2. What is Content Analysis?
It is use to systematically
summarize written, spoken, or
visual communication in a
quantitative way.
It is a research tool used to
determine the presence of
certain words or concepts
within texts or sets of texts.
3. Text
Books, Book Chapters, essays,
Interviews, Discussions,
Newspaper Headlines or
Articles, Historical
Documents, Speeches…
Any occurrence of
communicative language.
5. •1931-Content Analysis began when
Alfred R. Lindesmith created
a methodology that was
designed to refute existing
hypothesis.
•1940’s- it is already often utilized
method in research.
6. •1950’s-researchers were already
starting to consider the need
for more sophisticated
methods of analysis.
•1960’s- Content Analysis is
frequently referred to as
“Grounded Theory”
7. Nowadays, content analysis is
also utilized to explore mental
models, and their linguistic,
affective, cognitive, social,
cultural and historical
significance..
8. Some Applications of Content
analysis
marketing and media studies
literature and rhetoric
ethnography and cultural studies
gender and age issues
sociology and political science
psychology and cognitive science
9. Strength
Content analysis is a readily-understood,
inexpensive research
method. It is unobtrusive, and it
doesn't require contact with
people
10. Limitations
Content analysis is a purely
descriptive method. It describes
what is there, but may not reveal
the underlying motives for the
observed pattern
11. Advantages
looks directly at communication via
texts or transcripts, and hence gets
at the central aspect of social
interaction.
can allow for both quantitative and
qualitative operations
can provides valuable
historical/cultural insights over time
through analysis of texts
12. •allows a closeness to text which
can alternate between specific
categories and relationships and
also statistically analyzes the coded
form of the text
•can be used to interpret texts for
purposes such as the development
of expert
•is an unobtrusive means of
analyzing interactions
13. Disadvantages
It is very time consuming and is subject
to error
It is dependent on interpretation of the
text
There is also no theoretical base in order
to create meaningful inferences and
relationships between the text.
This methodology can be extremely
difficult to automate or computerize.
14. Types of Content
Analysis
Conceptual Analysis
Relational Analysis
15. Conceptual Analysis
can be thought of as
establishing the existence and
frequency of concepts most
often represented by words of
phrases in a text.
16. Steps for Conducting
Conceptual Analysis
Decide the level of analysis.
Decide how many concepts to code for.
Decide whether to code for existence or
frequency of a concept.
Decide on how you will distinguish among
concepts.
Develop rules for coding your texts.
17. Decide what to do with
"irrelevant" information.
Code the texts.
Analyze your results.
18. Relational Analysis
seeks to go beyond
presence by exploring
the relationships between
the concepts identified.
19. Theoretical Influences on
Relational Analysis
Linguistic approaches- focus analysis of
texts on the level of a linguistic unit,
typically single clause units.
Cognitive science- include the creation
of decision maps and mental models
Mental models-groups or networks of
interrelated concepts that are thought
to reflect conscious or subconscious
perceptions of reality.
20. Three Subcategories of
Relational Analysis
Affect extraction: This approach
provides an emotional evaluation
of concepts explicit in a text.
21. Proximity analysis: This approach,
on the other hand, is concerned
with the co-occurrence of explicit
concepts in the text.
Cognitive mapping: This approach
is one that allows for further
analysis of the results from the
two previous approaches.
22. Steps for Conducting
Relational Analysis
Identify the Question.
Choose a sample or samples for
analysis
Determine the type of analysis.
Reduce the text to categories and
code for words or patterns. e the
type of analysis
23. Explore the relationships between
concepts
◦ Strength of Relationship
◦ Sign of a Relationship
◦ Direction of the Relationship
Code the relationships.
Perform Statistical Analyses
Map out the Representations
24. Reliability
The reliability of a content analysis
study refers to its stability, or the
tendency for coders to
consistently re-code the same data
in the same way over a period of
time; reproducibility.
25. Validity
The validity of a content analysis
study refers to the
correspondence of the categories
to the conclusions, and
the generalizability of results to a
theory.
26. Problems
The overarching problem of
content Analysis research is the
challenge-able nature
of conclusions reached by its
inferential procedures.