. In this respect, quantitative treatment of documentary materials is similar to analysis of standardized questionnaires, while qualitative treatment of documentary materials is similar to the analysis of depth interviews in survey research. NOTES 1. The project is being conducted in collaboration with Charles Y. Glock and Franz Schurmann, directors of the the University of California's Survey Research Center and the Center for Chinese Studies, respectively. Their advice in reading an earlier draft of this paper is gratefully acknowledged. I also wish to thank my wife for valuable comments. This is publication A-69 of the Survey Research Center. 2. See The Chinese Communist Social System: A Content Analysis Study, forthcoming, December 1967. Chapter I, "Maturation of a Special Area Study: The Presentation of Evidence." 3. See, for example, Herbert Hyman, Survey Design and Analysis (Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1955). * H.F. Schurmann, Ideology and Organization in Communist China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966), p. 18. 5. Until attacked by the regime in 1966, the People's Daily had enjoyed a privileged position in its relation with the party. 6. See Franz Schurmann, "Economic Policy and Political Power in Communist China," The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 349 (September, 1963), pp. 49-69. 7. Ibid. 8. See Franz Schurmann, “China's New Economic Policy'-Transition or Beginning," in The China Quarterly (January-March 1964), p. 65. 9. See A. Doak Barnett, Communist China In Prespective (New York: Praeger, 1962), p. 82. 10. Klaus Mehnert, Peking and Moscow (New York: Mentor, 1964), p. 211. 11. In a personal communication, Professor Robert Scalapino informed me that in his study of North Korea, he found a similar pattern in that, during an economic crisis, statements blaming the government were minimized while those persuading the people to work harder were maximized. 12. Quoted in Robert A. Scalapino, "The Foreign Policy of the People's Republic of China," in Joseph E. Black and Kenneth W. Thompson (eds.), Foreign Policies in a World of Change (New York: Harper and Row, 1963), pp. 555-6. 13. Methodologically, we controlled for the variable of political recognition, and looked at the remaining variation. 14. Central America, in Chinese Communist political geography, includes Mexico, Cuba and other Caribbean countries as well as the Central American States. 15. See Siegfried Kracauer, "The Challenge of Qualitative Content Analysis," in Leo Lowenthal (guest editor), The Public Opinion Quarterly, Special Issue on International Communications Research (Winter 1962-63), p. 634. POLITE PROPAGANDA: "USSR" AND "AMERICA BY RICHARD A. GARVER Content analysis showed that the picture magazine produced for U.S. readers by the Soviet Union emphasized such "American" values as industrial growth and a high standard of living. In contrast, the U.S. periodical distributed in Russia portrayed Americans as cultured and imbued with esthetic interests. Unanswered are the questions: Do reader interest and copy sales imply propaganda success? Does a gentlemanly, "non-propagandistic" approach sway readers? In October 1956 there was distributed in 84 cities of the Soviet Union the first issue of a new publication, America Illustrated. A slick, pictorial magazine created by the United States Information Agency, it was reported sold out within a few hours. At the same time, a Soviet publication, USSR, was made available at most metropolitan newstands throughout the United States. The two magazines were highly similar: a Life magazine format minus the advertising, wide use of color throughout the issue and a gentlemanly reticence in purveying their respective country's wares; i.e., the propaganda was polite.2 This was not the first experience for the U.S. 1. printing a Russian language magazine for mass distribution in the Soviet Union. From 1945 to 1952 this country had circulated the publication, Amerika, in quan *Excerpts from "Polite Propaganda: 'USSR' and 'America Illustrated'," Journalism Quarterly XXXVIII, pp. 446-484. Reprinted with the permission of Journalism Quarterly, copyright holder. tities ranging from 10,000 to 50,000 copies per issue. Censorship problems and distribution difficulties created by the Russians had stopped the magazine after 53 issues. During this same period the Russians had circulated from their embassy in Washington the USSR Information Bulletin. Circulation of the Bulletin was stopped in this country when Amerika was cut off in Russia.3 After a three-year lapse, an agreement by Washington and Moscow late in 1955 laid the groundwork for a renewal of the publication exchange. This time the publications were to be concerned exclusively with the life and culture (not politics) of the two peoples. Here, then, was an opportunity to observe a reciprocal propaganda operation in action, an interesting arrangment in which the two opposing political powers agreed to allow the enemy in the "home camp" as long as he employed what might be called in political double-talk, nonpropagandistic propaganda. The situation for comparing the two publications was ideal because of the similarity in their formats. A content analysis was undertaken concerned with a comparison of topics and themes in the two magazines. Although similar in format, were the publications different in content? If so, how? PROCEDURE The first 12 issues of each montly publication were analyzed.* All editorial material was coded for subject and theme content. The basis for theme categorization was Berelson's definition, '. . . a summary or abstracted sentence, under which a wide range of specific formulations can be subsumed.”5 Pictures were not coded individually but were used as an aid in coding the textual material. Two a priori codes for subject and theme content were developed and added to, as needed, while the coding was in progress. The subject code ultimately consisted of 20 major headings with 102 subcategories and the theme code consisted of 45 themes covering 9 areas of human activity. The coding was accomplished in a graduate seminar in communications. Each story or article was tabulated on an individual card with the coder noting topic, theme, story length, number and size of accompanying pictures and page location. Coders were instructed to code only what they thought was the major topic of the article and the single, overriding theme. While there obviously was a multiplicity of themes presented in some single articles, the fairly high coder agreement obtained indicates this stricture on coding does not make impossible the handling of multisubject and multi-theme materials.6 RESULTS Content of Magazines Content of the two magazines can best be described in terms of similarities and differences. Topical composition of the two magazines is summarized in table 1. Similarities There was agreement between the two magazines as to the subjects which hold greatest interest for the readers. In both magazines the subjects with highest rate of incidence were Economics (95 articles), Culture (68) and Human Interest (66). In Economics, both magazines stressed industrial development. Although there were 17 subcategories under Economics, 12 of the 48 USSR articles and 13 of America Illustrated articles concerned growing industry (“Harnessing the Volga's Power" versus "St. Lawrence Seaway"!). While other articles in the Economics category ranged from automation to labor organizations, the predominant image in both magazines of such material was of a vital, growing industrial society. In the other two categories played heavily by the magazines, there were some differences as to what material was stressed. In Culture, for example, the USSR concentrated on literature ("Novelist Mikhail Sholokhov"), while the American publication stressed music (“Jazz in Color"). Other classifications in the culture category were art, classical dance, drama and folklore. And in the third popular category, Human Interest, |